Greetings everyone, and welcome to something a little bit experimental.
What we have here is a Celestial Forge story set in the MLP universe which, as far as I know, no one has attempted yet.
First, a little background for anyone who might not be familiar with the concept.
The Celestial Forge is a writing framework originally created as a variation of a Jumpchain story. In a Jumpchain, before you begin writing you allot yourself a certain number of points (often referred to as CP) and then use those points to "purchase" superpowers, technology, abilities, skills, and helpers from one of many pre-made documents (henceforth called "Perk Lists") listing a wide selection of such. Those powers are then granted to your protagonist (usually a Self-Insert of the author, but not always).
The Celestial Forge is a variation on this created by the author LordRoustabout. Instead of an initial budget of points, you start with a handful of default "starter perks" but gain 100CP for every 1000 words written for the story.
Whenever you reach the threshold for new points, you randomly select something from the perk list. If you have as many points as it costs, you buy it and your character immediately receives that perk at that moment in the story. If the perk is too expensive, those points are banked and added to the next roll.
The Celestial Forge Perk List is a combined document over three hundred pages long containing powers and technology and magic from dozens of popular books, films, games, and anime.
As you can imagine, this sort of power creep can often result in characters getting very powerful very quickly, but that's part of the fun.
For this fic, I'm tweaking the rules a bit to suit my own purposes.
Firstly, I'm using a modified edition of V3 of the CF Perk document. I've removed some of the Perks (ones from franchises I'm totally unfamiliar with as well as universe-breaking "you are instantly a god among gods" powers) and added some new ones that I am familiar with and think will be fun (assuming I ever have the luck to roll them).
In terms of how My Little Pony is going to play into this, instead of giving one character access to the Forge I'm mixing things up and connecting it to all of the Mane Six. In practice, every time I roll for a power and it's successfully purchased, I'll then roll a six-sided die to see which pony gets it. Perks which alter the Warehouse (their shared pocket dimension) or provide materials can be used by all, while skill and ability granting perks will only affect the individual. So, for example, if Rainbow Dash gets a Star Trek medical degree and a medbay, any of her friends can use it but she'll have to teach them how.
As far as canon goes I'm going to be playing a bit fast and loose with the timeline. We're jumping in at season four, so some episodes I'll go into detail about and others I'll skip past depending on if/how their perks would affect the situation. This fic does assume the reader is largely familiar with the events of MLP canon (enough so that certain "boring" episodes can be brushed aside with a handwaved "and that was also going on in the background") but an encyclopedic episodic knowledge isn't needed. The order of some episodes will also be rearranged to better suit narrative flow.
For those familiar with Celestial Forge stories, my plan is for this to be more like Doormaker Dog than Brockton's Celestial Forge. That is, lots of short chapters with lighthearted humor, no 13k-word updates of pure internal monologuing (no offence to Lord R; that's his style and we love him for it, but I can't write like that).
Descriptions of any Perks obtained therein will be presented at the bottom of a chapter in the author's note, copied directly from the reference document (this does not add to the wordcount as far as CP is concerned). I'm also not counting the words in the first few chapters, as they're going to be a bit excessively wordy will I get us through the set-up stage.
Why am I introducing the Celestial Forge (which is usually applied to the ultra-violence grimderp Worm franchise) to the mostly peaceful world of My Little Pony, you may ask? Well, for fun, but also another reason. In almost every CF story I've read, the recipient hides their powers away for fear of being targeted, conscripted, or otherwise abused. So that got me thinking: What if someone decided not to hide the power, but share it freely? And what better place than the town most used to crazy shenanigans?
Aside from that, the goal of this fic is really for me to have fun with silly power interactions and ponies reacting to things outside their worldview, as well as keep my muse engaged (hopefully) by writing something regularly. Probably won't get too deep or introspective (but who's to say where the muse will take me). Expect the POV to bounce around from chapter to chapter.
Initially I started out using the standard 100CP per 1000 words to get things rolling, but after a few chapters I decided to cut it back to 100CP per 2000 words since my prose tended to get a bit purple at times and I didn't want to fall into the trap where the wordcount it takes me to explain a new power is enough to grant the next one.
There are a couple dozen chapters written already and effectively ready to roll out. I intend to drop one every few days as I crosspost them here, doing some minor cleaning as I go, until we catch up to to the latest (at which point they'll appear at my muse's whim).
Please excuse any initial formatting hiccups, as this is my first time creating a thread on SufficientVelocity.
The Aetheral Plane was truly a wonder to behold. It existed separate from the normal physical world in a direction not quite covered by the standard six options.
There existed no matter in that place, no substance, just a vast and endless plain of hazy magical energy. A thin fog made of rainbow and starlight.
Nothing, that is, save one particularly bored alicorn.
Princess Celestia, High Ruler of Equestria and her Territories, was honestly surprised to learn just how bored she could become in a dimension where thought and memory held just as much substance as earth and stone. With an idle thought, she manifested a grandfather clock.
It was a beautiful thing, all lacquered wood and polished brass. The platonic ideal of what a clock should be, birthed into flawless being from pure thought. No greater clock would ever exist in the material world below.
It was also totally incorrect, seeing as it had come from her mind and she didn't know what time it was anyway. She allowed her focus on it to lax and it quickly dispersed back into glittering mist. Such was the nature of the realm.
Honestly, she wished she'd brought a book. Alas, that would have been a distraction when more than anything she needed to be ready and attentive when the moment finally came.
It wasn't everyday one could be present for the ascension of an alicorn, let alone one who held such a dear place in her heart.
Celestia herself could not make somepony an alicorn, despite the claims of old rumors and the belief of certain overly ambitious apprentices. Such power was left in the hands of forces greater than her; destiny, perhaps, or some fundamental force of nature, or perhaps the Will of magic Itself. In any case, it was out of her hooves. What she could do was sense when someone was at the threshold of achieving it themselves. It came as a sort of pressure on her horn, not unlike the feeling of holding a powerful spell at the brink of release.
She'd felt it before when her sister ascended to alicornhood a half-day after she had, then again centuries later when young Cadance (though she knew not her name at the time) had achieved a worthy enough feat of her own.
And now it was Twilight's turn. Long overdue, in the princess' private opinion. Her most dedicated and faithful student more than deserved it after all she had accomplished. Defeating Nightmare Moon and returning Luna to her senses. Resealing Discord in his stony prison after his brief escape. Preventing King Sombra from retaking and enslaving the Crystal Empire. All noble and songworthy feats... and yet despite all her accomplishments, for some reason the mare had been sitting on the brink of ascension for weeks.
Celestia manifested a slice of cake and a glass of wine. At least she could eat her anxiety away without worry. Only in this realm were there truly empty calories.
Twilight more than deserved alicornhood, as well as the elevation to Princess status that naturally came with it. In time, with her friends by her side, she would no doubt become a fair and just leader. The kind of princess that would bring nations together through the bonds of friendship and harmony, like she herself had tried to do for a thousand years... with middling success.
She created (and subsequently consumed) another slice of cake.
With such a worthwhile potential princess sitting on the sidelines, would anyone blame her for trying to... help the process along, just a bit?
Sending her the most potent of the legendary Starswirl the Bearded's unfinished spells was hardly even a risk. If anypony could complete it after a thousand years of frustrated researchers and puzzled scholars, it'd be Twilight. No doubt with the help of her friends; something Starswirl had always had difficulty accounting for in his calculations.
She had no doubt Twilight could solve the puzzle. No doubt that it would push her past the threshold. No doubt that Twilight deserved the honor.
The only question was what was taking her so long?
As in answer, Celestia felt a change in the pressure on her horn.
"Finally," she sighed as she vanished her chair and snacks. As the spike of magic down in Equestria continued to grow, she quickly set about shaping the realm as she'd planned in order to ease Twilight's transition as smoothly as possible. She worked the mist into a wide, starry road. Affixed an illusion of a distinction between "sky" and "ground". She plucked dozens of fragments of memories from her mind and displayed them along the path like paintings in a gallery, showcasing her student's finest moments and triumphs.
Just as she finished the final touches, the power bloomed and fired towards the Aetherial Plane like an interdimensional firework.
This was it. The moment she'd been waiting for. She mentally rehearsed her speech for the final time. Was it too much? Too ostentatious? Perhaps Twilight would be put more at ease if she were casual about it. No. Such a momentous event required proper gravitas. Formal speech it was, then.
