You know, if we didn't already know that this was going to be used for Super Mario stuff, this would be very concerning. Still is concerning because those things grow through sewage pipes, but less... immediately threatening, if y'know what I mean.
On an unrelated note, perks that affect the bodies of the Six like Monstrous Strength are going to be interesting. I'm also not sure if a pony could be anything but an alicorn if you added divinity into their system. It's going to be interesting for sure.
Deep in the heart of Carousel Boutique, Rarity trembled as she fell to her knees. Shock and horror warred across her features. It was a tragedy, an unimaginable travesty! The world was unraveling before her very eyes as truth and falsehood became as one, leaving her rudderless in a murky sea of disbelief.
The fiend was known to her; known all too well. It sat with smug innocence on her vanity, mocking her with its deception, sneering at her naivete through mother-of-pearl eyes. She had trusted it. Loved and cherished it. Which made the betrayal sting all that much deeper.
For the sixth—or was it the seventh?—time, Rarity activated the strange new Talent she'd woken up with and turned it on the object of her ire. Just like every other time she'd used it, a small box of pale blue light flickered into existence, looking for all the world like somepony with a blue magical aura was levitating a window pane just above and to the left of the turncoat. Words tickaticked into existence on its surface as though from an unseen typewriter, spelling out the same ugly truth they'd said before.
<<Imitation Dewy Bütton Necklace>> A decently made replica of name-brand jewelry. Makes the wearer seem elegant to those who cannot spot the inferior workmanship, and a cheapskate to those that can.
<<Replica Element of Generosity>> The necklace that once held the Element of Generosity, currently set with a mundane amethyst. Used to make Rarity feel better about defacing a beautiful piece of jewelry.
Rarity sniffed and frowned at the hovering box of cold analysis. "That seems rather personal, don't you think?" She got no response, as the visual representation of her ability to appraise things was not an independent being.
She sighed and collapsed onto her bed, no longer concerned that she might wrinkle the, as her Talent had apprised them, "discount bed sheets".
"What a rotten ability," she muttered. "Applejack gets years of Guard training in an instant, Fluttershy can make magic accessories now, and Pinkie has unlimited tools, but what do I get? A floating placard that tells me I can't tell luxury goods from well-made fakes. There's no fairness in the world."
She sighed again, wishing she had an audience who would nod solemnly and agree with her. Even Sweetie Belle would suffice, as much as the little dear tried to fix problems (in her own way) when all Rarity wanted was a sympathetic ear.
With little conscious direction, she cast her appraising eye to an unfinished project in the corner.
<<Rarity Original Joie De Vivre series Gown>> An incomplete dress handmade by rising fashion icon Rarity Belle. Used to make the wearer look absolutely fabulous.
She blinked, then sat up and read it again. "A rising fashion icon, am I?" She tittered lightly as her sour mood evaporated. "Perhaps there's something worthwhile to this after all. At least it will save me from making the same mistake in the future. Why, I can think of quite a few ways this might be useful." She hopped out of bed. "And I'm certainly not going to be able to make the most of it moping like some tragic heroine!"
She left her bedroom behind with more of a spring in her step. There was work to be done!
Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Current Resident,
We've been trying to reach you regarding your wagon's extended warranty. You're missing out on great deals and even greater savings available this weekend only at Fillydelphia Wagonathon! Preregistering now for only a small fee could potentially save you hundre—
Authentication Gem recognized
Magical signature... Matched
Decrypting...
Displaying message...
Agent 8011
We regret having to contact you in your retirement, but the Crown requires your services once again. Our intelligence suspects that several residents of your current town may have been witness to or participants in a Thaumial-class Event. Information on the nature of the Event is minimal, but the risk has been deemed Level Yellow based on current findings. The targets of this operation are as follows:
Target 1: Twilight Sparkle
Target 2: Applejack Apple
Target 3: Rainbow Miriam Danger Dash
Target 4: Fluttershy [REDACTED]
Target 5: Pinkamena Diane Pie
Target 6: Rarity Belle
The Event was investigated and marked 'closed' on all official records, however certain high-level authorities wished it to be investigated further. Your mission is to become close to your targets through whatever means necessary without arousing their suspicion. Once there, monitor them for any abnormal behavior and keep track of any strange abilities they may manifest. Reports are to be sent in the usual way, using the Blue Sky cipher.
