I shrug. "Define 'really'."
"You know, when the mirror doesn't change you into a pony."
Not curious about how
you'd look in skin instead of fur and feather, Dash?
"It's my current default, yes, but this isn't the first shape that I've had, and it may well not be the last." I should aside-.
I stop and remind myself who I am.
Still having trouble keeping Grayven-16's thoughts out of his head, eh? Or just remembering your
original human form?
I reach out with both arms, grip the trunk of the tree that is standing between me and the Castle, and heave. Despite my strength this is harder than you might think, as my grip strength tends to make trees shatter or strips the bark from the trunk. But with a little help…
There's a burst of flying soil, then the tree and most of its roots pull free from the ground.
Ah, the fun of Super-strength
without some manner of TK assistance. When grabbing a car's bumper and pulling... Just leaves you with a detached bumper. When trying to catch something ends up with you going right through it like a nail...
Miss Dash backs off slightly. "Whow."
I toss the tree away from us, deeper into the woodland. "So the trees in the Everfree Forest actually move?"
...I would not put it past them. The deeper parts of the woods qualifies as an
Eldritch location..
"Ah… I dunno. Sometimes I think they do, but that might just be because they all look the same."
"Because that wasn't there when I made this path." I look back the way we came. I left most of it as-is because I wanted the restoration of the Castle to be a surprise for Luna, but if the path I made through the forest is going to close up that quickly then I'm bricking the darn place over and getting Sunset to put wards on the path.
Or just accept that you'll have to keep making object lessons abut what's 'your turf' and staying off of it...
"It's the Everfree. If you don't want weird stuff to happen, you're in the wrong place dude."
"Your definition of 'weird' and mine are very different." Nodding in satisfaction, I walk the rest of the way up the hill and stop at the gorge acting as the Caste's moat.
Not very subtle, is it? But given Discord's era of messing with the world, I can see it being necessary.
"Yeah." Dash frowns. "I don't get how your whole world has wild weather."
"Nearly all of your whole world has wild weather. And as Equestria industrialises, your job will get more difficult."
Heh. It's probably a
long time off, but I pity the pegasi who end up having to deal with
smog...
"It will?" She thinks for a moment. "Right, because of the chimneys. Stuff gets burned and creates heat, and all the smoke in the air messes with the air temperature and humidity. Took me a while to work out where the weird line of wrong temperature air was coming from when the railway reached Ponyville."
"Not just that. As more ground gets paved, it stops absorbing water. Which causes run off rates to accelerate, causing brief but sudden swelling in the streams and rivers."
Yeah, Rainbow Dash is
actually pretty smart, at least when it comes to weather. Remember, the pony is damn
good at her job. ("Ten seconds flat!")
Miss Dash frowns. "Aw, man! Ponies are gunna get even more fussy about the rain schedule! Totally uncool."
"You could hire diamond dogs to dig storm drains. The land here is vertiginous enough that you could manage it without pumps."
No doubt there's
some Pony out there with a special knack for water-flow management.
"That's even worse. Ponyville's all zoned as agricultural land! You got any idea how much paperwork I'll need to fill in if the water table changes?"
"No. As you said, my world has wild weather. How much is it?"
Rainbow Dash... And paperwork? I just assumed she had a co-worker who handled it all.
"I don't even know!" She throws up her forehooves. "Lots, probably. And whoever's Ponyville's Weather Manager is gunna have to work out how all that extra surface water affects air humidity, and then work their feathers off shifting it all. But that's not gunna happen for a while, right?"
"Luna and I were talking about shifting the main railway hub from Canterlot to Ponyville. The lines are already heading this way, but we'll need to build another big train yard, and then… Things will probably accelerate."
And then you'll have the added challenges of coal-smoke filling the air. I can't imagine
that's pleasant to fly through.
"Bottom line if for me. How long 'till things start getting all screwy?"
"Couple of years for the trains? Then it depends on how fast other things build up."
Given how quickly the series seemed to develop, I suspect things
won't take all that long.
"Okay. Guess I'll just have to make sure I'm in the Wonderbolts by then." She flies a little way ahead. "So are you actually going to go down there?"
"I'm a little.. nervous about it. I'm not used to trees having the capacity for judgement, and the power to follow through."
<Swamp Thing clears his throat awkwardly...> Wonder if there's an equivalent arrangement here? An embodiment of the collective will of
all plant life, and one for
animal life, or of
fungi and bacteria...
She rolls her eyes. "It's fine. Is that why you never went down there when you were rebuilding the Castle?"
"I didn't do much of the rebuilding personally. And I know to leave powerful magic artefacts alone when I don't know how they work."
...Are you
sure? I seem to remember a few occasions when you did exactly the
opposite... Granted, said srtifacts were usually being used
against you at the time...
I follow her down the steps. The genomorphs enlarged the steps into something an alicorn could walk down and added a handrail-. Ah, guard rail, so it's a little safer now than when Pinkie Pie first fell down it. Miss Dash hovers over the path, though I'm not sure if that's just to be sociable or because the air currents make it awkward to fly directly.
"So how come you're coming here?"
Still odd that a major power like the Tree of Harmony... lives in a
cave, more-or-less...
I tap Mother Box.
"I believe that Sunset is correct about the nature of Wilson's magic. But what I don't think she's fully appreciated is that magic isn't a passive thing. Existing focuses of magic may well act against someone trying to change things. I need to know where the Tree stands."
Probably a good idea, given that the power of
Harm
ony possesses the ability to drop orbital Friendship beams on people. And while it generally only smites those going
against it, that is a very
nebulous portfolio.
"What if it doesn't like you?"
"That's why I'm in bipedal shape. If it lashes out, I can duck behind you."
Plus, he's still not the most
agile thing on four hooves...
"Hey!"
"What? It likes you. Maybe it'll give you rainbow power again. Then you'll be rainbow Rainbow Dash."
I don't know, I don't think she's got quite the temperament to care for all that
hair...
"Nah, that was just for fighting Tirek. All the magic went into building Twilight's castle."
"Huh. That sucks. You given any thought to becoming an alicorn?"
Imagine all of the Mane Six as Alicorns aligned to their specific element...