A microcosm of magical power pushed its way through the boundaries of the realm, nearly knocking Celestia off her hooves with the force of its arrival. She hadn't remembered her own arrival to be nearly that rocky.
She pushed the thought from her mind and fixed a satisfied smile on her face as the web of magic that represented her student approached.
"Congratulations, my dear Twilight, I always knew you could— wait, what is this?"
There was another beacon of power approaching. It punched through the walls of their reality with as much force as the first, this time actually sending the alicorn tumbling to her hooves.
A second ascension? How?! She hadn't seen any signs of it! Perhaps... maybe... one of Twilight's friends? They were as much a credit to her successes as she was, and if they'd been instrumental in solving Starswirl's spell...
It wasn't impossible but...
Before she could gather her wits, her worldview was rocked once again as a third spirit entered the plane. She watched in slack-jawed astonishment as another presence followed that one. Then another. Then another.
Six glowing vortexes of power—the mystical sum total of a pony's magic, soul, and being—shot through the non-matter and not-quite-space of the Aetherial Plane. It was impossible! Unprecedented! Absurd! The number of alicorns in the world had just tripled.
The plane rocked again and then there were only five.
The nexus that represented Twilight was gone.
Then the second vanished and she managed to catch a glimpse of its departure.
It went beyond. There was no conventional name for the direction, but much in the way that the Aetherial Plane was beyond the material world, the spirits of six of her ponies were transcending to somewhere beyond the Aetherial Plane.
Some sphere of existence that even Celestia herself had never even begun to fathom existed.
In moments, she was once again alone, save for the looming existential knowledge that this was not the highest Plane.
"Well then..." her voice felt flat and underwhelming as her carefully practiced speech faded from her mind. "This might cause some unexpected changes to my long term plans."
The first thing Twilight noticed when she woke up was the Stars.
Well, technically speaking, the first thing she noticed was that she was no longer in her library, surrounded by her friends and the satisfied feeling of having corrected a thousand-year-old spell. Instead, she was floating in an empty black space, weightless and directionless.
Empty, that was, except for the Stars.
They surrounded her on all sides; hundreds of them. Some as small and delicate as fireflies while others burned as bright and furious as Celestia's sun. They danced in binary and trinary and higher group orbits, putting on a cosmic show that put Princess Luna's best work to shame.
All the words of all the books she'd ever read felt insufficient, insultingly insufficient to try and capture even a fragment of the stellar majesty that she bore witness to. Twilight floated there at the edge of eternity for what could have been minutes, hours, years; a fly on the wall witnessing the universe's greatest orchestra weave a symphony of joy and despair, life and death, creation and decay.
She felt like she could have spent a lifetime there just watching the stars dance, studying the intricate byplay between the elements of a thousand-body physics problem.
It was beautiful. And terrible.
"Sweet Celestia," she murmured, her voice all but nothing, "it's full of stars."
The dance came to a sudden halt, and with it, Twilight underwent the profound realization that she was not alone.
Such a grand orchestra, of course, had a Conductor, and Twilight had just become the sole focus of its attention.
Her thoughts froze in place as the very space around her seemed to twist and look at her. It was enormous. A being so large she couldn't see all of it and once (and that which she could seemed to slide out of her mind's eye like oil) made of space folded unto itself so many times that it gained depth and definition. Gender and anatomy were foreign concepts to it, yet it had a mind so powerful that Twilight felt like an insect, a microbe, nothing more than an atom beneath the pressure of its direct awareness.
It was like getting teleported to the bottom of the ocean. There was no pain, no physical sensation she could put into words. Just the constant, unyielding pressure.
A long moment passed, for as much as time meant anything there, as Twilight and the immensely more powerful entity regarded each other like two strangers who'd rounded a corner and nearly collided.
'When in doubt', her Granny Sparkle's words echoed in her mind, 'it never hurts to be polite'.
Well, Granny's advice had never steered her wrong before.
"Ah, hello there," Twilight greeted with the kind of awkwardness of someone who just unlocked their hotel room and found a stranger inside. "Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude on your... outer space." The celestial being said nothing. "It's a lovely space you have. Very beautiful stars."
[CURIOSITY]
It didn't speak—not in words or sounds like she knew them—but it conveyed its thoughts all the same on some deeply fundamental level that she felt through every fiber of her being. Twilight's mind and soul shuddered under the weight of its question. It was like being hit face first by the Royal Canterlot Voice, but with a speech's worth of connotation and subtext compressed into the single not-word.
[UNFAMILIAR], it continued, [QUERY: ORIGIN]
"Origin?" she asked, "Oh! You want to know where I'm from. Canterlot, originally, but Ponyville as of the past few months... though I don't suppose you'd know of them. No, of course you wouldn't. Equestria then? Still too small? Equus? It's a mid-sized planet with a yellow sun orbiting it." She hesitated and gave a look to the star-studded void around her. "I'm... not exactly sure how I got here from there, but if you can point me in the right direction I'll be on my way and out of your... starscape?"
The waves of sensation that came off the Conductor weren't quite emotions, but she got the general impression that it was mildly amused with her. Which, as far as she cared, was much better than things tended to go in most stories she'd read about meeting fantastically alien intelligences.
[ACKNOWLEDGEMENT] [QUERY: PURPOSE]
"My... purpose?" There was a depth to the question that left no question over whether it was asking why she was there in that space. It clearly wanted a deeper answer. Twilight hesitated in momentary confusion, but still continued to speak unbidden, as though the barrier between her thoughts and words had grown thin. "If you'd asked me a few months ago, I would have said learning without a second thought. That's what I did, all day, almost every day for years. I read every book in the library, every scroll in Princess Celestia's vaults, learned every lesson she could teach me. I sought knowledge for the sake of knowledge. But now..."
Her words slowed as memories came unbidden. Traveling to Ponyville. Meeting her friends. Saving the world. Lunches spent laughing over silly inside jokes. Rainy afternoons of quiet companionship. A thousand little moments that shone brightly in her memory like stars themselves.
"I guess I'm not sure what it is now. Can friendship be a purpose, or is it just a lifestyle? An outlook? Maybe it's only a philosophy. Am I even making sense? I feel like I'm just rambling on."
[ACKNOWLEDGEMENT], it conveyed, [UNDERSTANDING] [CAMARADERIE]
Valid purpose or not, her answer seemed to satisfy the cosmic Conductor.
[JUDGMENT]
Twilight gasped as the pressure on her redoubled. For a moment, she felt like the center of the universe in the worst possible way. Like she was a filly again, unexpectedly standing before a symposium of dozens of Princess Celestias and being asked to present a dissertation she hadn't prepared on a topic she'd never heard of.
And then the pressure eased off and Twilight felt once again as weightless as she had before she'd garnered the Conductor's attention.
[JUDGMENT: ACCEPTABLE]
A wave of relief washed her over her soul, taking away with it her growing anxiety. She'd passed. Whatever kind of spiritual test or soul-weighing or hallucinated introspection that was, she'd passed. That was good.
The Conductor was no easier to perceive than it had been before, but for an amorphous being of stellar energy, something about it seemed friendlier than it had before.
[QUERY: DESIRE DIRECTION]
"Directions home?" she asked, "Yes, thank you very much, that would be a great help. I really should be getting back. I'm sure my friends are getting worried about me."
[CONTRACT] [ESTABLISHING CONNECTION]
The dance of the stars changed. A finer degree of control impressed upon stable chaos. Thin tendrils of starstuff reached from one to the next, connecting them like branches on a tree, forging loose stars into clusters, then webs, then a dozen or so constellations. The glittering bands thickened as more and more of them intersected, merged, reached down closer and closer to where she hovered and then—
{request}
The dance stopped as another presence, still incredibly powerful yet nothing compared to the Conductor, piped in from somewhere not-quite-behind Twilight.
"Is someone else here?"
[QUERY]
Twilight twisted and turned, expecting to see another impossible being occupying the whole of her field of view outside the first. Instead, what she saw behind her was, for lack of a better word, a tether. From the center of her back trailing off to a point in a headache-inducing direction was a thin stream of glittering magic. Now that she was aware of it, she realized she could feel it as well, tugging at some transcendental part of her.
{apologies} came the not-voice, carried along the tether and radiating out from the pony at the end of it like some kind of strange antenna. {humble suggestion}. It wasn't quite the same not-language the Conductor used. More like a pony speaking a foreign language with a phrasebook and a bad accent.{request: integrate established framework?}
What followed was a dense pulse of information, too complex for Twilight to parse, but which sounded to her senses almost like chimes.
