The ReIncarnation AU: From Spaceby SweetToothTheUnicornChaptersA WarVillagesCreaturesDreamsA WarTHUD. Twilight sighs as heavy and loud as she dared. Her wings ached from beneath the crimson cape that was draped across her back---a gift from Rarity during her last visit. It was meant to help her get into work mode easier as they’d all realized long ago that ‘getting in character’ was something the Princess excelled at. However, after being stuck on her throne for five hours listening to the woes of the kingdom, a stiffness had set in over her muscles and has left her achy. Levitating the cape off, Twilight stands and stretches her wings out as far as she can to a series of loud pops. She sighs, in relief this time, but the sound is overshadowed by the exaggerated gagging coming from her dear Friendship Advisor. He dry heaves into his hand, “Gross! Do you have to keep doing that?!” “Sorry, Spike, but you know that being stuck like that really messes up my back,” she stands straight as the floating cape begins to fold itself into a perfect square. It comes to rest on the throne’s cushioned seat as Twilight’s hooves click against the stoned floor, even over the plush carpeting, and her wing waves the dragon to follow her. Eyes ahead, the Princess cheerily says, “Now c’mon! We only have an hour before our next meeting.” “You don’t need an hour to get through the whole library. You’ve been in and out of it for months now! Starlight is still surprised you showed that much restraint,” Spike rolls his eyes but follows with a fond smile on his face. “I had a schedule to get used to and governing to do,” she insists. He looks down at the color coded schedule he carries, crossing out their last meeting before tucking it away in the small satchel he’s begun wearing---another gift from Rarity. Over the last two and a half years Spike has begun to go through another growth spurt and it has allowed him to pass Twilight’s shoulder for the first time, not even just with his head spines either! An exciting new evolution that they’d celebrated a few months ago with one of Pinkie and Cheese’s extravaganza. This extra height meant longer legs that let him keep up without much effort. He crosses his arms as he speaks, “Yes, we’re all so proud of you. What are you diving into today?” “I’m going to look through more of Luna’s journals on the necessity of sleep aid in the kingdom. From there I can look through Starswirl and the older manuals that had been written by past kings and queens,” she explains with a prominent glint in her eye. Spike racks his brain for a moment, but when he finds himself coming up blank and squints, “Wait who?” “The past kings and queens, silly! The minor rulers that took up position during The Change,” she laughs like that makes sense to him. Which it doesn’t. “What kings and queens? I thought the Princesses always ruled?” “They did, but they needed ponies they could trust to rule in their steed when The Change occurs. Now, like I was saying, I was thinking to then---,” she dismissively waves the topic off with her wing and begins to happily continue explaining her plans. Spike would like to say that he is a good at listening, especially after so many years with Twilight, but he’s unconsciously picked up her intense curiosity for the unknown. Just in a more controlled fashion, of course. And this was sending off different signals in his brain. He rushes forward and taps her shoulder to catch her attention once more as he pipes up, “Okay, you just said that thing again. Maybe I’m just tired or a little fogged up after that meeting, but what’s The Change you keep talking about?” Twilight stops in her tracks and turns to him in an almost violent turn, “You don’t know?” “Know what?!” “Oh my Celestia! I might just be the worst parent or teacher or friend to ever exist! How have I never told you about this?! I know that you were born into Celestia’s rule like I was, but this is--- I was her top student. I was studying about her and with her for years when you were just a little fledgling. Oh, I just---,” her ranting is cut off by Spike quickly covering her mouth. He gives her a big, reassuring smile as he exclaims, “Twilight! I get your really upset about this, but why don’t we focus on what you didn’t tell me instead of what it means for you? I’m still alive and kicking so I have plenty of time to learn, right?” His nodding is enough to make her nod and breathe through the panic that she’d been feeling moments ago. Breathily she laughs, “Right! You’re so right! And we’re going to just the perfect place to do that! Let’s hurry to the library.” Twilight’s large wings scoop up the young dragon with little effort as the alicorn continues on her desired path. Any and all questions that Spike is trying to ask are drowned out by the thudding of her hooves as they hurry further and further into the castle. Taking a long, twisting path to a set of tall doors that are engraved with a series of sun and moon symbols that decorated them. It is mildly familiar to the dragon, but before he can think too far on it a purple glow opens the doors and Twilight continues on without a backwards glance. Spike grunts as he’s hit by the thick, muggy air of this library and he can guess why by the stray cobwebs that he spots in the far corners of the massive room. A pale blue glow falls over them that draws the dragon’s attention upwards to find a dome of stained glass above him in the same images as the door. But there are now familiar alicorn forms in the center with eyes longingly turned upwards as they face one another. “What are they looking at?” Twilight stops and turns to look at him over his shoulder, “Huh? Who?” “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna! The two are just staring up at nothing...,” Spike’s face scrunches in concentration at another strange puzzle. He uses a claw to trace the patterns in the air to try and familiarize himself with them since they seem to hold importance. Twilight follows his eyes as he continues, “Is it unfinished?” “Oh! No, no it is finished. It might make more sense when I show you what I have in mind,” the purple mare says with a newfound determination as she moves once more. Spike reluctantly looks away from the ceiling to a light that stretches out from the very center of the room. As they move between thick bookshelves past the dusty contents that seemed ready to fall as they war for space. He can tell by smell that they are all old and aged even from within the different protective spells that covered the space. His eyes track the soft pulsing sigils that are scattered around every corner; he has seen them in a few of the books Twilight read back in her Canterlot days. As they get closer to the source of light Spike’s attention is brought to a small podium that seemed to have been carved from an old marble. Rainbow webbing had never been seen before if Rarity’s musings of gems and designs are to be believed. He makes note to get information about it from Twilight later on, but his eyes zone in on a shining protective orb that is atop this podium. Inside it was a book that looked different from any other that he’d seen before. The cover was thick, made of a bumpy dark leather that has a metal plate set into it; a bit of bronze that had strange symbols carved into it. Squiggles and curves that don’t look like any language that he’s ever seen; dragons write like they’re fighting, griffins write in short bursts, changelings basically copy the loopy pegasi style, and hippogriffs wrote in the same old fashioned way people in Equestria did long ago. The young dragon watches with rapt attention as Twilight begins to whisper what can only be an old spell as her horn lights and the orb slowly dissolves into small shining lights. All amazement and curiosity is ruined by the immediate heavy smell of rot and decay that is wrapped up in a soured, fruity tang. It’s so pungent and hits so suddenly that Spike can’t help but retch. “Ugh! What is that smell?!” “The book is made from a... well, a type of material that no other book is made from. What you’re smelling is that material having aged a good deal,” Twilight demurely hides an uneasy smile behind a hoof. She won’t meet his eyes either in this moment and her face is tinged green with just a hint of disgust; another thing that Spike will be making note of. He nods, “Okay... And what do we need with this weird smelling book?” “Yes! Get comfy down here while I read, alright? This book has so much information and is so, so old that it needs to be handled with the utmost care,” Twilight lets the other down off her back as a beanbag floats towards them. It is much newer than anything else in the library if it’s bright orange color is anything to go by and it’s lack of dust. It drops right beside the podium as Twilight continues, “Now, let’s see... The story begins deep, deep in space. Past our galaxy where the suns are plentiful and the things that live there are beyond words. Among them are beings never before seen...” They were creatures that existed in many bodies but with one mind. Their one hope was to travel across the stars, visit distant planets, and learn all that there was to know. Knowledge fed them just as easily as matter did. While they had no real names of their own the solar systems they’d moved through have taken to calling them Solar Gliders. Solar Gliders had no real form that they kept to as their pure energy just burned through them. They moved in waves and, unintentionally, left their mark on everything because their focus is not on the creatures they meet but instead their worlds. Beings of energy think little of those with mass, with their own minds, and (possibly) their own selfish needs. Beings of energy eat, learn, and move on. Those natives find themselves angry, obviously, at the destruction left behind by these Solar Gliders. Survivors that reach out to allies or make friends with those who’ve been victims of similar situations. They plan out ways to reach out to these apathetic beings in hopes of stopping more destruction in the wings. The conversations often give way to debates. “You’re hurting us!” “We simply eat when our energy has depleted. We eat only our fill and move on.” “Your eating has destroyed homes, crops, and even our dead!” “Anything and everything possesses energy, even things that have passed.” “We care for those things! Can’t you eat something else?” “We either eat that which you hold dear lest we become beasts that consume others.” “Can’t you find a home for yourselves?!” “Our needs will always be to learn all we can. Remaining on a world means starvation, ignorance even.” “So, our needs don’t mean anything to you?!” “We are a collective. Our hunger is great and ever growing. We have given you a mercy in this way.” “Can you not just eat the worlds that have died?! Why not chase down those dying stars?!” “For we are those very same stars. We gather and seek out those that would have outlived us. We wish to know you.” “You don’t care what happens after you’ve learned all you can about us?!” “You creatures are much like us. Simple. What do we care now that we’ve learned all we have?” “Do our lives mean so little when you feel there’s nothing more to learn?!” “Precisely.” “We are not just our history! What of our futures?” “For many, once we leave there is no future to mourn. What do we care of lost causes?” Things devolve from there. Wounded, offended, and furious brings about war of these worlds against the Solar Gliders. But trying to fight beings that consume the matter around them is horrendously difficult. So, what do these worlds do? They create something that is more than mass and just as hungry. A creature that seeks out the greatest form of energy to finally rid itself of it’s insatiable hunger, a craving for pure energy that can be found in very few things. It is dangerous and it is desperate but continuous loses push people to do foolish things. They name this creature Devourer. And it is effective to say the least. There is no records of the battle that ensued. It lasted for days, weeks, months even if a normal calendar is meant to be believed so far in space where there is no rotation to calculate. All that allows these worlds to know that their homemade weapon was worth the risk is the screaming. Roaring waves of agony seem to echo through the vast, soundless void of space that is felt more than heard. It rocks the worlds till their mountains shift and their foliage wilt under this projected duress. It went on for hours at a time before silence, likely the Solar Gliders having fled to hide and regroup. But the quiet didn’t last long as the Devourer continued it’s relentless pursuit and it would start all over again. No one knows when it truly ended because there is no proof that it has. No, the only thing that truly matters about this story is the fact that, in the midst of another vicious attack, two stray Solar Gliders are sent away. Maybe a desperate attempt to stop the utter extinction of itself or maybe an act of fear that surged through the two. Who can say? Either way, they soar as fast as they can to a blackhole with a hope of escaping their pursuer once and for all. An unpleasant experience in every sense of the word. A feeling of being pulled apart at the seams while at the same time being squeezed tight until the body is twisted into a painful thread. Even for beings with no real form and simply floating essence is it a nauseating experience that overwhelms the senses to the point that consciousness is lost for the very first time. The two stray Solar Gliders awaken an unknowable amount of time later. It’s quiet for the very first time, except for the sound of one another. Between them anxiety, terror, guilt, shame, and uncertainty danced around the two as they find that they rest in a large crater. Their minds know very few things now that they are so far from the hive mind they’d once been connected to; they each have small flashes of memory to what happened while they were resting. Combined energy had been unleashed on impact and seemed to revitalize a dying, weak terrestrial planet. They’d hit something on the way down and found themselves in bodies for the first time, struck with new memories and identities. This cause a fusion that was sudden and unpredictable which created the first alicorns, Crissal and Lorna. It would take them some time to learn that their arrival brought about so much change in the few creatures that still lived upon the planet. Almost as long as they come to realize their appearances were strange for not only the extra appendages but the marking that appeared on their flanks. The responsibility and change that they will orchestrate later on. But there is more to come before these questions can be answered or realized. THUNK Spike sits up and turns to Twilight