The Coming Tide

"So Spike, you say the alien powder we hauled out can actually alter the behavior of animals?"

"Oh boy, does it! Ever since Twilight slipped some into this little guy, he's been as lovable as a kitten."

"Intriguing, darling."

Rarity and Spike were standing in the middle of Twilight's cellar laboratory, curiously examining the transparent cage containing the Badlands mole under the light of several arc lamps hanging over head.

True to Spike's description, the small mammal was no longer behaving like itself. It had gone from an aggressive wild animal into an almost domesticated pet, practically overnight. Inside the cage it wandered about, prodding curiously at various corners with its specially-formed pink nose. On occasion, it attempted to 'dig' through the tempered glass floor with its shovel-like claws, long since bored of its new habitat.

Its claws were adept at digging through rough dirt, volcanic soil, and even the more brittle types of stone, but the magically-fortified surface was able to resist them easily.

"I've named him Digger." Spike proclaimed, poking at the glass.

This elicited a giggle from Rarity. "Oh really, should I start calling Spikey-Wikey 'Dragon' then?" She let out a good-natured quip. "You really are a master at devising names, aren't you?"

Spike's face blushed into a dozen furious shades of red. "Yeah, yeah. I know he's a mole, and moles dig. But it's simple, and it makes sense. Should I have named him 'cupcake' or something?" Spike opened up the lid and put his hand in, drawing Digger's attention.

The mole ambled over slowly, reaching up his claws towards Spike's talons and pawing at them experimentally. Digger sniffed at the hand, analyzing the new object entering his territory.

"Hey, that tickles!" Spike said with a light chuckle. When Digger appeared to grow bored with him, Spike withdrew his hand and put the lid back on.

"Intriguing." Rarity repeated, leaning in to peer at Digger. "A powder that can make any animal behave like a perfect little angel, Positively awe-inspiring." Rarity hummed for a second as she broke into thought. "Spike, do you suppose Twilight would be willing to test this on..."

"What are you two doing down here?" A low, stern voice asked from behind them.

It was so unexpected that Spike nearly jumped. Rarity likewise turned around rapidly, startled. "Oh, Twilight, there you are." Rarity greeted her nervously.

"Hey...hey Twi. Just showing Rarity..." Spike gulped, fiddling with his thumbs. "...your work."

Twilight Sparkle stepped slowly out of the shadowy area fringing the entrance, the lights casting her form clearly into view. Twilight had one eyebrow cocked, and her lips were pulled in a frown. Her violet eyes appeared partially bloodshot and her coat was noticeably paler, but despite this and the cloth wrapped around her right foreleg, Twilight seemed her usual self.

"Darling, what in the world is that hideous thing doing on your leg?" Rarity asked.

Startled by the urgency in Rarity's voice, Twilight practically jumped as she instinctively moved to cover the limb with her left. "Huh?" She flattened her ears as she grinned sheepishly, abandoning her stoicism. "N...nothing. I...I just figured I'd try a new uh...fashion. Yeah, that's it!"

Twilight sauntered forward like a model, quite awkwardly. "See? A new type of...leg warmer!"

"Mmm-hmm." Rarity replied skeptically. "I can tell that's a curtain drape, dear. Isn't that strange rash of yours cured yet?"

Frown returning, Twilight groaned irritably and stepped back. "Why didn't you guys ask me before coming down her? This isn't exactly a place that's one hundred percent safe." She ignored Rarity's question. "I mean come on, we have an alien egg here that could hatch into any number of things, what if it's dangerous?"

"Sorry Twilight, I thought you wouldn't mind!" Spike interjected.

"You know what? Don't worry about it, Spike. You're not in trouble." Twilight began pacing, first towards them, then around the cellar. "Nobody needs to worry about anything. Clearly, if something bad were going to happen..." She paused and rubbed her hooves together. "...It would have already happened." Twilight giggled to herself quietly, resisting the urge to itch at her leg. She then looked back up at them, growing calm and smiling. "So, what would you like me to test the powder on?"

"Why Opalescence, to be exact. You know how feisty she can get at times. Normally I would never consider such a thing..." Rarity paused and put a hoof to her muzzle. "...but Spike's shown me what this powder can do, and well, if it can help Opal behave better, and you get a chance to further your work, everyone wins. Right, darling?"

Several seconds passed while Twilight gave her friend's request consideration. "I don't know, Rarity. This was a case with only one species. For all we know, the powder might affect each species or individual differently, possibly even in a negative way! Are you sure you want to take a chance?"