Good luck Agent 8011, and Celestiaspeed.
Your nation is counting on you.
-Mission Control
This message will self-destruct in fifteen seconds.
Bon Bon, formerly Agent Sweetie Drops, tossed the letter into the unlit fireplace moments before the paper burst into flames and crumbled to less than ash.
Her favorite chair caught her slumping body, but did little to comfort her. She rubbed her eyes and groaned, bleeding out all of her frustrated exasperation into the sound. It was far from the most dangerous mission she'd ever been on but...
"Hey Bonnie! You gotta come see this! Twilight's leading a crew in adding an addition to Town Hall and Pinkie's turned it into a hardware-themed block party! Anyone who comes to help gets a free blowtorch! I need a free blowtorch!"
...but how was she supposed to tell what was normal for those six?!
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.
Considering that Rarity got the observe perk with a personality, I can't help but imagine it "growing" so to speak and also the inevitable argument it will have with Discord.
And cool to finally see a bit of a fan favorite couple. Dunno why but I kinda want to reread Anthropology now.
Classically... it is extra salty food, then you find out how much water costs...
A trick that happened in England, when people got around in (horse drawn) coaches. Which is why laws were added saying if you sold food you had to provide free (drinkable) water. Of course, you could charge if you added ice, or a slice of lemon... And, no, you couldn't charge rental on the (clean) drinking container.
Three days after the Summer Sun Celebration, at precisely 1:30 in the afternoon, a package arrived on the desk of Dean Sigil, head of the Department of Arcane Runes at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.
At 2:15, an emergency meeting was called among all the Department heads and professorial staff.
By 2:25, battle lines had been drawn and the conference room of scholars and intellectuals were a hair's-breadth away from full on hostilities.
Dozens of voices clamored for attention, but it was only the few that were attached to the biggest personalities that really were heard and carried the debate, as much as the term qualified.
"It's absurd!" bellowed Archmage Anvil, a corpulent stallion whose prodigious jowls were only obscured by his even more outrageous mutton chops. "A joke at best and a mockery at worst! A breakthrough I could accept. A new runic sequence would be laudable. But some fool claiming to present an entirely new sub-branch of magic?! Preposterous!"
"And yet here it is," countered Dean Mandrake of the Department of Magical Botany, a reedy mare more akin to a bundle of kindling than a living pony. She tapped her copy of the thesis and let the pages splay across her desk. "This spells out everything from the most fundamental concepts to higher-order advanced constructs. I daresay I could give this to one of my apprentices and tell him to use it as a lesson plan. It's that comprehensive."
"Comprehensive, but that doesn't mean it's right," Anvil spat back. "I could write a comprehensive guide on growing sunflowers on the Moon and drop it on your desk but that doesn't mean you'd find it worth anything more than the ink it's written with."
"B-but all the math works," came the cautious contribution of Professor Eigenvector of the Department of Mathemagical Studies during a rare moment of silence.
"I couldn't give two of Princess Celestia's golden road apples about the math! You can't make a magic array out of crystal. They store spells and nothing else. It's the Third Law of Enchanting for star's sake!"
"Stop moving the goalposts, Anvil!" An anonymous voice shouted over the din.
"The crystal's beside the point," added a second voice. "Read the part where they derive it from first principles. You could carve this in a tree and it'd work.
"Not very well," a third added, "but it would."
The vaunted chamber descended back into chaos, with every pony shouting their opinions as if volume alone was the deciding factor. Sitting above them all, two ponies remained silent.
The first was Deputy Headmaster Minimum Erva (a true Headmaster in all but name, as Celestia herself had very little time for the actual day-to-day management of school business) who sat stoically at her raised pulpit, sketching out something on a scrap of parchment.