in confusion, “Why’d you stop? And what does it mean that there’s more to come?” “Like I said, this book is incredibly old. Not just because of when it was bound together but also the information comes from reliable but ancient sources. These pages were written much later than anything else that exists in here,” she explains with a giddy smile. She whispers another spell and the shield reforms around the book, once safely tucked away the alicorn’s attention moves to a shelf to the far right. Her horn glows and, after a bit of shuffling in the distance, a roll of several scrolls float in front of Spike’s flabbergasted face. “Here! These may help just a little bit more.” He holds his hands out as the magic disappears and Twilight trots off, her attention drawn away by her original goal. Fueled by his aforementioned plague of curiosity that he’d picked up from the mare, Spike shouts, “Wait, can’t I just read while you---!” She shouts over him, “I’ll read you more during the next break! We only have so many hours in the day! Just read those for now!” Spike sighs as he settles back onto the beanbag, “Fine... Might as well see what this has to offer.” Author's Note Hope you enjoy this first chapter! I will post another that will be a slightly different style, so don’t be too surprised when you see it! I hope this has intrigued people enough to stay. VillagesUnrolling the scrolls brings up a small bit of anxiety in Spike as he keeps thinking on what Twilight had said. Everything was old and needed to be tended to with the utmost care. The idea that he could rip something and ruin it forever has him shaking in mild horror because he’s destroyed plenty of documents in the past. As he looks over the scrolls that he’s been given and immediately realizes that more than half of these are in the same language as the book’s cover. Great. He can’t help but grumble, “Still can’t believe I’m going to be on a scheduled reading time. It’s not like I’m a baby dragon anymore. And did she even check before handing this to me? Or does she want me to teach myself this...whatever this is!” Leafing through the scrolls there is one, two different pieces that Spike can’t understand before he finds one that had been translated. Based on the intricate short hoof print it was done by Star Swirl the Bearded at one point. Possibly important for later. With that he reads the third scroll in the bunch. Two days into Sun and Moon Era Dear Healer Mountain Breeze, The Village of Usth asks for your aid as there has been a drastic change in two of our members after the great explosion that happened not far from our borders. We had thought it was a great beast attacking some poor wayward souls at first, but we’d realized that some of our members were missing. A search party went out to find them and were horrified to find that there was death across one of our prominent grazing fields. Among the dried crops were the bodies of rabbits, birds, and squirrels that seemed to have been sucked dry in a similar way. We don’t know how this happened and frantically looked for our lost friends in hopes of rescuing them from whatever caused this. Instead we found bodies. They were horrifying to see and left many unable to keep hold of their lunches or their emotions. Crying, screaming, vomiting alike as a need to mourn encapsulated us. We are simple people with simple needs and were not prepared for these new horrors to befall us. We had been ready to turn back right away before our top hunter, Grove Trotter, had pointed out that there were only six corpses before us. There were still two ponies out there that needed to be found. So, we searched. We’d spent hours out in the heat and amongst the smell of rot. We turned over rubble and wayward boulders that seemed to have fallen from the nearby mountain. Nothing had come up. We lost hope. Believing that maybe some distant animal had come and eaten their bodies, we rushed to gather up the bodies of those we could identify and return home. Upon arrival we were greeted to the sight of a perfectly frantic village as looming above the citizens was our two missing members. But, altered drastically. Crissal was once a simple pony that lived her life caring for the young in her village under the watchful eye of the other Elders. She made sure they didn’t get into fights, that they were fed, and that they went to each of their lessons. Her body had once been a rich brown, a similar color to her dark mane and tail, yet she returned to the village looking changed to the point no one recognized her at first. Body a shining golden hue, hair an unnatural bright orange, and eyes bluer than any river I’ve ever seen. But her voice was the same and her kind smile was unchanged so how could we not realize that whatever had happened simply changed her? Our poor Lorna was no different. She’d had dark coloring before but now, her body was obsidian black with snow white hair and bottomless black eyes. But her body was like Crissal’s. Legs extended to great heights, neck like a prideful swan, and thin faces that gave an almost gaunt appearance. They have increased hunger than before but seem to carry with them no sickness, but we all know something is wrong. Please venture to us across the Mahurin River and take a look at our friends. We fear what this could mean for the rest of us or what lasting effects this will have on Crissal and Lorna. Sincerely, Elder Magpie Spike tries not to cringe over what he’s read. The ways that this Elder Magpie had described the whole experience was upsetting enough that he wonders if his stomach would be turning till dinner. If he decided to even eat dinner after this. He hopes that there isn’t more of that in any of these. Checking another reveals a strange series of charts and diagrams that the dragon has never seen before. Spike can’t tell the numbers from the regular sentences to the point he can’t even guess what these are linked to, but he does recognize the combination of symbols that made up Elder Magpie’s name in the previous letter. Under a wild guess he assumes it was important to the village. “Okay, so, these scrolls probably came from the Elder. Why isn’t more of this translated? There’s got to be a spell, right? Maybe Twilight will know,” the purple dragon says to himself. He pulls out some extra parchment and a quill to write down his questions for later. Turning back to the scrolls, Spike moves to the fifth and sixth pages to find rough sketches of ponies. They are all young fillies that seem to go from earth ponies to either unicorns or pegasi, their expressions becoming more haggard with time. There are no colors but there is heavy blots of ink or faded smears of strange liquids around the appendages they seem to be growing. He hazards a guess that it is to represent whatever blood or gore that was revealed in this process. Thankful to the minor censoring, Spike quickly moves onto the seventh page and is surprised to find another translated page. He dives in greedily to see what more the Elder had to say. Ninety-Two days into Sun and Moon Era Dear Questa, It has been three month now since the terrible incident that had destroyed much of the West Grazing field and we have growing concern for our world. The sun is taking much longer to set and rise each day. The replanting efforts have been thrown for a loop as everyone’s sundials have been off due to this. There has also been growing concern as some of the animals within the forest seem to have taken on features of other creatures and developed strange abilities. They have also become hostile in a way that was never seen before. Elders Robin and Blue jay agreed with me that no one should return to that place in hopes of avoiding anymore injuries. It has lead to ongoing discussions of moving across the Mahurin River in hopes of making allies with the village there so that we may combine together. It will take much negotiating to even receive a proper conversation with their leaders, so we are desperately trying to save all future crops and any chance we have for foraging. We have little hope that this will actually do much, but it is giving our people hope. That’s enough. On to other business, Healer Mountain Breeze did not find anything during his visit and neither did the three others that he’d reached out to in our time of need. There is no explanation as to why the two mares were so thin or so different from before. They also had no theories for the strange abilities that they began to show after only a few nights resting in the village. Abilities that started sprouting up amongst the young fillies that have been complaining about headaches. They are forming growths... No one is experiencing symptoms at this time, so we are hoping that our move will bring us closer to the Healers and avoid whatever misfortune looms on the horizon. The world seems to be changing so much, so suddenly. I worry for our people. Please let us know if you’ve faired any better. I remember your last few letters that there was a seasonal flu going around for many of your own young. If there is a way we can help you, please let us know. Missing you greatly, Elder Magpie Spike’s eyes move to the margins of the translation to find more writing in a pink ink. Much newer and in another’s hoof writing, while he doesn’t recognize whose it is easy to see that it’s not Star Swirl’s. Another weird feature that the young dragon jots down in his notes before finally reading the margins. He mumbles to himself, “Rapid evolutionary properties. Illness through a drastic genetic change, but minor enough to bring no deaths. The largest demographic are fillies between the ages of four to twelve. Based on further research made, this may have been tied with the first cutie marks to ever exist.” He blinks rapidly at that last part. “The first to ever exist?!” “SSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” He cranes to look past the podium to see Twilight sticking her head out from behind a stack of reading material. She had that ‘I’m so, so serious’ face on and everything. After flashing a sheepish smile, Spike huddles back into the beanbag and turns his attention to the eighth page. Another untranslated page that he couldn’t make heads or tails of, but what really caught his attention was the very detailed painting of what looked to be alicorns. They fit the descriptions from before almost to a T. To the best of his ability he tries to copy the picture as he once more talks to himself, “The first alicorns... Hmm... I guess all alicorns really do look the same. I wonder why.” Once his crude copy is done, the young dragon flips through two more pages and finds more untranslated pages. He spots the familiar symbols of Elder Magpie’s name to confirm that it does indeed belong amongst this growing pile. Moving on to the next page reveals another translated page with many more notes in the margins. Three-hundred and Forty-Two days into Sun and Moon Era Dear Elder Swiftwind of Risse Village, The Village of Usth thanks you for the aid you have provided to us in these past few months. With so many falling bedridden I was worried that your village was being set upon by the same dangers that we’ve found. Seeing that great gifts have begun to form for both of our villages I have much hope that this turn of fate may be the change that Elder Robin had prophesized many weeks ago. Truly, that mare surprises me every time we speak. I know that there has been much happening since the incident in the West Grazing field, but I did want your opinion on something. The other Elders and I had reached out to the Healers about ways to help control the miracles many of the young were doing. They assured us that Crissal and Lorna could do it. The same with those who have found themselves gifted with flight. I wasn’t sure of these suggestions at first, after all both mares had only held their own new appendages for just as long. But they took to it naturally as if it was second nature. They led them with kindness and gentleness that has been shown to our stressed populace. We have become more advisors than leaders with how we’ve run around like chickens with our heads cut off. After some consideration the Elders and I have been considering training them to take over properly. Power should always be utilized to care for our people, shouldn’t it? We Elders are getting old, getting tired. We are not equipped to deal with these differences but it seems that we may not need to be. No, we simply need to be advisors to the usual inner workings as neither mare is aware of them. And is it truly so wrong to do that? Elder Blue jay seems to think so while Elder Robin is too lost in her visions to care. What will become of us when the Elder focused on the past is uninterested in the present? What progress will we make when the Elder, who’s eyes are only trained forward lifts no finger to change what’s around them? Old and stubborn is all we are. So, my friend, what should I do in this predicament? Please, write back to me soon as I fear the growing tensions may find our simple village splitting up much like the Village in the Valley did a few weeks ago. The migrants we’d taken in had spoken of similar instances to our own but with higher tension as they had no real leadership. They took to Crissal and Lorna quickly. More evidence in my opinion, but just more hints of a mutiny in the making for the others. I am at a loss on how to keep the peace. Ever nervous, Elder Magpie The pink ink in the margins reads: Elder Magpie does not get to see things come to fruition. Her death greatly shifts the power dynamics. There was no avoiding the civil war she feared and many are hurt in the process. Her belief allows for the Princesses to come into power, so her unfortunate demise was integral to Equestria’s history. Elder Blue Jay and Elder Robin do not remain problems for long. Questa was a beneficial advisor. “Questa? She was the only one to not have a title,” Spike taps the quill against his chin as he vocalizes his thoughts. “Maybe she was close friends with Elder Magpie? Could be a family member, too, I guess...” He glances back to the previous pages and hums in thought. Before he can think more on it he hears Twilight call out, “Spike! We need to head back to the throne room!” Jumping up, he gathers all of the papers into the satchel with a shout, “Coming!” The purple dragon pulls out the color coded schedule once more and crosses off their break time as he rushes after her. There are twelve more meetings on the docket before the day ends and two of those are before they even have lunch! Man, he hopes one of the cooks is bringing something to snack on in between. Author's Note Elder Magpie, as you can see, is much more active in her home---both in the politics and in it’s foundation. The only one to be part of a search party as much as