Rarity seemed to reconsider for a moment. "Ah, well when you put it that way, hmm..." Recalling a particularly unsavory exchange with Opalescence several days ago, she finally made up her mind. "Yes, I'm sure dear. If you're willing, stop by the Boutique whenever it suits you."

As the two continued to talk, Spike listened intently. Behind him, he heard a slight noise coming from one of the magical stasis fields. It sounded vaguely like an orange being peeled open, or an onion. He shrugged, dismissing it as his overactive imagination.

"Alright." Twilight agreed with a sigh. "I know I said we needed test subjects, but my friends' pets weren't at all what I had in mind!" She laughed incredulously. "Me and Spike will be over after lunch. I'll be sure to have a sample ready to be administered when we get there."

Rarity closed her eyes and smiled. "Thank you, Twilight. See you then!" She turned to go. "Bye Spike."

The dragon waved at her slowly with a dreamy look on his upon his face. Twilight rolled her eyes at the display. Rarity disappeared at the top of the staircase, leading out into the backyard of the Library. No sooner had she gone, Spike let out a loud yelp.

On instinct, Twilight spun around with lighting speed to see what was wrong; the young dragon was pale with fear. Spike pointed a talon at one of the contents of the room. It was stasis field containing the alien egg.

It's topmost portion had opened up off its own accord, with four fleshy flaps bent back in the air. Several arachnid limbs were rapidly flailing about like fingers, clearly belonging to something alive inside.

Spike realized with a sickening lurch of his stomach, that this was what had made the peeling sound earlier. Twilight observed the phenomena with bewilderment and fascination. Eyes widened, she slowly approached the contained specimen.

"Twi, no! Stay away from it! It could do anything!"

"Calm down, Spike! It's surrounded by one of my force fields, it's not going anywhere!" Twilight replied with an annoyed growl, her itch flaring up again underneath the fur covering it. It felt as if a million insects were crawling beneath her fur and skin, attempting to get out.

Twilight paused to cast another anti-toxin spell as the creature finally emerged. The spider-like organism leapt with frightening speed into the air, only to be stopped a second and a half later by the field.

"You see...?" Twilight said, gritting her teeth as she coursed her magic through her own body. The beige, fleshy alien clung to the field, facing in the direction of Spike. "Its not going anywhere!"

A proboscis-like protrusion emerged from what the duo assumed was the creature's mouth, situated in the middle of its abdomen. The repugnant appendage prodded at the barrier. Four arachnoid limbs extended out on either side of its body, and two fleshy lobe-like structures flanked a long, spindly segmented tail at the rear.

With the way it gripped and clung to the energy barrier with its fingers, the repulsive alien almost seemed to be hugging the surface.

With her spell complete, Twilight resumed her composure and walked up to the circular stasis field. Spike watched her nervously. As soon as the Unicorn was less than three feet away, the alien reeled back from her, emitting a hissing noise.

Suspicious, Twilight got an idea. "Spike go around to the opposite side of the alien's containment unit and see what he does."

With a reluctant gulp, Spike obeyed and circled, sidestepping and maintaining his distance. Instantly, the thing closed the distance and leapt towards Spike's direction again. "Alright, now trade spots with me." Spike dashed towards her, while Twilight stamped her hoof and trotted around to the alien's current position. Once again, the alien hissed at her, as if in revulsion at her presence.

"Amazing!" Twilight proclaimed. "Spike, again!" They repeated the action, and the alien cryptically repeated the same behavior.

Twilight decided to perform the simple experiment one final time. This time, she took Digger out of his cage, levitating him into her place, with Spike again on the opposite side of the alien's prison. To their shock, the alien avoided the mole as it did Twilight, instead trying to aggressively make a beeline for Spike.

"Man, I'm not gonna be able to sleep for days now!" Spike declared.

"Don't worry!" Twilight said, repeating herself. She put Digger back in his cage, then ignited her horn and touched the force field trapping the alien. "I'm strengthening the stasis barrier. So long as nopony interferes with the power source, this little guy isn't going anywhere." Seeing that he was starting to shake slightly, she put a foreleg–the uncovered one–on his shoulder reassuringly, and spoke in a soothing tone. "Why don't you head on up to the kitchen, I'll make some lunch for the both of us."

Spike looked up at her, dumbfounded. "You still have an appetite?"