The other observer, seated even higher, was less patient.
"Why are we even arguing this? It's a useless spell!"
The chambers fell into shocked silence at the voice that came from the very top of the room, the only occupant of the pegasi seating area. Downbeat Draft, head of the practically non-existent Pegasus magic department, flew from her seat and landed in the center of the symposium, a copy of the research paper in her hoof. "Real or not, can someone explain to me why we even care? I've skimmed through this brick of paper and best I can tell, all this does is give a unicorn longer range. There's a section on applying it to different materials—" she tossed away a few pages of the report "—one on spells that won't work with it—" another section fluttered to the floor "—a big boring section on why it works—" half the remaining papers escaped her hoof "—and the rest is, for some Celestia-forsaken reason, construction plans to build a giant range amplifier so tall it's literally a tower." She tossed the rest of the pages into the air. "Why!? Why do we care? Are we really squabbling like a bunch of foals arguing about their favorite Power Ponies character because you want to levitate a book from an extra twenty meters away?"
The silence that followed her speech was deafening. Not even Anvil seems to know how to respond to such an impassioned speech. Eventually though, it was timid Professor Eigenvector, the youngest pony present by almost two decades, who responded.
"Ah, Ms. Draft, I think you may have, ah, read the units wrong. That particular construction would extend a single unicorn's spell range by twenty miles, not twenty meters." When no one seemed about to interrupt him (a rare and pleasant change from the norm), he adjusted his glasses and continued. "And yes, there are other spells that can extend range, but that's beside the point. The important part is that it extends the range nonegocentrically."
Draft frowned. "What does that mean in terms that don't require a specialized degree?"
"It means," Dean Mandrake continued, "that a unicorn linked with one of these relays could cast a spell from it as if it were their own horn, regardless of the distance between them. If it works as these documents describe, a pony with the skill to teleport across this chamber could just as easily teleport to Fillydelphia; so long as there was a linked relay at the destination. It means a Guard resting in his barracks could cast a stun spell at a purse-snatcher on Restaurant Row as easily as if he were standing next to him. It means that the former Captain of the Guard Shining Armor could recreate his famous city-wide bubble shield around Canterlot without leaving his throne room in the Crystal Empire."
"Which is why the whole thing is obviously preposterous," Anvil concluded with a satisfied smirk. "That is why I say we track down whatever prankster thought this waste of our time was funny and strip them of whatever academic merits they may have." He shuffled back in his chair, brow still gleaming with sweat from his earlier excitement. "Who did submit this, anyway? My copy came without a cover page."
Deputy Headmaster Erva spoke up for the first time since the meeting began. "That would be Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville, formerly of Legacy Tower on the East campus." A piece of paper floated down in her magic field, which flickered out for a moment as it passed the normal edge of her range before it quickly returned, allowing her copy of the cover page to land neatly on the ground before Archmage Anvil's seat. A simplified magic circle had been written overtop the title and author's name that glowed faintly with magic. "I, for one, seem to have no trouble performing the spell in a practical application."
Anvil paled so fast, one would have been forgiven for assuming he'd died on the spot and become a ghost.
"Ah. Well. Perhaps we shouldn't be so hasty to dismiss the new and groundbreaking claims. After all, the first unicorn to invent invisibility was called a fraud at the time."
Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle was at home, unaware of the disturbance in the status quo her earnestly written report had caused. Her woodworking skill and repository of Wizard Tower enchanting knowledge worked in glorious concert as she happily engraved the walls of her Treebrary with as much runescript as she could fit between the shelves, singing a little ditty to herself as she did so.
"Oh the Hetz rune's connected to the— Jyan rune. The Jyan rune's connected to the— Urgle rune. The Urgle rune's connected to the— Raj rune. Then we start a-gain down on-the-next shelf!"
"Oh the Hetz rune's connected to the— Jyan rune. The Jyan rune's connected to the— Urgle rune. The Urgle rune's connected to the— Raj rune. Then we start a-gain down on-the-next shelf!"