[AMUSEMENT], replied the Conductor, somehow softer than before, [DEVIATION ACCEPTABLE] [IMPLEMENTING VARIATION]
{gratitude}
The constellations shook and twisted like a grove of trees caught in a crosswind. Something fundamental about them shifted and the constellations began a new dance, twirling and spiraling through infinity. A single star, one of the smallest motes, slid down the beams of light and sank till it sat just in front of Twilight's eyes.
It was beautiful.
Some element of the Conductor that was almost a face twisted into something that was almost a smirk.
[PROSPECTIVE AMUSEMENT] [GRATUITY]
It was around that point that Twilight got the strangest feeling that she may have agreed to something bigger than just a lift home from a charitable alien.
The star parted the space between space and, without a moment for her to raise any sort of question or objection, lodged itself deep within Twilight's soul. It nestled in and sat there like a burning coal in the core of her being, warming her from the inside. A handful of other small motes traveled down other paths of light and disappeared in directions she could not perceive.
[DEPART] the Conductor instructed, its voice reduced to almost bearable levels. Or was it just farther away? [ADDENDUM: GOOD LUCK]
Twilight felt a tug on her tether, and her awareness slipped away into a foggy dream.
Twilight awoke with a splitting headache, a general ache in her everywhere else, and a dragon yelling in her ear.
Which meant it was two-thirds of the way to a normal morning.
"Alright, alright, I'm up!" she said as she shook her head to clear out the lingering fog. "There's no need to shout."
"But you're back!" came the voice of her number one assistant, sounding equal parts excited and relieved.
Awareness came more quickly than usual as Twilight rapidly realized that she was not, in fact, in her bedroom. Nor was she in her house at all. Instead, she was standing full and upright in the middle of the road in the early evening moonlight.
"Spike? Where am I? What happened?"
"What happened?" he repeated, "What happened is you cast a spell, everyone disappeared and I've been freaking out for the last eight hours trying to find you!"
The little dragon certainly looked like he'd been on his feet in a panic all day. His scales were dusty and dirty like he'd run down every last one of Ponyville's uncobbled back streets and his ear frills drooped with exhaustion. As the panicked energy drained away, it looked more and more like the only thing keeping him upright was the sheer relief in seeing her back safe and sound.
Which left the question. Where had she gone?
Her memories of the morning were disjointed. She remembered casting Starswirl's spell and accidentally swapping around her friends' cutie marks. Then she rounded them all up with a Heartsong, recast the corrected spell, and then... and then...
There was something else, but the memory seemed to slip away the more she tried to bring it into focus. Something with... stars? And an agreement. A dream? Probably not important. If it was, Princess Luna would remind her.
"That's strange," she said, "maybe the spell had some kind of delayed teleport effect? Or maybe an incomplete casting due to magical exhaustion." Though she didn't feel exhausted. If anything, she felt rather mentally refreshed. Twilight shook her head. "Whatever caused it, we should get back to the library."
"No argument here." Spike yawned and rubbed his eyes. "I'm glad you're okay, but boy am I tired. Next time you decide to cast an untested spell from some thousand-year-old journal, let me know first? I had half the town out looking for you and the girls."
Twilight stopped in her tracks. "The girls?"
"Yeah. When you went poof all six of you disappeared together. But now that you're back, hopefully they won't be far behind."
As it turned out, Spike's guess was thankfully correct. As the pair made their way back to the library they met up with other groups of ponies who'd been part of the search efforts. While most just expressed their thanks that she was safe or made a few harmless jokes about casting while reading, some ponies brought news of her friends being found.
According to Derpy (who'd been the only one to actually witness the event) the six of them had just suddenly appeared in the sky as 'glowy soap bubbles' before drifting down into various parts of town.
While nopony was injured, none of the victims of the spell had any more of an idea where their lost time had gone than Twilight did.
By the time all the missing ponies had been accounted for and the search party officially called off (much to Pinkie Pie's dismay for having missed it) it was well past evening and into the night.
After agreeing that it had been a very long day already, Twilight and her friends decided to put off figuring out what in the world happened till tomorrow. Alongside meeting up for a late breakfast.
That night, Twilight dreamt, oddly enough, of wood and chisels and dovetail joints.
Twilight woke later than usual, in a much more normal fashion than the previous two times she'd been roused from unconsciousness. A pleasant return to normalcy, even if it meant she was still half-asleep and groggy.
She rolled out of bed, grimacing in the bright sunlight from the window, and stumbled her way down the stairs. Like usual, she half-slipped on the bottom step that wasn't quite level and barely managed to catch herself. Annoying as it was, the tiny jolt of adrenaline made for a reliable pre-coffee jolt.
As she made her way to the kitchen, the thought crossed her mind that it'd probably be more worthwhile to bite the spearpoint and just fix the step already. It wouldn't be all that hard. In fact, the more she thought about it, the easier it seemed. It was just a matter of twenty-four discrete and easy steps to go from removing the old stair to replicating the engravings around the edges of the new one. Practically foal's play.
It'd be the work of... ten minutes? Twenty at most. She even had some spare planks in the basement. Why had she never thought to repair it before?
She continued to muse on matters of home repair as she pulled out her key to the fridge. It was an annoying impediment, but a necessary one. Neither she nor Spike wanted a repeat of the 'Sleepwalking Buffet Incident'.
She turned the key in the lock and opened the door to a rush of warm air.
Much time later, she would look back at that moment as when her day, and perhaps her life, was flung from normal into the realm of the truly strange and absurd.
"Okay. There is no way my fridge was this big yesterday."
Author's Note: No, it's not a Worm Entity, I'm just borrowing Shardspeak formatting because I think it's neat
Builder Package Tier One (100CP)Free Starter Perk
Wood and other plant life. You are an exceptional builder with these and know the characteristics of such materials at a glance, you can also form mental blueprints and interact with them as if you actually saw them in the real world to assist in construction, as well as making infallible mental checklists of materials with exact steps, materials, and dimensions needed for the build, you also have an easy time locating useful materials you need for building and you take less time to build than you should.
Requiem of Souls | Weaver (100CP)Free Starter Perk
You are now an expert weaver. Doesn't sound like much, right? Remember that the silk spun from magical creatures' cocoons was so beautiful that King Karis murdered his own son over it. They have some REALLY good silk here in Parel is what I'm saying and you are a master of working with it.
A Humble Mushroom Farmer (Paper Mario) (100CP)Free Starter Perk
The Mushroom Kingdom is a land of many strange and mysterious items. Healing mushrooms, small snowmen that call up blizzards, blocks labelled POW that shake the earth. These items have to come from somewhere, and now you are a source of these objects. You know the arts behind the creation of the various usable items from the paper mario series. Some of these must be grown, others built, and still others prepared through more esoteric means. You also know how to create lil' oink eggs and use them to produce certain items. The ingredients for many of these are rather common in that world, but rarer elsewhere. I'd stock up if I were you.
Risk of Disassembly (Mousehunt) (100CP)Free Starter Perk
When creating a trap with a hunter in mind, one must consider how often the hunter moves from region to region and also the wide variety of mice capable of utterly demolishing the trap. Since designing a trap to be unbreakable is likely to make it unwieldy, an alternative approach is to engineer it to fail. This philosophy applied to your crafting endeavours allows you to make things which are designed to safely break apart regardless of the circumstance sure, you'll have to reassemble it after it breaks, but the risk of it utterly disintegrating under the force of a dragon mouse's fire is removed.
This Tool Box can store any number of hand held tools, and will never get too heavy to carry. Always contains a set of basic tools that can be called on without notice and in any number like hammers, saws and blowtorches. Specialized tools you will have to place inside this box ahead of time.
You're a real Mr. Fix-It, y'know? Malfunctioning fuel intake? Easy. Faulty asteroid defense cannon? Turn it off, then on again. Non-responsive communications array? Shuffle the working emitters around a bit so they're symmetrical. Undead monstrosities? Depends on what you mean by, "fix." Does using a rivet gun to blow them apart count? Yes? Then we're good.
So, no Alicornhood (perhaps later as the potential is not only still there, but amplified in the whole Mane Six) but a starter perk for all the Mane Six.
In order (and with the colors as a clue) we have: Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack.
Hum... I fear Celestia is going to gain weight as all her plans are now completely irrelevant... And Luna is going to ROFL a lot at her sister.
I can also see one or two jealousy episodes with Spike and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Looks like the Tree of Harmony decided to get in on the action, though it's hardly surprising. Probably wants to make sure Twilight didn't become a shut in again...