she is reaching out to achieve needed aid outside. She had known the two vessels that our Solar Gliders now reside in and is doing her best to not freak out like everyone else is doing. It is kind of working... Kinda. Our next chapter will be changing format just a little bit again along with perspective. Be prepared! Beyond that I hope you enjoyed! Please ask anything in the comments and I will do my best to answer with either another chapter or a really small summary of what is planned. Thanks again! CreaturesSpike glares up at the sun as though it has wronged him. The young dragon has situated himself into the the brightest part of the castle and was regretting it immediately. The stained glass windows, as always, are blindingly beautiful during the daytime. Seeing the many arcs of his friends’ lives always gave a feeling of peace that helped throughout these past two years since their lives have made an upheaval. Today, however, there is no real ease filling him in this moment. His eyes feel dry and the bags underneath them feel heavier than usual after pulling another all-nighter with Twilight. Two in a row can be common when in the Sparkle household, but the increased meetings the past couple days have really cut into study time. This had, of course, lead to a long back and forth between the two on Twilight backsliding into some of her bad habits. “It won’t happen again, I promise.” “Are you sure? You said that before and we somehow broke a record this time!” “Yeah, I know, but I definitely mean it this time. Promise!” “Uh huh. Is that a Pinkie Promise?” Twilight stiffens at the mention of the most sacred promise to ever exist. He can see a small bead of sweat form by her twitching ear and the evasive movement of her eyes. Almost as suspicious as when they met her strange, overthinking future self. “Well?” “Ah... I... Uh... Sure, totally! It’s been great talking to you, Spike, but we really gotta get to bed before our first meeting! See you later,” Twilight’s mouth moves so fast that Spike can barely catch what she’s saying. Especially when he’s this exhausted. “Wha--,” he goes to ask but, by the time his eyes turn focus back in, Twilight is gone. He blinks once, twice, and then groans into his hands, “Celestia, help me.” Spike sighs at the memory as he rifles through a small bowl of rubies that an attendant had brought him. He takes out the biggest one that he can feel and takes a moment to admire it in the villainous, traitorous sun’s light. All of them are a beautiful deep red that has him salivating at the sight, but this one had an almost candy look to it. Flicking his wrist, the gem does a few twirls as it takes to the air and promptly lands on the dragon’s forked tongue before it can come crashing down. As he crunches through the hard exterior, Spike can’t help but laugh at the joy that bursts through him as the flavor hits his tongue. It’s so much sweeter than any of the apples or even the apple treats that were made from them. With almost complete certainty it could be said that this beats out anything that’s ever come from Sweet Apple Acres but he is smart enough to never let Applejack hear him say that. Not again, at least. “Are they really that good?” Spike is so ready to jump out of his skin at this new voice that his inability to leads him choke immediately. He hacks and coughs intensely, body convulsing like a cat struggling through a hairball. His eyes widen and tear up as he feels the shards shift against the thick, slimy coating of his esophagus---thank you dragon anatomy. Finally, after a build up to his saliva breaks down the small clusters of the ruby, Spike forces it all down. The voice calls out again, “Oh my goodness! Spike, are you alright?” Spike feels a cool hoof gently thump him on the back as he finally takes in deep, desperate breathes. Shakily, Spike wipes away the stringy drool that pooled between his fanged teeth. He turns to find a familiar yellow pegasi peering down at him from behind a thick mane of pink hair. He croaks, “Fluttershy? W-What are you doing here?” “Twilight asked me to come by to check in on you. Something about pushing you too hard and spending the day together so that you relax,” Fluttershy explains as her wing scoops up his glass of water from the table. She passes it along to him as she continues, “I’m sorry for startling you like that.” He gulps down the entire glass and flops face first into the high quality carpet that lines the hallway. The cool floor feels like a relief after his body temperature spiked during his panic. Fluttershy, realizing that the younger was in a state, says nothing as Spike recuperates. It takes a moment of basking beneath the colorful warmth of the sun but Spike finally finds his brain catching up with him and turns to the pegasi with a confused look. “Wait, you’re here to babysit me?” Fluttershy’s brow furrows ever-so-slightly, “No?” “You said that like a question,” he squints at her suspiciously. “I don’t believe that’s what Twilight has in mind. She knows you’re not a baby anymore, but she did say that you needed a chance to relax.” Indignation fills him for a moment, leftover feelings of inadequacy and being looked down on. Things he hasn’t thought of in so long but managed to worm their way in when he was half-awake. It’s only his delirium that keeps him from getting swept up in the negativity that he spent so long growing out of. This isn’t about being a kid or about how he needs to handle himself to not be treated like a baby again. So, Spike sighed heavily, letting the weight of exhaustion settle into his bones and ground him in this moment. Fluttershy's presence beside him was a calming presence, her gentle demeanor a stark contrast to his own frazzled state. "Thanks for checking in on me, Fluttershy," Spike said, offering her a weary smile. Fluttershy returned the smile, her soft voice carrying a hint of concern. "Of course, Spike. Twilight was worried about you, and I wanted to make sure you were okay." "Yeah, she's been on my case about taking breaks lately," Spike admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "But I guess I can't blame her. I've been diving pretty deep into these scrolls lately." Fluttershy nodded understandingly, her eyes reflecting a mixture of sympathy and understanding. "It's important to take care of yourself, Spike. You don't want to burn yourself out." Spike chuckled ruefully. "Tell that to Twilight. She's practically the queen of burning the midnight oil." Fluttershy giggled softly, a melodic sound that lifted Spike's spirits. "Well, she does have a lot on her plate. But I'm sure she just wants what's best for you." "Yeah, she always does," Spike agreed, a fond smile tugging at his lips. "But sometimes I just wish she'd let me figure things out on my own." Fluttershy placed a comforting hoof on Spike's shoulder, her touch gentle and reassuring. "I think she just worries about you, Spike. You mean a lot to her." Spike's heart warmed at Fluttershy's words, a swell of affection blooming within him. "Thanks, Fluttershy. You always know how to make me feel better." Fluttershy smiled softly, her eyes sparkling with warmth. "That's what friends are for, Spike. And if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm always here for you." Spike nodded gratefully, feeling a surge of gratitude towards his dear friend. "Thanks, Fluttershy. I really appreciate it." The mare comes to sit beside him, letting him lea against her as he goes back to eating his rubies. Neither speak as Spike closes his eyes to protect himself from the light around him and just soak up the warmth around him. The idea of getting to rest is deceptively tempting. “I gotta admit, this is nice. I don’t know why Twilight was so worried. I can rest plenty!” “She wasn’t sure that you would. She mentioned that you’ve been excitable because of some book she showed you? She never specified what book that is, but I figured that we could still make time for it after a bit of rest,” she says absentmindedly. He sits up with a gasp, “I totally forgot about the smelly book!” “Smelly book?” He snorts at the memory, “Oh, you won’t even believe me if I tell you how bad this book smelled. It was like, like--- Okay, so I can’t explain it without being super gross, but just imagine the worse smell ever times ten and mixed with maximum B.O.” Fluttershy visibly cringes, “Oh my...” “Yeah! Real bad, right?” His green eyes look towards the tall doors that lead to the library path that he’d been thinking of for days. He’d almost forgotten all about it after the three-day study session and the reworking of meetings to even make it work. Both of them had been so busy that he’d likely not even thought about it if not for Fluttershy speaking up. “I’m not sure if that’s what Twilight wants you to do.” “She technically said that she just wanted me to take a break from work, right?” She nods slowly, “Right...” “And I think that reading a good book is a perfect way to relax. Besides, I can’t read the book she was talking about anyway. Doesn’t mean I can’t read some other stuff,” he gives her the biggest smile that he can. She nods again, even slower, “Other stuff?” “Twilight had given me some extra literature that was supposed to give me more context for later. So, I was thinking, that why not do a bit of looking around on my own, right?” Fluttershy watches as the young dragon begins to walk backwards, moving further down the hall towards a plain door. The mare wasn’t sure where it lead but she had a good idea. Her head bobs once more as she stares him down, voice low as she answers, “...Right.” “Right! Plus, I won’t be there forever. And I have a snack with me so I’ll even be getting a full stomach so I can sleep after! I’ll get all the rest I need,” he insists as he pulls the door open. Fluttershy says nothing. She stares into his eyes, green on green, before taking a slow and evened blink. He can’t quite figure out what emotion is going through her mind or even decipher if anything that he said has made an impact on her. It makes him feel like he’s being picked apart scale by scale until he’s nothing but skeleton and the fiery heart that beats inside him. The heart that skips until, finally, the pegasi smiles sweetly and replies, “You’re really excited about this. Just what is so interesting about this book?” “Well---,” Spike finds that his tongue gets stuck to the top of his mouth and stops him from explaining. He grunts and fumbles as his hands instinctively moving to pull at his lower jaw in terror. He can’t speak, he can’t speak, he can’t speak! Spike's panic intensified as he struggled to pry his mouth open, his fingers clawing desperately at his jaw as if trying to break through an invisible barrier. His breath came in short, sharp gasps, each one a painful reminder of his inability to speak. But just as he felt himself teetering on the edge of despair, a strange sense of calm washed over him, enveloping him in its soothing embrace. In that moment of clarity, the world around him seemed to shift and warp, the familiar surroundings of the castle melting away to reveal a vivid tapestry of images that danced before his eyes. The library stretched out before him, its towering shelves laden with ancient tomes and dusty scrolls, each one whispering secrets of times long past. His gaze was drawn inexorably to a distant corner, where a single book lay nestled amidst a sea of forgotten knowledge. As he watched, transfixed, the journal seemed to come alive before his very eyes, its cover adorned with symbols that pulsed and shimmered with an otherworldly energy. Stars, moons, and swirling mist swirled in a mesmerizing dance, drawing him ever closer with their tantalizing promise of hidden truths. But just as quickly as the vision had appeared, it vanished, leaving Spike standing alone in the corridor with Fluttershy at his side. He blinked, trying to make sense of what he had just witnessed, but the memory slipped through his fingers like grains of sand, leaving only a lingering sense of wonder in its wake. Fluttershy's voice broke through his reverie, her concern evident in the gentle cadence of her words. "Spike, are you alright?" He nodded slowly, his mind still reeling from the intensity of the vision. "Yeah, Fluttershy, I'm okay," he replied, his voice barely above a whisper. But deep down, he knew that what he had just experienced was far from ordinary—it was a glimpse into a world of magic and mystery, a world that he was determined to explore. She tilts her head and asks, “Are you sure?” “Yes! And I know exactly what I want to read! C’mon, let’s go!” “Wait, what’s the rush?” Spike makes no move to answer as he runs through the corridor to the library within. Eyes focused ahead of him as blue fills the area, but he’s staring down the corner he’d seen in the vision. It had to of been that corner. He quickly rummages through the files, books, scrolls, and dusty maps that are half-rolled up. He digs and digs until he finally, finally he pulls the book that he had seen in his vision. Star Swirl the Bearded, a legendary figure in Equestrian history, loomed large in the annals of magic. He had been born to two earth ponies, a set of squash and onion farmers, and had not been allowed any form of education for most of his formative years. His unicorn birth having made him a social pariah in his predominantly earth pony town and colony, forcing his parents to keep him sheltered away. However, born with a large and prominent horn, magic came readily to the young Star Swirl. Self-study and experimentation were all that Star Swirl had for many years. He developed many new spells and potions that were unlike anything that Equestria has ever seen. They helped his family’s crops flourish, they saved the colony from a terrible drought, and created spectacular sights that dazzled them all. Many sought out his skills for personal means and it is said that there is no spell or potion that he couldn’t craft. There were many who feared his potential and even more that envied his natural talents. Celestia, after witnessing one of the many showcases that the unicorn performed to attract new clients, took him under her wing. Much of his time was spent studying the work of the Princesses throughout their various cycles. Things they’d learned and created in the hundreds of thousands of years; his days were spent trying to absorb these findings to the best of his ability. They allowed him to hone his craft to the best of his ability and ready himself to take up the role of King one day. Unlike many before him, Star Swirl cared little for royal life and had sought out allies to act as a council around him. Their names hold no weight to time but they took care of many matters while Star Swirl focused on much of the chaos that existed throughout Equestria. Though he was not bestowed