An Applejack that could drop an
entire particular grove of trees in a single stomp, without disturbing its neighbours... A Rarity who could literally transmute gem-quality crystals out of thin air or mundane rocks... A Fluttershy, who can befriend
any creature without fail, or cow foes with a slight
furrowing of her eyebrow...

A Pinkie Pie even
less bound by the laws of physics...
She screws up her face. "Kinda? I mean, it's pretty cool, but I wouldn't fit in with the other Wonderbolts. And Twilight's started growing again after she became an alicorn, so I'd have to relearn all my tricks. It could be years before I'd be good enough!"
"But you'd have years."
On the other hand, you could
casually realign the weather for hundreds of miles... In ten seconds flat!
"And thanks to you, I'd have to spend them fighting humidity and zoning laws!"
I snort with laughter.
Such is the price of
power, Dash. And we all know what comes with
great power...
"Yeah, fair enough. You been up to anything interesting lately?"
She grins. "I got to meet my favorite author, A.K. Yearling! Only it turns out that she's actually Daring Do, the famous adventure archaeologist!"
Which puts this sometime after the episode '
Daring Don't'. Fits with the rough timeline of the season, and the encounters with Starlight Glimmer.
I nod. "Nifty."
"We fought Caballeron, who was working for Ahuizotl, who was trying to use this magic ring to take control of the sun and unleash eight hundred-"
And how
weird is it that there's a
creature from Aztec Myth running around out there. Was there some kind of Aztec-equivalent civilisation of his kind out there
somewhere? It's later revealed he was just trying to protect the relics of his people from
thieves Archaeologists... Is he the last of his kind? A Guard who remained behind after they went.. somewhere?

So. Many. Questions...
Wait. Wait. What?
"-years of sweltering heat!"
...I don't see how that would
protect his people's relics... Maybe by wiping out all life in Equestria?

Gah... That just raises
further questions!
I smile. "Yeah, okay."
"What?" Miss Dash shakes herself out of her memories, frowning at me. "What do you mean 'yeah, okay'?"
Feeling a bit insulted that he's not excited about that sort of thing? Dash, for him, that's an
average Tuesday.
I sigh. "Miss Dash, I realise that you've only lived in Equestria for your entire life… But in the capital city -Canterlot, it's the one on top of the Canterhorn Mountains- there's this big white pony. Her name is Celestia, and her job is controlling the sun: making it rise in the morning and set in the evening."
"That-. What?"
Yes, it does sound just a bit...
Illogical when you stop to think about it.
"I know, I know, I didn't believe it when I first heard about it either, but we tested it and it turns out that it's true."
"Bh-? Well, yeah, but-."
And now she's realising he's messing with her...
"I mean, she can literally make it tick around the sky like the hands of a clock. So.. I doubt that some random magic… Ring? Would do anything she couldn't override with a little effort, resulting in an immediate attack by the Equestrian military on anyone stupid enough to try and undo the control she's had for a thousand years."
I smile at her.
Well,
multiple Rings, and it probably had something to do with the temple they needed to be installed in... Maybe it was some kind of magical
laser?
"But I'm glad you had a good time."
I step off the bottom of the steps and walk towards the Tree's cave.
"Hey! Get back here! I'll show you!"

Aw, what's the matter, Dash? Can't handle a little friendly
ribbing?