Will there be Companions here? I hope so, because some of the Human or Human looking Companions popping in as Ponies would be funny. Though the Poor House Elf would probably be confused, especially with Rarity constantly trying to give them outfits...
Oh My God...Garment and Rarity would be a Match Made in Heaven!
Fluttershy's eyes turned wide as saucers as she beheld a breathtaking room of glittering crystal where there was supposed to be four cramped wooden walls and a few sacks of animal feed.
Something was definitely wrong with either her, her shed, or whatever she'd eaten for breakfast.
The room-that-was-supposed-to-be-her-shed was also occupied, so in the face of unexpected social interaction, she defaulted to old habits.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, I'll come back later."
"Hold up Fluttershy. It's just me." Familiarity made her stop and look back. A second glance let her relax completely as she realized it was only Rainbow Dash.
She walked back in with a touch more surety. Whatever redecorating urge had seized her longtime friend, she'd clearly done a very nice job of it. The walls and floor were all made of the same glistening blue crystal that felt surprisingly warm underhoof. Each of the eight walls was set with a door (also made of crystal) and engraved with the cutie marks of her friends as well as two more symbols she didn't recognize. A low table filled the middle of the room (again, of the same crystal) with enough space for two or three pegasi to fit between it and the walls with their wings outstretched.
All in all, it was very nice, very pretty, but also very unnecessarily extravagant for a room where she stored extra sacks of animal feed and old gardening tools.
Also, maybe it was just morning drowsiness, but the space seemed rather bigger than the outside walls of her shed should allow.
"I don't mean to sound rude," she ventured, once the initial oddness of the room had passed, "but what are you doing in my shed?"
Rainbow Dash gave her a confused look. "Your shed? I was about to ask what you're doing in my gym locker." She gestured behind her to an open door. Through it, Fluttershy could clearly see a room made of clouds along with several racks of weights and resistance bands.
Which was definitely strange. Fluttershy glanced out the door behind her and confirmed that, yes, she could still see the back of her own house. A sudden wind marked the passage of Dash over her head and through the door.
"Huh. Yeah, this is definitely your place." She landed and stamped the ground a few times, as if to check if it was real. "Weird. I guess if anything this'll make getting over here a lot faster. You think Twilight set this up?"
"She didn't say anything to me," Fluttershy replied. Then again, had she? Fluttershy had been understandably distracted after yesterday's events. Maybe she'd nodded along and agreed to have a portal installed in her shed without listening? But if that was the case, what else might she have agreed to unknowingly? Her breathing quickened as increasingly dreadful and unlikely agreements started to bubble through her imagination.
"Hey, when'd you get such a fancy key?"
The question broke the spiral of panic and pulled her from her thoughts. She followed Rainbow Dash's pointing hoof to the lock on her shed door. Or rather, the ornate golden key sticking out of the rusting five-bit padlock.
It was terribly fancy, all polished gold and swirling filigree, with a handle shaped like a butterfly.
She'd never seen it before in her life.
"I have no idea, but that's definitely not the key for this lock." That key was visibly still hanging from its hook on the doorframe, its sheen of morning dew untouched.
"Even weirder," Dash said with a sage nod.
They both turned their heads at the sound of a door opening from behind them.
"Okay. There is no way my fridge was this big yesterday."
The addition of Twilight to the group led to several rapidfire discoveries. Firstly, that she was not behind their unexpected renovations. Secondly, that she'd never seen magic quite like this before. And thirdly, that Twilight really got into new magic.
Not that the latter was any surprise.
"So what it looks like we have here is a set of variable portals linked on one end to a shared extradimensional space superficially resembling the Crystal Empire and linked on the other end to a set of magical constructs emulating keys which are somehow bound to our unique magical signatures via some kind of magic I can't even identify." She paused only a moment to take a breath through a smile that threatened to split her face in two. "At least that's what it looks like. I can't say for certain without a lot more testing, but what I can say is that I've never heard of a spell that could do this. The combined effort of a dozen spells, maybe, pulled from several different schools of magic and somehow integrated together could pull off most of it, but even then the sheer mana cost to keep it stable would be crazy! And yet here we are! It works and it's stable! Isn't it just amazing?"
"Yep, totally." Rainbow Dash tossed a pair of wing weights through her door. About five minutes into Twilight's monologue, she'd retreated into her room and returned with a few pieces of workout gear, declaring that she was going to continue her morning workout as planned, regardless of any unexpected additions to her gym. It went completely under Twilight's notice as she gushed over the spellwork of her Key. "If that's what you say it is, then I believe you. All I know is now I've got a handy shortcut to your house."
"And no more excuses for crashing through my windows at Mach Four," Twilight added with a pointed look.
Dash rubbed her head with an awkward chuckle. She was thankful that Twilight accepted unusual books as valid currency for damage repayments.
"Now then, before I really start studying this, have either of you experienced anything else odd?"
Rainbow Dash shook her head. Fluttershy started to do the same before a memory from the night before flickered through her mind. "Ah, what kind of odd?"
"Anything really." Twilight shrugged. "This is new and uncharted magic, so anything that might be related could help me figure it out."
"Alright. Can you, um, wait just one second please?" Without waiting for an answer, Fluttershy hurried back out towards her cottage.
She returned in barely a minute, breathing heavily and with something clutched tight in her wing.
"Sorry," she gasped through deep lungfuls of air, "I should have remembered these earlier, but I'm still a little sleepy and this is all so new and I—"
"It's okay, Fluttershy, just take your time and tell us what happened."
She took another deep breath and steadied herself. "Okay. Alright. So it all started last night. After I left the library and went back home, I still wasn't very tired. I tried reading and cuddling with Angel Bunny and making a cup of chamomile tea, but nothing helped. My body was tired but my head was just so full of ideas. Very strange ideas, too. About plants and animals and all sorts of trinkets and machines. After a while, I decided to go down to my crafting room for a few hours and see what I could make."
"Wait, you have a crafting room?" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "How come I've never seen it?"
"In my basement, yes, and you never asked. It used to be just for knitting, but then Harry wanted to try pottery and Mr. Hoppington wanted to pick up watercolors and Angel got interested in wire sculpture and it grew from there to have a little bit of everything. Oh! Just the other day he made the more adorable—"
"Fluttershy, focus. You were saying something odd happened?"
"Oh, right, I'm sorry. Anyway, I made these." She opened her wing and a few colorful bits of metal and plastic clattered to the table. "I wasn't really trying to make anything in particular, the steps just came to me naturally and I made them before I even realized."
Dash landed and gave Fluttershy's creations a curious poke, spreading them out on the table and flipping over a few that had landed upside down. "Okay. Yeah, I guess they're pretty cool, but what's so weird about you getting crafty with a couple of pins?"
"Badges," Fluttershy corrected, "and... I think they're magic."
"Magic?" Twilight replied. "But... you're a pegasus. You can't cast magic."
"That's why I thought it was odd. See?"
Fluttershy selected one from the assortment—a simple purple hexagon emblazoned with a white R—and pinned it to her mane. A brief flash of light hid her from view, but faded just as quickly to reveal a startling change.
"Rarity!?"
"No, just her colors," said the hornless winged version of Rarity in Fluttershy's voice. She flipped her un-coiffed mane to show the badge still securely attached. "This one's called the R Emblem. I have another one called the A Emblem that does Applejack's coat and mane."
"Fascinating." Newly interested, Twilight gave the pile of badges her full attention. She gathered a few of them in her magic field and brought them up to eye level. "There's definitely something there, but it's not any kind of magic I'm familiar with." She set them back down aside from one: a vaguely bush-shaped badge with a minimalist smiling face and curling ram's horn. "Who does this make you look like?"
"No one. That's a Sleep Stomp badge. If you kick someone while wearing it, it'll put them to sleep."
Rainbow Dash gave her a concerned look. "Uh, not to burst your bubble Flutters, but most ponies call that getting knocked out and you don't need a badge to do it."
Fluttershy offered a small shocked gasp in reply. "Oh no! Not like that! It doesn't have to be in the head; that'd be awfully dangerous. Just a little tap anywhere will do. I thought it'd be helpful for animals that are angry or hurting."
"Yeah, that sounds more like something you'd make. Lemme try one of these." Dash grabbed one at random—a square badge with a little heart—and clipped it to her mane. Almost instantly she fell to her knees, then collapsed outright.