with the traditional horn of a unicorn, for his was longer and bore strange deep markings across it, his mastery of arcane knowledge rivaled even the most skilled spellcasters of his time. Alongside the Pillars of Old Equestria, a group of esteemed companions he had befriended and collaborated with, Star Swirl dedicated his life to safeguarding the realm. In an era before the last ascension of Princesses Celestia and Luna, Star Swirl and the Pillars worked tirelessly to maintain peace and harmony throughout the land. Together with Stygian, a once trusted ally turned adversary, they faced countless threats and challenges, utilizing their combined wisdom and strength to protect Equestria from the forces of darkness. Yet, their greatest trial came when Stygian fell victim to the corrupting influence of dark magic, sowing discord and chaos in his misguided quest for power. In a desperate bid to save the kingdom from destruction, Star Swirl and his companions made the ultimate sacrifice, sealing themselves away to contain the spreading darkness. With a sigh, Spike closed the book, feeling somewhat underwhelmed by its contents. "What's the point of reading all this again?" he muttered to himself, running a clawed hand through his spines. But then, as he reached to return the book to its shelf, something caught his eye. A faint shimmer, almost imperceptible, danced across the surface of the pages. Frowning, Spike leaned in closer, his curiosity piqued. "There's something... off about this," he murmured, flipping through the pages again. “What’s wrong?” Spike turns to see Fluttershy peeking over from the edge of the bookshelf, a small book balancing on her wing. From what he can tell it is filled with remedies and identifications of different herbs. It wasn’t too dissimilar to the types of books that Zecora had leant her in the past from what Spike could tell. He turns to show her the book in his hands. “Can you come look at this?” Fluttershy maneuvers around the stacks of papers till she comes to stand beside the dragon. Her eyes scan over the page quickly before turning back to him in confusion. She asks, “What’s wrong with it?” Spike taps at the pages insistently, “This is just the normal tale of how Star Swirl and the Pillars dealing with Stygian. Just in different wording. Why would it be added onto this retelling of his life?” “A lot of history books do that, Spike. They’re written and rewritten by different ponies,” the mare explains. “I know, I know. Just... This seems so weird when I...” He looks down at the book once more with a saddened grimace on his face as he whispers, “There’s more to it. I know it. I wanna know more. I wanna know the truth!” “Well, maybe-- Oh my goodness!” The book lights up in a blinding light and the pages from before begin flipping rapidly back and forth. A hum fills the air as the sentences begin to shift, meld, and change before their very eyes. The two lean in close as the light slowly dims into nothing and they are greeted to a whole new segment. It seems almost like the after thought from how it’s placed at the back of this book. Ponies of Equestria had long since begun to develop strangely as they became more ingrained in the magic that Celestia and Luna brought. Pegasi were given the ability of flight in not just their wings but in their bodies, allowing them to manipulate clouds and the weather as they went. Earth ponies found themselves with impressive strength and stamina that was unmatched by all others, uniquely attuned with the elements to an almost extreme extent at times. And, of course, unicorns were blessed with the strongest magic that was not limited to their normal abilities but instead their imagination. Many ponies intermingled and found love after a time and their children began to show signs of minor mutations that worried Celestia greatly, worried that the magic was turning on her people. She had requested that Star Swirl look for a way to fix these missteps in his journey so that upon her next life would be a chance for new hope. Ever the faithful student, Star Swirl did as he was told. He traveled high and low for years, trying to achieve this while also working to protect Equestria from the evils that seemed to pop up every few months. He was unsuccessful. The sisters returned to their positions to find that more of these strange hybrid ponies were popping up across Equestria with strange and unstable magic. Pegasi that could not live in the clouds because their bodies could not rest on the clouds or could not tame the storm clouds that wandered through the sky. Some had micro wings or even thicker bones that made them too heavy to take to the air. Unicorns with strange horns that either could not correctly direct their magic or made it impossible to utilize it without dire mistakes. Earth ponies so weak, sickly, and fragile that they were bedbound most of their lives. It all seemed so cruel and strange to happen. Celestia and Luna did their best to reassure those who were living in these ways. Provide aid to their towns when damages happened and offer different tutors/instructors to help make transitioning into a different lifestyle easier, one that is away from most of society. Anything to keep people safe. To keep Equestria safe. Unbeknownst to all of Equestria, Celestia had begun taking her own precautions and conducting her own experiments when not going about her duties. Utilizing the council Star Swirl had created for the first decade and a half her return. In this time she had been secretly channeling magic to empower unicorns throughout their lands. It was meant to make them superior in not only body but power and that it will pass on to their children. Stygian, while a lesser conduit of the Pillars, had been one of the many unicorns that she had chosen for the inner power he had. She had not learned from her past dealing of tinkering with ponies and the levels of magic that they had (see Crystal Kingdom and Changelings). Stygian's power was great and it created a heavy manifestation and this corruption grew until it threatened to unravel the very fabric of reality. The rest is history, as they say. As the last in a long line of royals who had studied under Celestia and Luna, Star Swirl bore witness to the rise and fall of monarchs, his steadfast commitment to duty and honor guiding him through the tumultuous ages. And though the sisters would eventually return to reclaim their rightful place as rulers of Equestria, Star Swirl's legacy would forever be enshrined in the annals of history, a testament to the enduring power of magic and friendship. Spike turns to see Fluttershy once more and whispers, “She was giving them more magic...” Author's Note This took a bit but I’m glad to finally have it posed! I’ll be doing another soon! Let me know your thoughts below DreamsSpike hadn’t expected to be promptly scooped up and carried from the library by a frazzled Fluttershy. He wasn’t anymore prepared to be dropped off at his room with a rushed, mumbled apology. Of course, he had been confused about what she was doing but he burped up a letter not long after that was written by Twilight. It didn’t give much away. She wrote of Fluttershy having to leave since Discord popped in with complaints of Angel’s ‘spawn’ causing problems. Added in that Fluttershy mentioned the weird info they’d found and that Twilight had gone to check in on the book some time ago, eager to see this new information he’d found. And, right at the end, there is a small blurb about getting the nap that he’d promised to take. Truly disappointing to know the yellow pegasus gave up the goat so quick but by the time he was curled up in bed and ready to sleep there was no malice or annoyance at the observation. Friends don’t want to keep secrets from each other and good ones do their best to not have to ever try. Spike’s eyes slip closed as he yawns and wonders aloud, “If Celestia’s magic did that... I wonder what else she did.” “Spike... Spike...,” a voice whispers in the darkness. No, not a voice. A chorus of voices. Spike jerks his head left and right in surprise, suddenly taking in his surroundings. He’s in a forest of crystal trees, thing and willowy as if a strong gust of wind could shatter them into pieces. They reflect the purples and greens of his scales until a eerie, muted hue takes over the space. A shiver runs up his spine as he feels something cool and delicate skate across his talons, his legs, and his tail. He looks down to see thick smoke swirling around him and obscuring the floor from the waist down; every muscle in his body tenses in terror, in surprise. The young dragon has no clue how he got there. “Spike... Spike, hurry. You must hurry...,” the voices whisper. There’s nothing but trees around him. He squints to try and get a better look at everything around him, to find the figure that keeps calling out to him in this moment. There’s no body in sight but the voice doesn’t sound too far away. Over the years he’s balanced a healthy dose of skepticism and fear when it came to the unknown as you never know what lurked in the darkness. Now, met with darkness once more, he remembers that he’s not just some baby dragon anymore. He is alone and there is something out there that is seeking him out. Some time ago it had been the instinct of his people and even later on than that was the makings of a new friend. Being brave wasn’t his strong suit, but it had never stopped Spike before so it certainly wouldn’t stop him now. He takes a steadying breathe before slowly walking in the direction of that voice. “Hello? Who’s out there? How do you know my name?” “This way... Quickly, Spike...,” the strange chorus sounds desperate. “Please, just tell me what this is about. I... I feel like I’ve been here before,” Spike finds himself admitting as he continues with more certainty each step. “You’ve read of us... You wish to know... We wish to tell you...,” the voices sing out sweetly, airily. Spike feels so aware of the cold, hard floor below him. Of the trees seeming to cluster closer and closer together as he walked further into this strange forest. He’s thankfully too small for these twisting figures to hinder him but it doesn’t stop the growing claustrophobic feeling it brings. Like he’s just a tiny mouse walking around a maze for the amusement of some distant onlooker. He keeps his eyes forward, uncertain what he’d see if he looked to the sky, and asks, “You’re the Elders?” The laughter is erratic yet slow from chuckling to full belly laughter among a sea of giggling, “No... No, we are the in-betweens... You wished to know us...” He keeps following the laughter as he consider this. What else could they be talking about? What had he been searching for? He was reading the papers because Twilight gave them to him and she only did that because they weren’t reading that old book anymore. A book about--- “You’re the Change?” The question makes them quiet down. There’s a pause before they whisper, “Almost... We’re the in-betweens...” He asks immediately, “What are in-betweens?” “The lives we’d lost... The people we were... Eaten away and swept aside...,” they explain. He widens “Wait, how is that possible? You’re saying that you’re all like Crissal and Lorna?” “Yes.” He freezes as he the voices seem to echo and surround him completely. He pauses and stands a bit straighter, the spines on the side of his head perking up. He waits and waits for a moment for them to continue, but silence drags on. When he slowly begins to keep moving forward a series of young, feminine voices speak up, “That book means to tell you Equestria’s history.” He nods, “Twilight says it’s older than most things in the library and has to be looked at magically.” “The history that she wants said,” they explain. “It's not real?" “It's twisted,” they insist Frustrated, he asks, “Then what’s the truth?” His pace picks up with a growing feeling of urgency. He goes from a jog to a run and then sprinting to try reaching these wayward voices, but they sound as if they only get further away. They keep calling out but they seem to realize his predicament and there’s a shift that his heart pounding, his ears ringing, and his breathe escaping in frantic gasps. The voices no longer whisper in this uproar of chaos and outrage, some of the voices devolve into sobbing while others are screaming in rage. Everything seems to echo and reverb off of the shifting, shimmering trees that seem to flash in an out of the world at random. He grunts each time he accidentally trips over a root or bumps into the side of one. His limbs hurt and he feels so frustrated, so overwhelmed that he finds tears beginning to build until they slip free. They call out in distorted wails, “Spike! Spike... Spike! Hurry, Spike!” “I’m trying! I’m coming!” He jolts forward as his food is suddenly caught. Looking down, a tangle of crystal roots are entangled around him in a grip that gets tighter every time he moves. He struggles against them, feeling the sharp edges of the crystal roots digging into his scales. Panic rises within him as he realizes he's trapped, the voices growing louder and more desperate around him. "Spike, help us! You're our only hope!" the voices cry out, their words distorted and echoing in the chaotic atmosphere. Spike thrashes against the crystal roots, but they only tighten their grip, constricting around him like vengeful serpents. He can feel the ground beneath him shifting, becoming soft and flimsy like a grassy field after a terrible rainstorm. His heart races as he realizes what's happening—the ground is giving way beneath him. "No, no, no!" Spike screams, his voice joining the chorus of cries that surround him. He claws desperately at the ground, trying to find purchase, but it's no use. The crystal roots continue to pull him down, dragging him deeper and deeper into the earth. The screams around him grow louder, more intense, as if the very ground itself is alive with anguish and despair. Spike's breath comes in short gasps as he struggles against the suffocating weight pressing down on him. And then, with a sickening lurch, Spike feels himself sinking into the crystal ground like fast-acting quicksand. He thrashes and kicks, but it only hastens his descent. The voices scream in his ears, a cacophony of terror and agony that threatens to overwhelm him. Just as Spike feels like he's about to be swallowed whole by the darkness, he hears a faint whisper, a voice cutting through the chaos like a beacon of hope. "Spike... wake up." “SPIKE!” He’s immediately met with pain. Hitting the floor as he topples off of the plush bed, the one that he’d claimed for himself after they’d moved into the Canterlot castle, and going head first into the carpeted floor. With a groan, he slowly sits up and cradles his face in his hands to try to ward off the mild agony that throbs through it. He pauses once he registers the warm tears that had streaked down his cheeks and are pooling into his sore palms. Guess he wasn’t just crying in his dreams. Great. “Oh Celestia, are you alright, Spike?” He reluctantly raises his head up to greet the purple alicorn that looked down at him worriedly. The tall, lean mare leaning down to gently nudge the top of his head in a comforting manner as she took in the pained and crying sight of her ward. She crouches down a bit before using her large wings to scoop him up and place him back up on the bed before joining him. A hoof rests on his shoulder as she asks again, “Are you alright, Spike? I didn’t mean to scare you awake like that.” “It wasn’t your fault.” Her expression becomes empathetic and she rubbed his shoulder in soothing circles, her voice soft as she asked, “Did you have a nightmare, then?” That’s what it had felt like, but he wasn’t sure if that’s what it really was. He remembers the running, he can almost see the crystal trees still, and can almost feel the coolness of the ground again. Those wayward voices wanted to show him something and give him answers to what he’s been looking for. Yet, he can feel that oppressive and watchful gaze still lingering above him like a dark shroud. A shiver wracks his form that was enough incentive for the woman to pull him into a hug. He wraps his arms around her instantly to squeeze her tight till his hands stop shaking and his tail stops thumping against the bed in anxiety. Ticks and twitching that he hadn’t even noticed till he had such a steady figure to hold onto. “It’s okay, Spike. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do anything. I’m only really useful for things like this at night,” Twilight quietly apologized. It was never easy coming upon new responsibilities or learning such important skills, but the new ruler of Equestria was rushing to do both with mixed success. Raising the sun and moon had weirdly been the easiest of the tasks to do while learning to dream walk had been the very worst to do. She often complained about getting lost, about trying to understand the way dreams worked, and how she could fix things while still teaching lessons to those citizens. “No, it’s alright. I needed sleep, like you said,” Spike tries to reassure her. “As the new queen and the Princess of Friendship, it’s my duty to--,” Twilight’s speech is cut off by Spike breaking free of the hug to stare up at her. She lets out a small grunt at the sudden movement and looks down at her little brother, almost son if she allowed herself to really think about it in the most technical terms. “I was about to ramble again, wasn’t I?” “Yep.” She sheepishly smiles, “Sorry...” “It’s fine, Twilight. You know I don’t blame you for stuff like that and no one else would. Not like anyone besides little fillies nap in the daytime or anything,” Spike can’t help but say with a dry chuckle. His eyes moving towards the far wall where a window resides with a much dimmer glow than earlier. It must have been closer to late afternoon at this point and in a handful of hours it’ll be dinner time. His stomach growls in agreement at the reminder. “I should have asked them to make you something. Lunch’s already passed and everyone’s busy on prep work right now for dinner. We could either sneak in to get ourselves a snack or, maybe, the two of us could take a small trip to a friend that might have just the snack you’re looking for,” Twilight says with a bright and cheery grin. Spike rolls his eyes, “Wow, that’s really clear and totally helpful. Who could you possibly be talking about after managing to befriend creatures from all over Equestria?” “Well, hold on, not everypony. I know that I’m the Princess of Friendship, but I don’t really take the time to visit everyone---,” Twilight splutters, feeling called out. “Sure, fine. Let’s narrow it down,” Spike concedes as he leans back and crosses his arms. He playfully looks around the room as if he’s lost in thought while humming to himself as he ‘considers’ his options. “Let’s see, we can cross Fluttershy off the list because she was here earlier so it can’t be her. Unless you’re REALLY trying to throw me off and it is her, but she’s bringing Discord in so that he can bring me like a weird rainbow rock. He’s probably got super weird gems in his home dimension! Wouldn’t that be something?” “No, no. It’s just the one friend, I promise.” “Speaking of promise, the friend wouldn’t happen to be Pinkie Pie, would it? I’ve really been looking forward to seeing if she’s felt the presence of an incoming promise being made. Maybe she can even tell me if it’s already on the verge of being broken,” he gives her a knowing look. The alicorn once more tries to come up with something to say. Spike waves her off, “Rainbow’s got that big show coming up and Rarity is supposed to be out negotiating with Dragon Lord Ember if I remember correctly. Starlight still has the school in session for another two months so that just leaves one pony, right? Or am I missing someone?” “Yes, yes. You got it,” Twilight playfully nudges him as she rolls her eyes and stands from the bed. “We’re going to meet Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres for a quick snack since I was able to finish my meetings a bit early.” “Really? How’d you convince Jet Set and Upper Crust to actually finish a meeting on time,” Spike can’t help but gape at the alicorn. It wasn’t uncommon for many of the more wealthier and higher class ponies to take many liberties when it came to the new, young princess. Many were eager to see if she’d marry and have children at some point before Celestia and Luna return to the throne. It was how many others had achieved power, after all, and they were all just so excited to introduce her to their very single relatives. The preppy and snobby unicorn couple were no different. “I promised to have them and a plus one EACH a spot at a small luncheon in two weeks. Sent them running before we even reached the halfway point of our time. So we have about a half hour,” Twilight dipped her head away to hide her embarrassment. The luncheon was already going to be packed with different ambassadors bringing along their own young bachelors and bachelorettes in hopes of creating more solid bonds of peace. All of it under the guise of setting up new trade routes in the new pathways that she’d helped to create over the last few months. The worst part is that everyone knows so none of them are too concerned with pretending in any sense of the word. “Wow.” She curls in even further, hiding under her wings as she groans, “I know, I know! You don’t have to say it!” “I’m honestly impressed. You can barely stand listening to people flirt next to you, yet you added two extra that’ll be flirting AT you. I’ll be surprised if you don’t just combust on sight,” Spike snorts. “I wanted to do something nice! If you’re not interested than I can just call them back now and say I change my mind,” she threatened without a hint of bite. He hops down, chuckling in amusement as he pulls the other into another quick hug, “You’re right, you’re right! Thank you, I really appreciate it.” Twilight turns her head away with an exaggerated pout, “No, it’s fine. I get that you’d rather spend your time cooped up in here. I should have realized that you’re in that rebellious age now. All you want is to leave the nest.” “Leave the nest? Who’s going to help keep your schedule if I take off on you?” “That is true. It’s hard to find good help these days," Twilight teases, nudging Spike playfully with her hoof. Spike laughs, feeling a sense of warmth and comfort wash over him despite the lingering unease from his nightmare. "Exactly! So, are we going to this black tie event at Sweet Apple Acres or what?" Twilight chuckles, shaking her head. "Oh, Spike. You never fail to make me smile. But no, it's just a casual visit to see Applejack and grab a snack." Spike grins mischievously. "Well, you should've told me. I would've brought my fanciest scales." Twilight rolls her eyes, giving him a playful shove. "Go on, go splash a bit of water on your face and brush up your scales. We don't want to keep Applejack waiting." Spike salutes jokingly before heading to the bathroom. As he closes the door behind him and opens the crystal mirror doors of the medicine cabinet, he spots something unusual—a scroll, unsealed and lying innocuously among the potions and remedies. His curiosity piqued, Spike picks up the scroll and unrolls it carefully, scanning the contents with furrowed brows. But as he reads, his expression shifts from curiosity to unease, his heart pounding in his chest. Twilight's voice calls out from the other side of the door. "Spike, are you almost ready? Applejack's probably wondering where we are!" Spike quickly rolls up the scroll and tucks it into his pocket, pushing aside his unease for now. "Yeah, just a sec!" he calls back, his mind already racing with questions and concerns. But as he splashes water on his face and brushes up his scales, the image of the unsealed scroll remains etched in his mind, a nagging sense of foreboding lingering in the back of his thoughts. Little did he know, this seemingly innocuous scroll would set into motion events that would change the course of Equestria's history forever. Dear Princess Celestia, My name is Kiwi Bliss and I am a pegasus. My momma told me that I don’t have the right magic to be a pegasus, though. She’s worried for me and my auntie told me that to be safe I should reach out to you. It makes sense when she explained it to me, but I don’t really mind living on the ground with my cousins. They’re all really funny and they promised to show me all types of fun that we can get up to as I get used to earth powers. It’s all really good, I promise. I’m mostly reaching out to you because of the dream that I had yesterday. I’ve never had one like it and I think that I saw you! My momma said that when we dream that we sometimes see our heroes and you’re the biggest hero in Equestria, but... Well, I guess I can’t agree with her on this. Cause this wasn’t like the usual dreams. You weren’t helping me fly or saving my town from or even giving my papa a medal for being the best flier ever! No, you were just kinda walking. You were looking at this floating, glowing orb that had a blue pony in it and I couldn't really hear what you were saying but it looked like you were really sad. Are you okay? My momma says eating cookies can help you feel better. You should eat some soon to feel better! I hope you feel better soon! Sincerely, Kiwi Bliss Spike carefully rolled the scroll up once more. He placed it back where he’d found it, turned, and stared at himself in the mirror. He kept his face as neutral as possible as that feeling was back again, the feeling of being watched. He still doesn’t know who or what it is and he can’t fathom just what they even want from him at this point. It felt like all he’s found recently is more clues that bring about more questions than answers. There’s no time to think more on it since there was a chance that Twilight was--- “Spike, are you ready to go?” Forcing himself to smile, Spike calls back, “Coming!” Author's Note Spike once again gets to learn some fun things as he waits to learn more, but not without some draw backs.
A WarTHUD. Twilight sighs as heavy and loud as she dared. Her wings ached from beneath the crimson cape that was draped across her back---a gift from Rarity during her last visit. It was meant to help her get into work mode easier as they’d all realized long ago that ‘getting in character’ was something the Princess excelled at. However, after being stuck on her throne for five hours listening to the woes of the kingdom, a stiffness had set in over her muscles and has left her achy. Levitating the cape off, Twilight stands and stretches her wings out as far as she can to a series of loud pops. She sighs, in relief this time, but the sound is overshadowed by the exaggerated gagging coming from her dear Friendship Advisor. He dry heaves into his hand, “Gross! Do you have to keep doing that?!” “Sorry, Spike, but you know that being stuck like that really messes up my back,” she stands straight as the floating cape begins to fold itself into a perfect square. It comes to rest on the throne’s cushioned seat as Twilight’s hooves click against the stoned floor, even over the plush carpeting, and her wing waves the dragon to follow her. Eyes ahead, the Princess cheerily says, “Now c’mon! We only have an hour before our next meeting.” “You don’t need an hour to get through the whole library. You’ve been in and out of it for months now! Starlight is still surprised you showed that much restraint,” Spike rolls his eyes but follows with a fond smile on his face. “I had a schedule to get used to and governing to do,” she insists. He looks down at the color coded schedule he carries, crossing out their last meeting before tucking it away in the small satchel he’s begun wearing---another gift from Rarity. Over the last two and a half years Spike has begun to go through another growth spurt and it has allowed him to pass Twilight’s shoulder for the first time, not even just with his head spines either! An exciting new evolution that they’d celebrated a few months ago with one of Pinkie and Cheese’s extravaganza. This extra height meant longer legs that let him keep up without much effort. He crosses his arms as he speaks, “Yes, we’re all so proud of you. What are you diving into today?” “I’m going to look through more of Luna’s journals on the necessity of sleep aid in the kingdom. From there I can look through Starswirl and the older manuals that had been written by past kings and queens,” she explains with a prominent glint in her eye. Spike racks his brain for a moment, but when he finds himself coming up blank and squints, “Wait who?” “The past kings and queens, silly! The minor rulers that took up position during The Change,” she laughs like that makes sense to him. Which it doesn’t. “What kings and queens? I thought the Princesses always ruled?” “They did, but they needed ponies they could trust to rule in their steed when The Change occurs. Now, like I was saying, I was thinking to then---,” she dismissively waves the topic off with her wing and begins to happily continue explaining her plans. Spike would like to say that he is a good at listening, especially after so many years with Twilight, but he’s unconsciously picked up her intense curiosity for the unknown. Just in a more controlled fashion, of course. And this was sending off different signals in his brain. He rushes forward and taps her shoulder to catch her attention once more as he pipes up, “Okay, you just said that thing again. Maybe I’m just tired or a little fogged up after that meeting, but what’s The Change you keep