"Yes, actually. Go on ahead, I've got to check on a few things first." Twilight sensed he was about to argue, and pointed towards the stairs. "Go." Spike begrudgingly left the room, muttering to himself.

As soon as he was out of sight, Twilight unraveled the fabric around her effected foreleg. It was resurgent once again, a tiny tinge of bio-luminescent green spreading slowly under the skin. "Seriously, I'm getting real tired of you!" She shouted.

Twilight prepared the anti-toxin spell again, charging it up to a level higher than any previous. "I'll sterilize it, if nothing else!" For good measure, she called upon other medical spells she knew that could strengthen the immune system, and kill all known non-magical pathogens. Her lavender aura meshed with the golden aura common of medical spells, and soon a large aurora-like formation was drifting in the air above, casting a spectacular light show that danced across the entire cellar laboratory.

Nearby, the hatched alien organism hissed and curled itself up in a defensive position. Digger meanwhile, observed and sniffed at the magical energies warily. When the spells reached Twilight's desired charge level, she released them all at once with a fierce shout.

The magic coursed through her body as well as the entire room, charging and distorting the air whilst leaving everything in the backwash of intense magical radiation, before slowly fading out.

Now panting with exertion, Twilight unraveled the rest of the fabric and examined her hoof. While the fur was still either gone or faded and pale, it was otherwise completely devoid of any sign of infection, with the original cut long faded away, having completely healed. Twilight sighed, gathered her remaining energy up, then made her way out, feeling as if she hadn't slept in years.

With the room now vacant, something began to stir.

Inside the powder canisters, the energy residue from Twilight's magical discharge permeated the ancient amino acid chains, reigniting metabolic processes on the molecular scale that had previously ceased eons ago. Startlingly, the same was occurring within the volcanic soil-dwelling mole.

Deep inside Digger's body, the no longer dormant alien particles were forming into complex super cells. New nuclei within them were already communicating with their brethren in the canisters, coordinated by an unknown force as they initiated cellular division and multiplied. They were working in tandem, slowly re-writing the mammal's DNA into a new recombinant strain, while preparing themselves for acquisition of more biomass to further their evolution.

The process would have taken generations to unfold normally, but Twilight's magics had accelerated things exponentially. Now twitching his nose about and noticing the presence of the alien, Digger tensed up into a defensive posture, his claws ready to dig his way to safety, regardless of the glass surfaces.

Instinct was ordering his brain to either get away from, or eliminate the unrecognized organism at all costs. Meanwhile, the alien resolved to continue to exist in its curled up state, awaiting a suitable host to approach and free it from its magical prison.

Twilight and Spike sat down to a brief lunch, before soon setting out for Carousel Boutique to work on Opalescence.

The procedure was straightforward. Twilight injected a minute amount of powder from her cellar into the feline's bloodstream. To Rarity's joy, Spike's amazement, and Twilight's supreme relief, the feline quickly went from irritably spitting and hissing at the syringe and everyone, to a gentle purring exactly seventy seconds after exposure.

Rarity had declared she was in their debt, while Twilight then went home to tidy up the Library, and then work some more in her lab. Examining the mole, she recorded her observations of Digger's sudden change from earlier in the morning. His claws had grown longer, and sharper. This had brought even more wonder to Spike upon mentioning of it at dinner. He wondered if Digger would eventually become a 'super' mole.

Twilight giggled, waving her now normal leg around in delight. "Maybe the powder is like some type of superhero serum, but it only works good on non-ponies!" She declared jokingly.

Spike chuckled loudly. "Yeah! But for ponies, or at least unicorns, it causes..." He held out his palm and counted with his fingers. "...rashes, mood swings, unreasonable irritability, paranoia..."

"Whoa there, mister! You might not even want to state what the fifth effect is, if you still want dessert tonight." Twilight interjected, glaring disapprovingly at him.

"...and I will just be shutting up now." Spike nervously starting shoveling bits of amethyst into his mouth with the spoon at a far faster pace, causing Twilight to giggle again.

After spending the rest of the evening sorting books, playing board games, and discussing alien life, the duo retired to bed.

Twilight inspected her hoof one final time for the day. Seeing that it was unchanged, she rested easy, content that she now knew the alien powder substance couldn't be tested on ponies if her case and experience were anything to consider. It was an area of scientific ethics she was not all eager to have to explore.

Moonlight shined on her face, and finally her now heavy eyelids fluttered shut.

While things were returning to normal for Twilight in Ponyville, Doctor Hooves and his colleagues were still working intensely on breaking the enigma before them that was the Marker.