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight cried, abandoning her inspection and rushing to her side. She started charging her horn with a diagnostic spell, but before her corona could so much as glow, the tension disappeared as the downed pegasus let out a low, contented moan. She stood slowly and with Twilight's help, stretching out like a cat as she rose with a dopey smile on her face.
"Whoa..." Her voice shuddered with the word as she leaned heavily on the table. "That feels good."
"Fluttershy, what badge did she use? Is this normal?"
The pegasus peered into her friend's bangs. "It looks like... the Happy Hearts badge. It's supposed to promote healing and restore your energy."
"Oh it's restoring me alright," Dash crooned. "I was kinda feeling a little sore from my workout, but now I feel like I just got the deluxe service at the spa!"
Rainbow Dash suddenly went rigid. Quick as a wink, she snatched the badge from her mane and tossed it back on the table. Her eyes danced frantically between her friends, wide and panicked. "Not that I'd know what their deluxe service feels like or anything! Or their normal service! I've never been to a spa in my life! Ask anybody!"
Her eyes darted around the room, desperately searching for a distraction.
"Hey! You think these other doors lead to everyone else's houses?"
"Probably," Twilight agreed, accepting the obvious change in topic without objection, "but there doesn't seem to be any way to open them from the inside. I—"
As if on cue, the door marked with three apples burst open.
The familiar stetson-ed head of Applejack crested into the crystal room. She managed two and a half hurried steps inside before she froze. Her head twitched this way and that as she took in everything before her pinprick pupils latched on the occupants.
"What the- the hay ya'll doin' in mah outhouse!?
"It's actually—"
"Nevermind! I'll kick Big Mac outta the indoor one. He's been showerin' too long already."
Her frantic gaze locked onto Fluttershy. "Rarity! Ah want mah commode un-gussifed by the time Ah get back, y'hear?"
Not-Rarity managed a startled squeak in reply.
Her piece said, Applejack spun on a heel and ran out, leaving her door open behind her and letting the fresh scent of apple trees waft in. Silence reigned for a long, awkward moment as everyone waited for someone else to acknowledge the implications of what had just happened.
"Okay, ignoring a lot of that," Dash finally said, "why does Applejack have a lock on the outside of her bathroom?"
"Wait a minute," Twilight said. She walked over to the door and peered through it. "If this is Applejack's door—" She pointed to the three across from her. "—those three are ours, and we assume the ones with gemstones and balloons are Rarity's and Pinkie Pie's... then what's behind those doors?"
The two unidentified doors that divided the room remained impassively and enigmatically shut. One bore a mark of a three-by-three grid of squares inscribed within a circle. The other across from it had a pair of offset arrows crossed over each other and pointing opposite directions.
"I dunno, the tic-tac-toe room?" Dash supplied with a shrug.
Twilight sighed. "Just one more part of the mystery, I guess. Are either of you free to help me run some tests?"
"Can't, I got morning cloud clearing duty."
"Sorry, but with the inside of my shed gone I need to go and buy some more breakfast for my animals."
"That's alright, I can test on my own while Spike takes notes. Still, it'd be useful to have somepony else here who can use a Key."
"Hey!" Providence arrived in the form of a pink party pony. "Who went and remodeled my party cave without telling me?"
"...That'll work."
Access Key (Personal Reality) Free
This is a special key which lets you access your Personal Reality and its contents.
When inserted into any lock on any door, the door opens to reveal a gateway into your Reality at a predetermined location within it. You are the only person who can take the key from the lock, the gateway remains open as long as the key is in the lock, and if key is ever lost or stolen you will find it in your pocket a few minutes later. You cannot close the door as long as you are inside the Personal Reality.
Entrance Hall (Personal Reality) Free
This is the room your Access Key opens a door to. It starts off as a 5 meter cube with blank white walls, floor, and ceiling,[OVERRIDDEN] and some doors, one leading to the current Host Reality, the other into your Cosmic Warehouse, with additional doors leading to other extensions as these get added to your Personal Reality. Feel free to customize this Entrance Hall as you see fit. Additional Halls can, at your discretion, be linked only to certain keys or only to certain extensions. This allows you to have an entry hall just for skiing if you want.
Less than you'd think. I just hit "Random" until I landed on six that cost the minimum value. Any theming or synergy that happens is entirely coincidental.
Will there be Companions here? I hope so, because some of the Human or Human looking Companions popping in as Ponies would be funny. Though the Poor House Elf would probably be confused, especially with Rarity constantly trying to give them outfits...
Companions are allowed, they just need the sheer 1 in 2000 luck to land on one. Whether they remain their original races/formes or are transformed into Equestrian equivalents will be handed on a case-by-case basis (though it'll probably be whatever's funnier).
All acquired perks can be found here.
Sections are updated to match the most recently posted chapter (even if the "chapter block" contains a chapter number that has yet to be posted)
Builder Package Tier One (100CP)Free Starter Perk
Wood and other plant life. You are an exceptional builder with these and know the characteristics of such materials at a glance, you can also form mental blueprints and interact with them as if you actually saw them in the real world to assist in construction, as well as making infallible mental checklists of materials with exact steps, materials, and dimensions needed for the build, you also have an easy time locating useful materials you need for building and you take less time to build than you should.
Relay Artisan (Age of Wonders ll) (200CP)
The knowledge necessary to create the massive structures known as 'Wizard Towers' is not easy to learn, but not especially rare either. Indeed, all Wizards rely on these towers for their abilities - in particular the ability to vastly increase the reach of their magics by channeling their arcane power through gigantic crystalline projectors lining the tower's structure. Smaller, less powerful crystals are occasionally used as well, both as 'Magic Relay' structures at fixed locations and with special equipment used by champions of the various armies. You are a gifted artificer when it comes to creating such relays and projectors. Not only can you create such crystals, but you have mastered the magical theories behind their function to the point you could craft these magical artifacts from other materials such as wood or silver. As your skill increases you'll be able to create more intricate and efficient relays, reducing their size or increasing their range. With practice, you could craft gemstones small enough for a ring's jewel that could let you project your magic within a dozen miles of their location. Once attuned, the connection between a Wizard and the relays you craft cannot be broken, it will continue to function across any distance and even across dimensions so long as the relay remains intact.
Rune Carving (Warhammer Fantasy - Tomb Kings) (200CP)
Necrotects themselves are usually inexperienced in the ways of magic. It's rarely their duty to cast spells or command rituals, yet they are often called upon to inscribe runes on a vast scale or otherwise prepare things for magical means. You're very skilled at creating structures or items that can be channelled or used with magic, even whilst lacking it yourself. If you had a mage or wizard on hand, you'd even be able to work in tandem effortlessly, crafting items or structures suited to that person's magic in particular, working even better for them than anyone else.
Requiem of Souls | Weaver (100CP)Free Starter Perk
You are now an expert weaver. Doesn't sound like much, right? Remember that the silk spun from magical creatures' cocoons was so beautiful that King Karis murdered his own son over it. They have some REALLY good silk here in Parel is what I'm saying and you are a master of working with it.
Hoarder's Eyes (Touhou Forbidden Hermit) (100CP)
You know the name and function of any object just by looking at it. Only that however, and the function is rather abridged, giving you a fairly brief overview of exactly what it does and nothing beyond that. You should probably try not to make any more assumptions beyond that.
A Humble Mushroom Farmer (Paper Mario) (100CP)Free Starter Perk
The Mushroom Kingdom is a land of many strange and mysterious items. Healing mushrooms, small snowmen that call up blizzards, blocks labelled POW that shake the earth. These items have to come from somewhere, and now you are a source of these objects. You know the arts behind the creation of the various usable items from the paper mario series. Some of these must be grown, others built, and still others prepared through more esoteric means. You also know how to create lil' oink eggs and use them to produce certain items. The ingredients for many of these are rather common in that world, but rarer elsewhere. I'd stock up if I were you.
Golden Sickle (Asterix the Gaul) (200CP)
This is a sickle made of solid gold, perfect for harvesting materials with magical properties. So perfect, that it has properties of its own. Firstly, any materials harvested using this sickle will never go bad. Food doesn't rot, meat, if you somehow used it on that, doesn't go rancid, magical herbs don't lose their powers. Secondly, it tends to have the exact magical properties you need to harvest any and all magical substances, without too much of a fuss. In essence, you can replace any and all growing and harvesting requirements for an ingredient, like 'needs to see the moon twenty times', or 'dance naked under at twilight carrying a pitcher of water that you then sprinkle' with 'cut using this sickle'. Doesn't apply on the super rare, absolutely one-of-a-kind stuff, mind you. It must be at least somewhat common.