talking about?” Twilight stops in her tracks and turns to him in an almost violent turn, “You don’t know?” “Know what?!” “Oh my Celestia! I might just be the worst parent or teacher or friend to ever exist! How have I never told you about this?! I know that you were born into Celestia’s rule like I was, but this is--- I was her top student. I was studying about her and with her for years when you were just a little fledgling. Oh, I just---,” her ranting is cut off by Spike quickly covering her mouth. He gives her a big, reassuring smile as he exclaims, “Twilight! I get your really upset about this, but why don’t we focus on what you didn’t tell me instead of what it means for you? I’m still alive and kicking so I have plenty of time to learn, right?” His nodding is enough to make her nod and breathe through the panic that she’d been feeling moments ago. Breathily she laughs, “Right! You’re so right! And we’re going to just the perfect place to do that! Let’s hurry to the library.” Twilight’s large wings scoop up the young dragon with little effort as the alicorn continues on her desired path. Any and all questions that Spike is trying to ask are drowned out by the thudding of her hooves as they hurry further and further into the castle. Taking a long, twisting path to a set of tall doors that are engraved with a series of sun and moon symbols that decorated them. It is mildly familiar to the dragon, but before he can think too far on it a purple glow opens the doors and Twilight continues on without a backwards glance. Spike grunts as he’s hit by the thick, muggy air of this library and he can guess why by the stray cobwebs that he spots in the far corners of the massive room. A pale blue glow falls over them that draws the dragon’s attention upwards to find a dome of stained glass above him in the same images as the door. But there are now familiar alicorn forms in the center with eyes longingly turned upwards as they face one another. “What are they looking at?” Twilight stops and turns to look at him over his shoulder, “Huh? Who?” “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna! The two are just staring up at nothing...,” Spike’s face scrunches in concentration at another strange puzzle. He uses a claw to trace the patterns in the air to try and familiarize himself with them since they seem to hold importance. Twilight follows his eyes as he continues, “Is it unfinished?” “Oh! No, no it is finished. It might make more sense when I show you what I have in mind,” the purple mare says with a newfound determination as she moves once more. Spike reluctantly looks away from the ceiling to a light that stretches out from the very center of the room. As they move between thick bookshelves past the dusty contents that seemed ready to fall as they war for space. He can tell by smell that they are all old and aged even from within the different protective spells that covered the space. His eyes track the soft pulsing sigils that are scattered around every corner; he has seen them in a few of the books Twilight read back in her Canterlot days. As they get closer to the source of light Spike’s attention is brought to a small podium that seemed to have been carved from an old marble. Rainbow webbing had never been seen before if Rarity’s musings of gems and designs are to be believed. He makes note to get information about it from Twilight later on, but his eyes zone in on a shining protective orb that is atop this podium. Inside it was a book that looked different from any other that he’d seen before. The cover was thick, made of a bumpy dark leather that has a metal plate set into it; a bit of bronze that had strange symbols carved into it. Squiggles and curves that don’t look like any language that he’s ever seen; dragons write like they’re fighting, griffins write in short bursts, changelings basically copy the loopy pegasi style, and hippogriffs wrote in the same old fashioned way people in Equestria did long ago. The young dragon watches with rapt attention as Twilight begins to whisper what can only be an old spell as her horn lights and the orb slowly dissolves into small shining lights. All amazement and curiosity is ruined by the immediate heavy smell of rot and decay that is wrapped up in a soured, fruity tang. It’s so pungent and hits so suddenly that Spike can’t help but retch. “Ugh! What is that smell?!” “The book is made from a... well, a type of material that no other book is made from. What you’re smelling is that material having aged a good deal,” Twilight demurely hides an uneasy smile behind a hoof. She won’t meet his eyes either in this moment and her face is tinged green with just a hint of disgust; another thing that Spike will be making note of. He nods, “Okay... And what do we need with this weird smelling book?” “Yes! Get comfy down here while I read, alright? This book has so much information and is so, so old that it needs to be handled with the utmost care,” Twilight lets the other down off her back as a beanbag floats towards them. It is much newer than anything else in the library if it’s bright orange color is anything to go by and it’s lack of dust. It drops right beside the podium as Twilight continues, “Now, let’s see... The story begins deep, deep in space. Past our galaxy where the suns are plentiful and the things that live there are beyond words. Among them are beings never before seen...” They were creatures that existed in many bodies but with one mind. Their one hope was to travel across the stars, visit distant planets, and learn all that there was to know. Knowledge fed them just as easily as matter did. While they had no real names of their own the solar systems they’d moved through have taken to calling them Solar Gliders. Solar Gliders had no real form that they kept to as their pure energy just burned through them. They moved in waves and, unintentionally, left their mark on everything because their focus is not on the creatures they meet but instead their worlds. Beings of energy think little of those with mass, with their own minds, and (possibly) their own selfish needs. Beings of energy eat, learn, and move on. Those natives find themselves angry, obviously, at the destruction left behind by these Solar Gliders. Survivors that reach out to allies or make friends with those who’ve been victims of similar situations. They plan out ways to reach out to these apathetic beings in hopes of stopping more destruction in the wings. The conversations often give way to debates. “You’re hurting us!” “We simply eat when our energy has depleted. We eat only our fill and move on.” “Your eating has destroyed homes, crops, and even our dead!” “Anything and everything possesses energy, even things that have passed.” “We care for those things! Can’t you eat something else?” “We either eat that which you hold dear lest we become beasts that consume others.” “Can’t you find a home for yourselves?!” “Our needs will always be to learn all we can. Remaining on a world means starvation, ignorance even.” “So, our needs don’t mean anything to you?!” “We are a collective. Our hunger is great and ever growing. We have given you a mercy in this way.” “Can you not just eat the worlds that have died?! Why not chase down those dying stars?!” “For we are those very same stars. We gather and seek out those that would have outlived us. We wish to know you.” “You don’t care what happens after you’ve learned all you can about us?!” “You creatures are much like us. Simple. What do we care now that we’ve learned all we have?” “Do our lives mean so little when you feel there’s nothing more to learn?!” “Precisely.” “We are not just our history! What of our futures?” “For many, once we leave there is no future to mourn. What do we care of lost causes?” Things devolve from there. Wounded, offended, and furious brings about war of these worlds against the Solar Gliders. But trying to fight beings that consume the matter around them is horrendously difficult. So, what do these worlds do? They create something that is more than mass and just as hungry. A creature that seeks out the greatest form of energy to finally rid itself of it’s insatiable hunger, a craving for pure energy that can be found in very few things. It is dangerous and it is desperate but continuous loses push people to do foolish things. They name this creature Devourer. And it is effective to say the least. There is no records of the battle that ensued. It lasted for days, weeks, months even if a normal calendar is meant to be believed so far in space where there is no rotation to calculate. All that allows these worlds to know that their homemade weapon was worth the risk is the screaming. Roaring waves of agony seem to echo through the vast, soundless void of space that is felt more than heard. It rocks the worlds till their mountains shift and their foliage wilt under this projected duress. It went on for hours at a time before silence, likely the Solar Gliders having fled to hide and regroup. But the quiet didn’t last long as the Devourer continued it’s relentless pursuit and it would start all over again. No one knows when it truly ended because there is no proof that it has. No, the only thing that truly matters about this story is the fact that, in the midst of another vicious attack, two stray Solar Gliders are sent away. Maybe a desperate attempt to stop the utter extinction of itself or maybe an act of fear that surged through the two. Who can say? Either way, they soar as fast as they can to a blackhole with a hope of escaping their pursuer once and for all. An unpleasant experience in every sense of the word. A feeling of being pulled apart at the seams while at the same time being squeezed tight until the body is twisted into a painful thread. Even for beings with no real form and simply floating essence is it a nauseating experience that overwhelms the senses to the point that consciousness is lost for the very first time. The two stray Solar Gliders awaken an unknowable amount of time later. It’s quiet for the very first time, except for the sound of one another. Between them anxiety, terror, guilt, shame, and uncertainty danced around the two as they find that they rest in a large crater. Their minds know very few things now that they are so far from the hive mind they’d once been connected to; they each have small flashes of memory to what happened while they were resting. Combined energy had been unleashed on impact and seemed to revitalize a dying, weak terrestrial planet. They’d hit something on the way down and found themselves in bodies for the first time, struck with new memories and identities. This cause a fusion that was sudden and unpredictable which created the first alicorns, Crissal and Lorna. It would take them some time to learn that their arrival brought about so much change in the few creatures that still lived upon the planet. Almost as long as they come to realize their appearances were strange for not only the extra appendages but the marking that appeared on their flanks. The responsibility and change that they will orchestrate later on. But there is more to come before these questions can be answered or realized. THUNK Spike sits up and turns to Twilight in confusion, “Why’d you stop? And what does it mean that there’s more to come?” “Like I said, this book is incredibly old. Not just because of when it was bound together but also the information comes from reliable but ancient sources. These pages were written much later than anything else that exists in here,” she explains with a giddy smile. She whispers another spell and the shield reforms around the book, once safely tucked away the alicorn’s attention moves to a shelf to the far right. Her horn glows and, after a bit of shuffling in the distance, a roll of several scrolls float in front of Spike’s flabbergasted face. “Here! These may help just a little bit more.” He holds his hands out as the magic disappears and Twilight trots off, her attention drawn away by her original goal. Fueled by his aforementioned plague of curiosity that he’d picked up from the mare, Spike shouts, “Wait, can’t I just read while you---!” She shouts over him, “I’ll read you more during the next break! We only have so many hours in the day! Just read those for now!” Spike sighs as he settles back onto the beanbag, “Fine... Might as well see what this has to offer.” Author's Note Hope you enjoy this first chapter! I will post another that will be a slightly different style, so don’t be too surprised when you see it! I hope this has intrigued people enough to stay.
VillagesUnrolling the scrolls brings up a small bit of anxiety in Spike as he keeps thinking on what Twilight had said. Everything was old and needed to be tended to with the utmost care. The idea that he could rip something and ruin it forever has him shaking in mild horror because he’s destroyed plenty of documents in the past. As he looks over the scrolls that he’s been given and immediately realizes that more than half of these are in the same language as the book’s cover. Great. He can’t help but grumble, “Still can’t believe I’m going to be on a scheduled reading time. It’s not like I’m a baby dragon anymore. And did she even check before handing this to me? Or does she want me to teach myself this...whatever this is!” Leafing through the scrolls there is one, two different pieces that Spike can’t understand before he finds one that had been translated. Based on the intricate short hoof print it was done by Star Swirl the Bearded at one point. Possibly important for later. With that he reads the third scroll in the bunch. Two days into Sun and Moon Era Dear Healer Mountain Breeze, The Village of Usth asks for your aid as there has been a drastic change in two of our members after the great explosion that happened not far from our borders. We had thought it was a great beast attacking some poor wayward souls at first, but we’d realized that some of our members were missing. A search party went out to find them and were horrified to find that there was death across one of our prominent grazing fields. Among the dried crops were the bodies of rabbits, birds, and squirrels that seemed to have been sucked dry in a similar way. We don’t know how this happened and frantically looked for our lost friends in hopes of rescuing them from whatever caused this. Instead we found bodies. They were horrifying to see and left many unable to keep hold of their lunches or their emotions. Crying, screaming, vomiting alike as a need to mourn encapsulated us. We are simple people with simple needs and were not prepared for these new horrors to befall us. We had been ready to turn back right away before our top hunter, Grove Trotter, had pointed out that there were only six corpses before us. There were still two ponies out there that needed