It had been two long days since Celestia and Luna had introduced them to it. Since then, they had it set it on a table in the middle, where they each took turns conducting tests, while the rest observed.

By now, it was becoming far too tedious, but still they continued. They watched each other with tired, weary eyes. So mesmerizing the artifact was to them, that they refused to sleep, and only took two breaks per day, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon, for meals or to use the lavatories. Nopony, not a single one of the scholars would leave, until the mystery was finally put to rest.

The Marker would be theirs, and they would be heralded as the greatest scientific minds in Equestrian history, Hooves mused, sitting down with the others and watching. Even Star Swirl the Bearded would have bowed before them in awe.

"Wait, why must I share it with these simpletons?" Hooves murmured to himself out of earshot. His eyes grew wide and he rubbed his hooves together as he pondered the possibilities. "Greatness yes...but greatness can't be shared. No, no, no!"

Hooves was rubbing at his mane fervently now, as he focused attention back on the black Marker. "No...the others are greedy." The runes beckoned to him ever more intensely. Celestia was lowering the sun, and moonlight shined through the dome above, casting an ethereal glow over the amphitheater.

"Greedy, dirty, fat little foals! Steal my fire will they?" He blurted out suddenly, causing the scholars nearest him to turn and gawk. He regarded them with shock, feeling as if he were just possessed by something.

"Erm, excuse me everyone..." He chuckled nervously, trembling from mane to tail. "Just uh...just lamenting over my most recent poker defeat and all...yeah, ha-ha!"

They looked at each other, shaking their heads and shrugging, then returned their gaze to the Marker.

Shifting between rubbing his hooves together, and his mane, Hooves glanced sidelong at the table of tools near the marker and its own table. His blue eyes locked onto the rightmost tool with absolute intent.

It was an air-powered drill, originally meant for burrowing through layers, and into the middle of the Marker to take core samples in hopes of learning its mineral composition or perhaps even its inner working. That was before the object had been discovered to be...completely indestructible.

But as far as Hooves was concerned, the instrument would suit him perfectly for what he was about to do.

Getting up with a loud clearing of his throat, the good Doctor casually made his way down to the table, grinning savagely from ear to ear as he went.

It would be so easy, and it would only take but a second. A little price to pay, for greatness. Hooves mused. They're all so very, very, greedy.

Dawn arrived like normal. The sunshine filtering through the windows was enough to wake Twilight up from her pleasant dreams, now free of monsters and alien voices from beyond the veil. She yawned lightly and stretched her limbs, then clambered out of bed, shaking off the sleep.

As Twilight raised her hoof to inspect it for the day, her heart almost leapt from nervousness. Her gasp was rewarded with the calming sight of a still normal, healthy limb.

"From now on, I'm wearing a HAZMAT suit before handling this powder." Twilight declared. "If I were to drop a canister, shatter it, and inhale the stuff...well it'd probably do far worse then induce an allergic reaction."

One of the more morbid sections of Twilight mind began conjuring up bizarre images of myriad mutations. Shaking the thoughts off along with the remainder of her torpor, Twilight decided to let Spike sleep in a little more, and she descended down into the cellar once again, adding a protective mask and a bio-suit to her mental checklist of things to procure when she did her shopping later today. True, not a whole lot of shops in Ponyville carried such things, but she'd find one that did, eventually.

She didn't notice as she made her exit, that his small bed was occupied with nothing more than his blanket pulled over a stack of pillows.

It was in the cellar, that she discovered Digger the 'super mole' had escaped. Somehow, the animal had managed to dig his way out of the thick glass, scurry through the lab, and break through the bedrock under the floor, leaving behind a system of tiny tunnels in his wake, as well as a hefty amount of damp soil and rock fragments.

Twilight peered into the small opening with puzzlement.

Meanwhile, the alien spider was still crouched into its posture from when Twilight had last seen it. She added an inspection of it to her checklist as well after her worry had subsided from Digger's escape.

Emerging from the cellar with her mind full to capacity with thoughts, Twilight noticed two things of noteworthiness. First, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity were all clustered near her door with their pets Winona, Angel, and Opal. Spike was standing next to them. He waved at Twilight cheerfully as he noticed her gawking at the sky.

The second thing, was that while the Sun had indeed arisen as normal, the Moon was also in its primary location during the middle of the night. But now, it was already mid-morning, and Luna for some reason still hadn't moved it.