Crazed Physician (Van Helsing) (100CP)
Amongst the many sciences and paths you know, aside from the usual Ominous Cackling, you... Can actually patch people up easily. As a Crazed Physician, you can use the plainest tools on hand to mend any variety of wounds and injuries. As well, you know the humanpony anatomy down to the last blood vessel, and can learn the anatomy of any other creature you dissect more easily.
Risk of Disassembly (Mousehunt) (100CP)Free Starter Perk
When creating a trap with a hunter in mind, one must consider how often the hunter moves from region to region and also the wide variety of mice capable of utterly demolishing the trap. Since designing a trap to be unbreakable is likely to make it unwieldy, an alternative approach is to engineer it to fail. This philosophy applied to your crafting endeavours allows you to make things which are designed to safely break apart regardless of the circumstance sure, you'll have to reassemble it after it breaks, but the risk of it utterly disintegrating under the force of a dragon mouse's fire is removed.
-Rapid Construction (Blazing Saddles) (50CP)
You are not only a truly excellent carpenter, you are an exceptionally fast worker. Any form of construction or crafting will be completed in a tenth the time it would otherwise take, though your overall quality will suffer if you use this at full effect (times ten). At times two, you'll sacrifice none of the quality, but as you get closer to times ten, you'll sacrifice more and more of it.
Material Limitations (World Seed) (100CP)
Even with the advanced technology commonplace on Earth nowadays, material limitations haven't changed. Or rather, you could say that they've gotten even worse. After all, how are you going to store antimatter if you have only steel at hand? Luckily, you won't ever have problems finding the materials you need. Whether you'll stumble upon them while searching through a scrapyard, or find just the right people who can get you that obscure alloy you need, nothing will stop you from building whatever you want besides your own skill. Well, if you're keeping it reasonable, at least.
The chance of you finding what you're searching for decreases exponentially with the material's strength and rarity, and increases by how much you know about said material, scientifically, and how good your technology skills are. So while a regular schmuck would probably never find Adamantium, someone who could reproduce it themselves in only a few years would have much, much better chances. So if you're in a situation where it is impossible to get what you want with what you know and where you are right now? Then you'll have to get to work yourself. Good riddance then that you can eventually reproduce any material or alloy that you have seen, though for extremely advanced ones it might take an unreasonable amount of time and skill.
Accumulated Mastery (Lords of the Night - Vampire) (200CP)
Anyone can learn the 'basics' of a craft. Most people can become competent, if their fickle nature doesn't betray them. Mastery though requires commitment. At least, that's what you've been told. This doesn't help you learn a skill - instead, it lets you take a skill you've already gotten to a solid point, and lets you push it to the level of preternatural mastery. Instead of slowing down and growing more difficult, your learning becomes easier and speeds up when it hits the normal point of diminishing return.
Eventually you'll hit a new plateau, but it's well on the far side of 'inhuman.' This will usually take about as much time and effort as it took you to become a journeyman in that skill in the first place.
This is limited to skills, but isn't limited to things DnD thinks are skills.
Selected Skill: Passive Environmental Awareness
Manifold Destiny (Subnautica) (100CP)
You've got one job, and you're pretty good at it. The things you build have extra hull integrity, giving you more leeway when constructing habitats. Vehicles you construct have more advanced armor, making them harder to hurt without sacrificing acceleration
This Tool Box can store any number of hand held tools, and will never get too heavy to carry. Always contains a set of basic tools that can be called on without notice and in any number like hammers, saws and blowtorches. Specialized tools you will have to place inside this box ahead of time.
MacGyver (Andromeda) (100CP)
You are a natural at fixing and jury rigging things. As long as you have the parts and tools you can fix nearly anything. You also have the capability to build emergency equipment that can help to save your life and the lives of others, but these tend to be one offs given the time crunch you are usually under.
SUPERHUMAN DESIRE (Medaka Box Abnormal) (100CP)
You always wanted to be special and that want was itself so strong that you really did become so. Whenever you are subjected to a procedure that will improve or beneficially alter you with a chance of injury to you, death or even just the procedure failing outright, it will instead have a guaranteed chance of success. Risky operations will always go off without a hitch, shoving an energy source into your own body will have it combine with you successfully if there was even the smallest chance of you not dying.
SCIENCE! (Megamind) (100CP)
You can do science! Mad science is your bread and butter, but that sort of thing can't be done if you don't have the basics first. This perk provides you an extensive, vast knowledge in every branch of science that exists in the world, from maths to biology to astrophysics to everything in between!
No matter what it may be, if it can be called a science, you have skills and knowledge equivalent to a lifetime's worth of study and research in it. This carries over to future worlds, but the extent of your knowledge and skills reduces the more complicated and esoteric the science in question gets. You'll always have a novice's level of skill, anyway.
Stone-age Otaku (Earth Girls) (200CP)
It takes a lot of patience and a lot of repetition to make a good blade from a stone. You don't bore, at all, and your hands are always steady. Between different attempts at the same task, you can pick out the tiniest differences between the last attempt and the attempt before that (and the ones before that...) to work out precisely what needs to be tried the next time.
You're a real Mr. Fix-It, y'know? Malfunctioning fuel intake? Easy. Faulty asteroid defense cannon? Turn it off, then on again. Non-responsive communications array? Shuffle the working emitters around a bit so they're symmetrical. Undead monstrosities? Depends on what you mean by, "fix." Does using a rivet gun to blow them apart count? Yes? Then we're good.
Skills (Star Trek: TNG) | Combat (100CP)
Hand to hand fighting is an ancient and quintessential skill for every soldier no matter what time period
Access Key (Personal Reality) Free
This is a special key which lets you access your Personal Reality and its contents.
When inserted into any lock on any door, the door opens to reveal a gateway into your Reality at a predetermined location within it. You are the only person who can take the key from the lock, the gateway remains open as long as the key is in the lock, and if key is ever lost or stolen you will find it in your pocket a few minutes later. You cannot close the door as long as you are inside the Personal Reality.
Entrance Hall (Personal Reality) Free
This is the room your Access Key opens a door to. It starts off as a 5 meter cube with blank white walls, floor, and ceiling,[OVERRIDDEN] and some doors, one leading to the current Host Reality, the other into your Cosmic Warehouse, with additional doors leading to other extensions as these get added to your Personal Reality. Feel free to customize this Entrance Hall as you see fit. Additional Halls can, at your discretion, be linked only to certain keys or only to certain extensions. This allows you to have an entry hall just for skiing if you want.
Originite Prime Bundle (Arknights) (100CP)
You gain access to several crates of pure Originium* that can be utilized for various means, and will restock itself every week. Normally even being near raw Originium would be dangerous, luckily for you, your supply has been treated so it will be perfectly safe to use in any way. Just don't eat it.
*A common mineral in Terra, this semi-transparent black crystal contains enormous energy, and is the primary factor of causing Catastrophes. Widely used in the field of Arts, it works as the basic material and catalyst of all kinds of Arts and Arts items. Without Originium, the efficiency of Arts would, without a doubt, drop dramatically. As technologies develop, more and more countries start to use it as an energy source.
Workshop Equipment (Bloodborne) (300CP)
This is actually a package deal containing a variety of workshop tools. The first tool set has some basic tools for repairing equipment and some more specialized tools for upgrading weaponry with varying Blood Stones. The second set of tools allows for the slotting and removal of Blood Gems, items that as previously mentioned can greatly empower weaponry. The last set of tools allows you to etch Caryll Runes into the mind to attain their wondrous strength, or remove them just as easily. Runesmith Caryll, student of Byrgenwerth, transcribed the inhuman utterings of the Great Ones into what are now called Caryll Runes. Etching these runes into your mind can provide a number of benefits. Benefits can range from resisting certain types of damage, increasing resistance to various poisons or increasing stamina and vitality, among other effects. You may etch up to three runes into your mind at a time. These runes can be found scattered around this world.
* Enhance weapons by slotting in blood gems
* Transcribe eldritch god utterings into your mind for powers
Horadric Cube (Diablo) (200CP)
A copy of an ancient artifact created by the mage clans, which was itself a copy of an even older device, this engraved cube is a potent tool of alchemy and transformation. The cube's four most common uses are to repair, refine, transmute, or dismantle items. The cube can repair broken magical items to full functionality, though you may need to add in reagents to make up for lost mass and energy. Multiple items of the same type placed inside will be consumed to create a single slightly more potent version. Items can be transmuted into other items of a different shape yet similar nature, such as arrows into bolts. Finally, magical items can be fragmented, enchantments and power cleanly divided between each piece, a function commonly used to store dangerous items in a more manageable form.