to be found. So, we searched. We’d spent hours out in the heat and amongst the smell of rot. We turned over rubble and wayward boulders that seemed to have fallen from the nearby mountain. Nothing had come up. We lost hope. Believing that maybe some distant animal had come and eaten their bodies, we rushed to gather up the bodies of those we could identify and return home. Upon arrival we were greeted to the sight of a perfectly frantic village as looming above the citizens was our two missing members. But, altered drastically. Crissal was once a simple pony that lived her life caring for the young in her village under the watchful eye of the other Elders. She made sure they didn’t get into fights, that they were fed, and that they went to each of their lessons. Her body had once been a rich brown, a similar color to her dark mane and tail, yet she returned to the village looking changed to the point no one recognized her at first. Body a shining golden hue, hair an unnatural bright orange, and eyes bluer than any river I’ve ever seen. But her voice was the same and her kind smile was unchanged so how could we not realize that whatever had happened simply changed her? Our poor Lorna was no different. She’d had dark coloring before but now, her body was obsidian black with snow white hair and bottomless black eyes. But her body was like Crissal’s. Legs extended to great heights, neck like a prideful swan, and thin faces that gave an almost gaunt appearance. They have increased hunger than before but seem to carry with them no sickness, but we all know something is wrong. Please venture to us across the Mahurin River and take a look at our friends. We fear what this could mean for the rest of us or what lasting effects this will have on Crissal and Lorna. Sincerely, Elder Magpie Spike tries not to cringe over what he’s read. The ways that this Elder Magpie had described the whole experience was upsetting enough that he wonders if his stomach would be turning till dinner. If he decided to even eat dinner after this. He hopes that there isn’t more of that in any of these. Checking another reveals a strange series of charts and diagrams that the dragon has never seen before. Spike can’t tell the numbers from the regular sentences to the point he can’t even guess what these are linked to, but he does recognize the combination of symbols that made up Elder Magpie’s name in the previous letter. Under a wild guess he assumes it was important to the village. “Okay, so, these scrolls probably came from the Elder. Why isn’t more of this translated? There’s got to be a spell, right? Maybe Twilight will know,” the purple dragon says to himself. He pulls out some extra parchment and a quill to write down his questions for later. Turning back to the scrolls, Spike moves to the fifth and sixth pages to find rough sketches of ponies. They are all young fillies that seem to go from earth ponies to either unicorns or pegasi, their expressions becoming more haggard with time. There are no colors but there is heavy blots of ink or faded smears of strange liquids around the appendages they seem to be growing. He hazards a guess that it is to represent whatever blood or gore that was revealed in this process. Thankful to the minor censoring, Spike quickly moves onto the seventh page and is surprised to find another translated page. He dives in greedily to see what more the Elder had to say. Ninety-Two days into Sun and Moon Era Dear Questa, It has been three month now since the terrible incident that had destroyed much of the West Grazing field and we have growing concern for our world. The sun is taking much longer to set and rise each day. The replanting efforts have been thrown for a loop as everyone’s sundials have been off due to this. There has also been growing concern as some of the animals within the forest seem to have taken on features of other creatures and developed strange abilities. They have also become hostile in a way that was never seen before. Elders Robin and Blue jay agreed with me that no one should return to that place in hopes of avoiding anymore injuries. It has lead to ongoing discussions of moving across the Mahurin River in hopes of making allies with the village there so that we may combine together. It will take much negotiating to even receive a proper conversation with their leaders, so we are desperately trying to save all future crops and any chance we have for foraging. We have little hope that this will actually do much, but it is giving our people hope. That’s enough. On to other business, Healer Mountain Breeze did not find anything during his visit and neither did the three others that he’d reached out to in our time of need. There is no explanation as to why the two mares were so thin or so different from before. They also had no theories for the strange abilities that they began to show after only a few nights resting in the village. Abilities that started sprouting up amongst the young fillies that have been complaining about headaches. They are forming growths... No one is experiencing symptoms at this time, so we are hoping that our move will bring us closer to the Healers and avoid whatever misfortune looms on the horizon. The world seems to be changing so much, so suddenly. I worry for our people. Please let us know if you’ve faired any better. I remember your last few letters that there was a seasonal flu going around for many of your own young. If there is a way we can help you, please let us know. Missing you greatly, Elder Magpie Spike’s eyes move to the margins of the translation to find more writing in a pink ink. Much newer and in another’s hoof writing, while he doesn’t recognize whose it is easy to see that it’s not Star Swirl’s. Another weird feature that the young dragon jots down in his notes before finally reading the margins. He mumbles to himself, “Rapid evolutionary properties. Illness through a drastic genetic change, but minor enough to bring no deaths. The largest demographic are fillies between the ages of four to twelve. Based on further research made, this may have been tied with the first cutie marks to ever exist.” He blinks rapidly at that last part. “The first to ever exist?!” “SSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” He cranes to look past the podium to see Twilight sticking her head out from behind a stack of reading material. She had that ‘I’m so, so serious’ face on and everything. After flashing a sheepish smile, Spike huddles back into the beanbag and turns his attention to the eighth page. Another untranslated page that he couldn’t make heads or tails of, but what really caught his attention was the very detailed painting of what looked to be alicorns. They fit the descriptions from before almost to a T. To the best of his ability he tries to copy the picture as he once more talks to himself, “The first alicorns... Hmm... I guess all alicorns really do look the same. I wonder why.” Once his crude copy is done, the young dragon flips through two more pages and finds more untranslated pages. He spots the familiar symbols of Elder Magpie’s name to confirm that it does indeed belong amongst this growing pile. Moving on to the next page reveals another translated page with many more notes in the margins. Three-hundred and Forty-Two days into Sun and Moon Era Dear Elder Swiftwind of Risse Village, The Village of Usth thanks you for the aid you have provided to us in these past few months. With so many falling bedridden I was worried that your village was being set upon by the same dangers that we’ve found. Seeing that great gifts have begun to form for both of our villages I have much hope that this turn of fate may be the change that Elder Robin had prophesized many weeks ago. Truly, that mare surprises me every time we speak. I know that there has been much happening since the incident in the West Grazing field, but I did want your opinion on something. The other Elders and I had reached out to the Healers about ways to help control the miracles many of the young were doing. They assured us that Crissal and Lorna could do it. The same with those who have found themselves gifted with flight. I wasn’t sure of these suggestions at first, after all both mares had only held their own new appendages for just as long. But they took to it naturally as if it was second nature. They led them with kindness and gentleness that has been shown to our stressed populace. We have become more advisors than leaders with how we’ve run around like chickens with our heads cut off. After some consideration the Elders and I have been considering training them to take over properly. Power should always be utilized to care for our people, shouldn’t it? We Elders are getting old, getting tired. We are not equipped to deal with these differences but it seems that we may not need to be. No, we simply need to be advisors to the usual inner workings as neither mare is aware of them. And is it truly so wrong to do that? Elder Blue jay seems to think so while Elder Robin is too lost in her visions to care. What will become of us when the Elder focused on the past is uninterested in the present? What progress will we make when the Elder, who’s eyes are only trained forward lifts no finger to change what’s around them? Old and stubborn is all we are. So, my friend, what should I do in this predicament? Please, write back to me soon as I fear the growing tensions may find our simple village splitting up much like the Village in the Valley did a few weeks ago. The migrants we’d taken in had spoken of similar instances to our own but with higher tension as they had no real leadership. They took to Crissal and Lorna quickly. More evidence in my opinion, but just more hints of a mutiny in the making for the others. I am at a loss on how to keep the peace. Ever nervous, Elder Magpie The pink ink in the margins reads: Elder Magpie does not get to see things come to fruition. Her death greatly shifts the power dynamics. There was no avoiding the civil war she feared and many are hurt in the process. Her belief allows for the Princesses to come into power, so her unfortunate demise was integral to Equestria’s history. Elder Blue Jay and Elder Robin do not remain problems for long. Questa was a beneficial advisor. “Questa? She was the only one to not have a title,” Spike taps the quill against his chin as he vocalizes his thoughts. “Maybe she was close friends with Elder Magpie? Could be a family member, too, I guess...” He glances back to the previous pages and hums in thought. Before he can think more on it he hears Twilight call out, “Spike! We need to head back to the throne room!” Jumping up, he gathers all of the papers into the satchel with a shout, “Coming!” The purple dragon pulls out the color coded schedule once more and crosses off their break time as he rushes after her. There are twelve more meetings on the docket before the day ends and two of those are before they even have lunch! Man, he hopes one of the cooks is bringing something to snack on in between. Author's Note Elder Magpie, as you can see, is much more active in her home---both in the politics and in it’s foundation. The only one to be part of a search party as much as she is reaching out to achieve needed aid outside. She had known the two vessels that our Solar Gliders now reside in and is doing her best to not freak out like everyone else is doing. It is kind of working... Kinda. Our next chapter will be changing format just a little bit again along with perspective. Be prepared! Beyond that I hope you enjoyed! Please ask anything in the comments and I will do my best to answer with either another chapter or a really small summary of what is planned. Thanks again!
CreaturesSpike glares up at the sun as though it has wronged him. The young dragon has situated himself into the the brightest part of the castle and was regretting it immediately. The stained glass windows, as always, are blindingly beautiful during the daytime. Seeing the many arcs of his friends’ lives always gave a feeling of peace that helped throughout these past two years since their lives have made an upheaval. Today, however, there is no real ease filling him in this moment. His eyes feel dry and the bags underneath them feel heavier than usual after pulling another all-nighter with Twilight. Two in a row can be common when in the Sparkle household, but the increased meetings the past couple days have really cut into study time. This had, of course, lead to a long back and forth between the two on Twilight backsliding into some of her bad habits. “It won’t happen again, I promise.” “Are you sure? You said that before and we somehow broke a record this time!” “Yeah, I know, but I definitely mean it this time. Promise!” “Uh huh. Is that a Pinkie Promise?” Twilight stiffens at the mention of the most sacred promise to ever exist. He can see a small bead of sweat form by her twitching ear and the evasive movement of her eyes. Almost as suspicious as when they met her strange, overthinking future self. “Well?” “Ah... I... Uh... Sure, totally! It’s been great talking to you, Spike, but we really gotta get to bed before our first meeting! See you later,” Twilight’s mouth moves so fast that Spike can barely catch what she’s saying. Especially when he’s this exhausted. “Wha--,” he goes to ask but, by the time his eyes turn focus back in, Twilight is gone. He blinks once, twice, and then groans into his hands, “Celestia, help me.” Spike sighs at the memory as he rifles through a small bowl of rubies that an attendant had brought him. He takes out the biggest one that he can feel and takes a moment to admire it in the villainous, traitorous sun’s light. All of them are a beautiful deep red that has him salivating at the sight, but this one had an almost candy look to it. Flicking his wrist, the gem does a few twirls as it takes to the air and promptly lands on the dragon’s forked tongue before it can come crashing down. As he crunches through the hard exterior, Spike can’t help but laugh at the joy that bursts through him as the flavor hits his tongue. It’s so much sweeter than any of the apples or even the apple treats that were made from them. With almost complete certainty it could be said that this beats out anything that’s ever come from Sweet Apple Acres but he is smart enough to never let Applejack hear him say that. Not again, at least. “Are they really that good?” Spike is so ready to jump out of his skin at this new voice that his inability to leads him choke immediately. He hacks and coughs intensely, body convulsing like a cat struggling through a hairball. His eyes widen and tear up as he feels the shards shift against the thick, slimy coating of his esophagus---thank you dragon anatomy. Finally, after a build up to his saliva breaks down the small