Horadric Malus (200CP)
An ancient and heavily-enchanted hammer, this tool was built to aid in forging magical items. In layman's terms it regulates and stabilizes magical energies, preventing small mishaps, foreign mana flows, short pauses in the enchanting process and other such problems from ruining an enchanter's work. While items produced with the aid of the Malus are only slightly more powerful, they are much more resistant to mystical tampering and corruption.
-Stark's Blueprints (The Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes) (400CP)
Perhaps thanks to a bit of corporate espionage, you now have blueprints for pretty much everything that Tony Stark has ever built (with the exception of things built off world or with the help of others, such as the Uru armor or the Magic Nullifier). Includes his suits, his Arc Reactor technology, and the Quinjets.
Really wanted a nice CF fic that isn't all about endless escalation via a monologue that ends up just barely having enough power to beat some random guy despite having centuries of combined experience and a dozen tech bases
Really loving the handling of metaphysical stuff as well, and looking forward for more! And woohoo, a nice portrayal of Celestia too. And not a secret tyrant keeping the rest of the world stale (on purpose at least v: )
...also, nice reference with that step. I swear nobody fixes the damn thing in wormfics xD
Definitely watching this and waiting for more!
Edit: Rarity is absolutely stuck in a fugue of making things isn't she
This Tool Box can store any number of hand held tools, and will never get too heavy to carry. Always contains a set of basic tools that can be called on without notice and in any number like hammers, saws and blowtorches. Specialized tools you will have to place inside this box ahead of time.
I really hope Rarity does not get working speed perks, we have seen how bad her stuff gets when there is no difference between first idea and execution.
I really hope Rarity does not get working speed perks, we have seen how bad her stuff gets when there is no difference between first idea and execution.
Everyone is currently still their original species. No alicornication (though a new perk has been added to the list, and if someone happens to roll those lucky 0.050% odds...)
From the Desk of Twilight Sparkle
Apprentice to HRH Princess Celestia
Golden Oaks Head Librarian
Notes and Observations on Anomalous Magical Event
Dictation taken by Spike the Dragon, 20th of Summer
Page 7 of XX
...which sums up my initial observations on the subject. I can already tell that the extradimensional space and its attached Keys are something I'm going to spend a lot of time studying. It's only been a few hours since this was discovered, but I've learned several important things about these Keys. First off, they're magically bonded to each of us, one per pony. I've only been able to run tests on my own Key so far but current evidence implies what I've learned should be true to all six. A Key left alone will disappear after a few minutes, only to reappear in my hoof with just a thought. My Key can open any locked door I've tried it on, from my keepsake box to the library's front door, even if the keyhole should be too small to fit it. Obviously some of these make an opening too small to pass through, but even lockboxes and windows always open to the same crystal chamber and the same space between Pinkie Pie's door and Rainbow Dash's. However, so long as the door is open the Key cannot be removed from the locks by any means I've attempted, nor can a door be fully closed while the Key is inserted.
I can imagine this will be incredibly useful for cutting down travel time, but I doubt that's its intended purpose. I'm sure I've only scratched the surface of what we've discovered, but there's just so much to investigate and study.
Which brings me to the main focus of this scroll: our strange new abilities.
My current working hypothesis is that, through some manner of magic still unknown, my friends and I have somehow each acquired a second Special Talent in addition to regaining our original ones.
--yes Spike, I am serious. No, don't write this part. Look, just cross it out and remind me to do an ink-lifting spell before you send it--
It's common knowledge that everypony has a Special Talent, something they are preternaturally good at, signified by the Cutie Mark they earn when they discover it. Aside from a few famous historical outliers (such as Plain Sight, a former Royal Spymaster whose Cutie Mark was the same color as his coat, and Sheer Bluff, a con artist whose Special Talent for improvisation let her fake having multiple Talents) for thousands of years there have been no verified cases disproving the fact that every pony gets one Cutie Mark, one Special Talent and that they are an intrinsic and immutable part of a pony's being.
At least that was true until yesterday morning. Starswirl's final unfinished spell (new name pending now that it has been finished) was capable of altering a cutie mark, specifically swapping them between ponies. Even if this wasn't the intended effect, the fact that it's even possible means we need to reevaluate everything we know about the topic on a fundamental level.
I'll put that aside for now though, as it more than deserves to be its own research paper. For the time being I'll instead focus on the effect experienced by my friends and I.
Without access to his other journals, I can't say whether gaining a second Special Talent was the intended goal of Starswirl's spell (it certainly sounds like something a peerless wizard of his caliber would pursue) or a side effect of my attempts to modify his work to undo the swap.
--You're right, one does seem much more useful than the other, but who are we to question a genius like Starswirl? Where was I? Right.--
My theory is supported by the changes evident in my friends and I.
Mostly. -Don't write that-
Personally, I appear to have acquired a Special Talent for woodworking. Though I've previously never made anything more complicated than a Mother's Day picture frame, today I managed to make several complete pieces of furniture with nothing more than the scrap lumber in my basement.
I contacted Wicker Mare, a local pony with a carpentry Talent, and had her appraise some of them. Her assessment was that they looked like the work of somepony with both a niche Talent and a few years of experience. Her specific comparison was "a mid-level apprentice: somepony decently skilled and trained, but who hasn't broken out of the basics and found their own style yet". She left with a chair for personal use.
It's more than just skill, though. I know how to cut the wood, how to spot defects in it, the best way to join it together, how to add flourishes and details without compromising strength. I can see the finished product in my head before I start working with a step by step checklist of everything I need to do to achieve it. It all feels as simple as plugging variables into an equation.
Rarity's experience has been similar, though more difficult to detect. Aside from her normal skills as a seamstress, she claims to have a new Talent for weaving. Testing has been... less than thorough, due to her only having a hobbyist loom, but the results are promising.
Fluttershy has been harder to identify, but far easier to notice. My working theory is some sort of enchanting Talent. Overnight, she crafted a collection of pins with a variety of minor magical effects (though they don't seem to follow the common conventions of enchanting as I learned them at CSGU), and claims to be able to do much more but lacks the proper tools and materials.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash have had much subtler effects, but the former claims that repairs around the farm have been significantly easier than usual and the latter that clouds she's made herself are easier to bust. More testing is needed.
Spike's Note: Twilight got a little distracted and went on a rant here about not having enough time in the day to study everything she wanted to. I'm pretty sure she didn't want me to include it, so I didn't.
I will be the first to admit that my hypothesis of second Special Talents is not perfect. As usual, Pinkie Pie is the oddball exception to an otherwise sound theory.
Unlike the rest of us, instead of a new Special Talent Pinkie seems to have gotten a toolbox.
We found it inside the Crystal Nexus—
--no, scratch that out. We need a better name for that place. Maybe... perhaps... no. Spike, help me out here. Sure, that'll do. Why are you still writing? Fine, it's a first draft anyway--
We found it inside the Hub behind the door marked with crossed arrows. No one was able to open the door until she arrived, and after the toolbox was removed it sealed shut again. At first glance it looks like a perfectly ordinary toolbox available at any hardware store (aside from it being customized with Pinkie's colors and Cutie Mark) however the interior is what makes it special. It appears empty to any outside observer, yet Pinkie can pull out tools from within, far more than should fit inside the space.
Normally I'd say this wasn't unusual for her, except she started to pull out tools even she didn't recognize, yet still knew the name and function of.
This brings me to the biggest hole in my theory: knowledge.
A pony with a baking Cutie Mark will have a much easier time cooking and whatever she makes will be better than the same dish made by a pony with a different Talent. However, she still has to learn the recipes. Merely getting her Cutie Mark doesn't mean she suddenly knows how long a soufflé should bake or what a croquembouche is.
For whatever this phenomena is, that's not the case. I know what kinds of wood are best for different projects, despite only a passing interest in botany. Rarity offhandedly wished she had some Jade Cocoon Silk to weave, then when asked admitted that she had no idea what it was. Fluttershy has brought up several plants and creatures that I can find no reference to in either textbooks or mythology.
Something is different between our new skills and normal Special Talents. Either Starswirl was on the brink of breaking through some sort of threshold to an unprecedented kind of Special Talent, or my own spellwork has discovered (or created?) something wholly new.
Seeing as my assistant, Spike, has just told me his wrists are getting tired, I'll end this scroll here. My next one will cover the specific data I've gathered on my new abilities, followed by that of my friends.
Spike's Note: Princess, could you please send her the instructions for a dictation spell or something? I'm sure something like that exists. I don't think my poor claws can take much more of this!
Princess Luna lowered the scroll as she acknowledged that the rest of it was just inky claw marks. "And she has sent you how many of these?"
As if in response, a puff of green smoke swirled its way into the Throne Room through the cracks in the windows. It made a lazy wander through the air till it arrived just above the throne where it materialized into a new roll of parchment, bound by a ribbon and wax seal. It fell as Spike's draconic magic faded, dropping into a hastily erected metal chute through which it clattered and banged about until it landed atop an overflowing basket of identical scrolls beside the throne.
Princess Celestia swept up the errant scroll in her magic and swapped out the basket for an empty one. "I admit I've lost count, but I fear she's winding up to a publishable paper."
The Royal Throne Room of Canterlot was empty save for the pair of them. Day Court had been cancelled in preparation for dealing with the ramifications of Twilight's ascension, though the pair of diarchs found themselves with a totally unexpected dilemma to fill the day instead.
"Such curious fortune," Luna mused as she plucked another scroll. This one appeared to be a more in-depth description of Fluttershy's emblems. "And she's yet not an alicorn?"
"Not in the slightest." Celestia rifled through the basket for a moment. "Even if I thought her tunnel vision was so great that she could somehow manage to completely overlook a pair of wings, there's a scroll—Ah, this one—where she attached a medical evaluation of herself courtesy of Dr. Horse at Ponyville General. Nothing odd for a healthy unicorn of her age."
"Curiouser and curiouser," Luna pondered as she silently lamented the minor fortune she'd lost. Now what was she supposed to do with a warehouse full of collectible Princess Twilight merchandise and memorabilia? Not to mention the additional cost to buy the silence of the craftsponies who'd made it all. "But she still has the potential?"
"Oddly enough, yes. I would have thought that whatever she did would have drained it, but she feels just as primed to ascend as she has for weeks."
Small mercies then. She could keep all the new princess paraphernalia in storage until the filly finally reached her destiny. She thanked the stars she hadn't had any of it dated.
Luna set aside the scroll and turned her attention to the pile of... experiments Twilight had also sent. To be honest, she would have never pegged Twilight as a woodworker, or any kind of artist, really. Such arts took patience and a willingness to incorporate mistakes on the fly. Not exactly the prominent qualities of her sister's student.
And yet, the talent in the pieces she had sent was indisputable. A sturdy but simple bookshelf. A rough but recognizable filly-sized model of a Royal Guard in armour. An alicorn-sized wicker rocking chair, laced with still-living ivy. It was skillful, but not in a thousand years would she have guessed it to be the work of Twilight "neurotic perfectionist" Sparkle.
"My student's over-attention to details aside, that's not what I wanted your opinion on." Celestia's tone brought her attention back to the present. The frown on her sister's face said much more than her words. She held out another scroll, indistinguishable from the rest. "This is what has me concerned."
Luna took it and gave it a quick overview before frowning. "Strange dreams during their lost time?"
"All slightly different, but following a clear theme," Celestia nodded. "For Twilight, it was constellations of stars and a being she could only call indescribable. For Applejack, it was a grove of titanic trees bearing golden fruit and a bearded figure made of stone and wood. For Fluttershy, a massive spider web and a grandmotherly millipede. And so on and so forth with the others. Their recollections are dim and half-forgotten, but the truth shines through."
She shook her head. "I don't think I need to explain why this troubles me."
Luna nodded. "Tis impossible. I know not what realm they went to, but wherever they were, it was not in the Dreamscape."
"I thought as much. That was no dream. When they transcended the Aetherial Plane, they met something there. Something that has granted them power for a price they do not remember."
Dark memories rose to the surface of Luna's mind. Memories from the early days of their rule, when the world was wild and lawless and the safety of their little ponies hinged on alicorns keeping the monsters at bay.
And what monsters there had been, in those days, and not all of them inequine. Even in the past few months, the return of Discord, the Changelings, and King Sombra had proven that long gone threats were not nearly as defeated as they were thought to be.
But there were supposed to be warnings.
"The prophecies said nothing of this?" For something powerful enough to interfere with an ascendance, there surely had to have been some signs of its coming.
"Not a word. I checked the records myself." Celestia gave her sister a look that forestalled her interruption. "Yes. Even Cornerstone's journal."
Luna held back a flinch at the name of that madstallion, then her eyes widened in realization of what it meant. "But to access that, you must have—"
"Yes." Celestia's voice was tight and grim. "I went to the vault and accessed the sealed archives."
She gasped. "Mother and Father's—"
"—and the rest. For something of this magnitude, I deemed it necessary. Don't worry, I reinstated the wards before anything could activate. But Twilight is important. Her role to play in the coming years is crucial."
"Agreed. We must take precautions." Losing young Twilight to darkness would be catastrophic. "But we must not be hasty and overreach ourselves."
"What do you mean?"
"The return of so many old foes as of late may have us seeing threats where none exist. The being or beings the Bearers encountered may not be dark whatsoever."
"You would have us take that risk?" Her sister's stare turned hard.
"As opposed to turning on our most powerful weapon against such threats based on nothing more than suspicion? Yes I would." Luna leveled an equal stare back. "You asked for my counsel and this is it."
The battle of wills persisted for a long, tense minute before Celestia let out a breath and turned away. "Perhaps you are right. Maybe I am jumping at shadows."
A blue wing found its way around her shoulders. "I would not fault you for it. These are strange times and more dangerous than they have been in centuries. But if Twilight has, in fact, discovered some grand revelation in magic, we would be remiss to crush such a boon in its infancy over imagined threats."
The solar diarch remained silent for a moment as she digested her sister's words. Then she smiled. "I missed this."
"Missed what?"
"This. Us. A spirited debate over the right course of action. Somepony daring to call me out on a plan that may not be the best. It's incredible how hard it is to find good advisors that aren't yes-mares."
Luna gave her sister a shove. What did decorum matter when they were alone? "Someone has to keep your head out of the sun and on the ground." They shared a good-natured giggle. "So what will you do about Twilight?"
"For now? Observation only." Celestia summoned a quill and parchment and began preparing a missive. "I'll make an excuse for her and her friends to come to Canterlot and bring the Elements of Harmony with them. I know a few discreet spells that should assuage most of my worries, if they are indeed still untainted. But even if they pass, I might assign an Agent of the Crown to keep an eye on them in Ponyville, but take no direct action otherwise. We'll watch and we'll wait. If Twilight has truly sundered what we thought was a fundamental law of magic, then I don't doubt that sooner or later we'll be needing that stockpile of new princess merch you paid for out of the royal treasury."
Luna made a sound that caught somewhere between an indignant squawk and a surprised yelp.
"But if she has become a conduit of some dark patron, even unknowingly, then I will be prepared to do what is necessary for the sake and safety of our kingdom."
The sisters nodded in a moment of solemn agreement.
A moment which was swiftly ruined by another scroll popping into being, bouncing off the rim of the chute, off the top of the throne, off both their horns, and landing onto the ground in front of them. The wax seal broken by the fall, it unrolled across the carpet, bearing its short message in Spike's hurried scrawl for all the world to see.
Luna preparing to make bank on Twilight's ascension was funny, though it does bring up the question of if both sisters share the royal treasury and, if so, what Luna was expecting to gain from selling the merch. I would've expected it to be more along the lines of each having a personal account/treasury and have the official treasury be paying them a salary or some such.
Well this was a nice surprise! Wonder if Discord knows about the Forge.
Anyways, this got me thinking that one story that would make for a great CF story would be Fallout:Equestria. Considering how much struggle Lil Pip went through in that story, she deserves getting a boost!
Now the only question I have is if 1 of the girls gets an ability does that prevent the others from getting the same ability or is it possible for the girls to all get the same abilities
Princess Luna stockpiling a bunch of Princess Twilight merch? Well, I guess ponies are marketable even in-universe. Something something "Twilicorn is a thing just to sell merch"... but it's Luna doing that. Love this
Also woohoo, best princess (Luna, that is) actually being present in the fic is really nice.
Now the only question I have is if 1 of the girls gets an ability does that prevent the others from getting the same ability or is it possible for the girls to all get the same abilities