clusters of the ruby, Spike forces it all down. The voice calls out again, “Oh my goodness! Spike, are you alright?” Spike feels a cool hoof gently thump him on the back as he finally takes in deep, desperate breathes. Shakily, Spike wipes away the stringy drool that pooled between his fanged teeth. He turns to find a familiar yellow pegasi peering down at him from behind a thick mane of pink hair. He croaks, “Fluttershy? W-What are you doing here?” “Twilight asked me to come by to check in on you. Something about pushing you too hard and spending the day together so that you relax,” Fluttershy explains as her wing scoops up his glass of water from the table. She passes it along to him as she continues, “I’m sorry for startling you like that.” He gulps down the entire glass and flops face first into the high quality carpet that lines the hallway. The cool floor feels like a relief after his body temperature spiked during his panic. Fluttershy, realizing that the younger was in a state, says nothing as Spike recuperates. It takes a moment of basking beneath the colorful warmth of the sun but Spike finally finds his brain catching up with him and turns to the pegasi with a confused look. “Wait, you’re here to babysit me?” Fluttershy’s brow furrows ever-so-slightly, “No?” “You said that like a question,” he squints at her suspiciously. “I don’t believe that’s what Twilight has in mind. She knows you’re not a baby anymore, but she did say that you needed a chance to relax.” Indignation fills him for a moment, leftover feelings of inadequacy and being looked down on. Things he hasn’t thought of in so long but managed to worm their way in when he was half-awake. It’s only his delirium that keeps him from getting swept up in the negativity that he spent so long growing out of. This isn’t about being a kid or about how he needs to handle himself to not be treated like a baby again. So, Spike sighed heavily, letting the weight of exhaustion settle into his bones and ground him in this moment. Fluttershy's presence beside him was a calming presence, her gentle demeanor a stark contrast to his own frazzled state. "Thanks for checking in on me, Fluttershy," Spike said, offering her a weary smile. Fluttershy returned the smile, her soft voice carrying a hint of concern. "Of course, Spike. Twilight was worried about you, and I wanted to make sure you were okay." "Yeah, she's been on my case about taking breaks lately," Spike admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "But I guess I can't blame her. I've been diving pretty deep into these scrolls lately." Fluttershy nodded understandingly, her eyes reflecting a mixture of sympathy and understanding. "It's important to take care of yourself, Spike. You don't want to burn yourself out." Spike chuckled ruefully. "Tell that to Twilight. She's practically the queen of burning the midnight oil." Fluttershy giggled softly, a melodic sound that lifted Spike's spirits. "Well, she does have a lot on her plate. But I'm sure she just wants what's best for you." "Yeah, she always does," Spike agreed, a fond smile tugging at his lips. "But sometimes I just wish she'd let me figure things out on my own." Fluttershy placed a comforting hoof on Spike's shoulder, her touch gentle and reassuring. "I think she just worries about you, Spike. You mean a lot to her." Spike's heart warmed at Fluttershy's words, a swell of affection blooming within him. "Thanks, Fluttershy. You always know how to make me feel better." Fluttershy smiled softly, her eyes sparkling with warmth. "That's what friends are for, Spike. And if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm always here for you." Spike nodded gratefully, feeling a surge of gratitude towards his dear friend. "Thanks, Fluttershy. I really appreciate it." The mare comes to sit beside him, letting him lea against her as he goes back to eating his rubies. Neither speak as Spike closes his eyes to protect himself from the light around him and just soak up the warmth around him. The idea of getting to rest is deceptively tempting. “I gotta admit, this is nice. I don’t know why Twilight was so worried. I can rest plenty!” “She wasn’t sure that you would. She mentioned that you’ve been excitable because of some book she showed you? She never specified what book that is, but I figured that we could still make time for it after a bit of rest,” she says absentmindedly. He sits up with a gasp, “I totally forgot about the smelly book!” “Smelly book?” He snorts at the memory, “Oh, you won’t even believe me if I tell you how bad this book smelled. It was like, like--- Okay, so I can’t explain it without being super gross, but just imagine the worse smell ever times ten and mixed with maximum B.O.” Fluttershy visibly cringes, “Oh my...” “Yeah! Real bad, right?” His green eyes look towards the tall doors that lead to the library path that he’d been thinking of for days. He’d almost forgotten all about it after the three-day study session and the reworking of meetings to even make it work. Both of them had been so busy that he’d likely not even thought about it if not for Fluttershy speaking up. “I’m not sure if that’s what Twilight wants you to do.” “She technically said that she just wanted me to take a break from work, right?” She nods slowly, “Right...” “And I think that reading a good book is a perfect way to relax. Besides, I can’t read the book she was talking about anyway. Doesn’t mean I can’t read some other stuff,” he gives her the biggest smile that he can. She nods again, even slower, “Other stuff?” “Twilight had given me some extra literature that was supposed to give me more context for later. So, I was thinking, that why not do a bit of looking around on my own, right?” Fluttershy watches as the young dragon begins to walk backwards, moving further down the hall towards a plain door. The mare wasn’t sure where it lead but she had a good idea. Her head bobs once more as she stares him down, voice low as she answers, “...Right.” “Right! Plus, I won’t be there forever. And I have a snack with me so I’ll even be getting a full stomach so I can sleep after! I’ll get all the rest I need,” he insists as he pulls the door open. Fluttershy says nothing. She stares into his eyes, green on green, before taking a slow and evened blink. He can’t quite figure out what emotion is going through her mind or even decipher if anything that he said has made an impact on her. It makes him feel like he’s being picked apart scale by scale until he’s nothing but skeleton and the fiery heart that beats inside him. The heart that skips until, finally, the pegasi smiles sweetly and replies, “You’re really excited about this. Just what is so interesting about this book?” “Well---,” Spike finds that his tongue gets stuck to the top of his mouth and stops him from explaining. He grunts and fumbles as his hands instinctively moving to pull at his lower jaw in terror. He can’t speak, he can’t speak, he can’t speak! Spike's panic intensified as he struggled to pry his mouth open, his fingers clawing desperately at his jaw as if trying to break through an invisible barrier. His breath came in short, sharp gasps, each one a painful reminder of his inability to speak. But just as he felt himself teetering on the edge of despair, a strange sense of calm washed over him, enveloping him in its soothing embrace. In that moment of clarity, the world around him seemed to shift and warp, the familiar surroundings of the castle melting away to reveal a vivid tapestry of images that danced before his eyes. The library stretched out before him, its towering shelves laden with ancient tomes and dusty scrolls, each one whispering secrets of times long past. His gaze was drawn inexorably to a distant corner, where a single book lay nestled amidst a sea of forgotten knowledge. As he watched, transfixed, the journal seemed to come alive before his very eyes, its cover adorned with symbols that pulsed and shimmered with an otherworldly energy. Stars, moons, and swirling mist swirled in a mesmerizing dance, drawing him ever closer with their tantalizing promise of hidden truths. But just as quickly as the vision had appeared, it vanished, leaving Spike standing alone in the corridor with Fluttershy at his side. He blinked, trying to make sense of what he had just witnessed, but the memory slipped through his fingers like grains of sand, leaving only a lingering sense of wonder in its wake. Fluttershy's voice broke through his reverie, her concern evident in the gentle cadence of her words. "Spike, are you alright?" He nodded slowly, his mind still reeling from the intensity of the vision. "Yeah, Fluttershy, I'm okay," he replied, his voice barely above a whisper. But deep down, he knew that what he had just experienced was far from ordinary—it was a glimpse into a world of magic and mystery, a world that he was determined to explore. She tilts her head and asks, “Are you sure?” “Yes! And I know exactly what I want to read! C’mon, let’s go!” “Wait, what’s the rush?” Spike makes no move to answer as he runs through the corridor to the library within. Eyes focused ahead of him as blue fills the area, but he’s staring down the corner he’d seen in the vision. It had to of been that corner. He quickly rummages through the files, books, scrolls, and dusty maps that are half-rolled up. He digs and digs until he finally, finally he pulls the book that he had seen in his vision. Star Swirl the Bearded, a legendary figure in Equestrian history, loomed large in the annals of magic. He had been born to two earth ponies, a set of squash and onion farmers, and had not been allowed any form of education for most of his formative years. His unicorn birth having made him a social pariah in his predominantly earth pony town and colony, forcing his parents to keep him sheltered away. However, born with a large and prominent horn, magic came readily to the young Star Swirl. Self-study and experimentation were all that Star Swirl had for many years. He developed many new spells and potions that were unlike anything that Equestria has ever seen. They helped his family’s crops flourish, they saved the colony from a terrible drought, and created spectacular sights that dazzled them all. Many sought out his skills for personal means and it is said that there is no spell or potion that he couldn’t craft. There were many who feared his potential and even more that envied his natural talents. Celestia, after witnessing one of the many showcases that the unicorn performed to attract new clients, took him under her wing. Much of his time was spent studying the work of the Princesses throughout their various cycles. Things they’d learned and created in the hundreds of thousands of years; his days were spent trying to absorb these findings to the best of his ability. They allowed him to hone his craft to the best of his ability and ready himself to take up the role of King one day. Unlike many before him, Star Swirl cared little for royal life and had sought out allies to act as a council around him. Their names hold no weight to time but they took care of many matters while Star Swirl focused on much of the chaos that existed throughout Equestria. Though he was not bestowed with the traditional horn of a unicorn, for his was longer and bore strange deep markings across it, his mastery of arcane knowledge rivaled even the most skilled spellcasters of his time. Alongside the Pillars of Old Equestria, a group of esteemed companions he had befriended and collaborated with, Star Swirl dedicated his life to safeguarding the realm. In an era before the last ascension of Princesses Celestia and Luna, Star Swirl and the Pillars worked tirelessly to maintain peace and harmony throughout the land. Together with Stygian, a once trusted ally turned adversary, they faced countless threats and challenges, utilizing their combined wisdom and strength to protect Equestria from the forces of darkness. Yet, their greatest trial came when Stygian fell victim to the corrupting influence of dark magic, sowing discord and chaos in his misguided quest for power. In a desperate bid to save the kingdom from destruction, Star Swirl and his companions made the ultimate sacrifice, sealing themselves away to contain the spreading darkness. With a sigh, Spike closed the book, feeling somewhat underwhelmed by its contents. "What's the point of reading all this again?" he muttered to himself, running a clawed hand through his spines. But then, as he reached to return the book to its shelf, something caught his eye. A faint shimmer, almost imperceptible, danced across the surface of the pages. Frowning, Spike leaned in closer, his curiosity piqued. "There's something... off about this," he murmured, flipping through the pages again. “What’s wrong?” Spike turns to see Fluttershy peeking over from the edge of the bookshelf, a small book balancing on her wing. From what he can tell it is filled with remedies and identifications of different herbs. It wasn’t too dissimilar to the types of books that Zecora had leant her in the past from what Spike could tell. He turns to show her the book in his hands. “Can you come look at this?” Fluttershy maneuvers around the stacks of papers till she comes to stand beside the dragon. Her eyes scan over the page quickly before turning back to him in confusion. She asks, “What’s wrong with it?” Spike taps at the pages insistently, “This is just the normal tale of how Star Swirl and the Pillars dealing with Stygian. Just in different wording. Why would it be added onto this retelling of his life?” “A lot of history books do that, Spike. They’re written and rewritten by different ponies,” the mare explains. “I know, I know. Just... This seems so weird when I...” He looks down at the book once more with a saddened grimace on his face as he whispers, “There’s more to it. I know it. I wanna know more. I wanna know the truth!” “Well, maybe-- Oh my goodness!” The book lights up in a blinding light and the pages from before begin flipping rapidly back and forth. A hum fills the air as the sentences begin to shift, meld, and change before their very eyes. The two lean in close as the light slowly dims into nothing and they are greeted to a whole new segment. It seems almost like the after thought from how it’s placed at the back of this book. Ponies of Equestria had long since begun to develop strangely as they became more ingrained in the magic that Celestia and Luna brought. Pegasi were given the ability of flight in not just their wings but in their bodies, allowing them to manipulate clouds and the weather as they went. Earth ponies found themselves with impressive strength and stamina that was unmatched by all others, uniquely attuned with the elements to an almost extreme extent at times. And, of course, unicorns were blessed with the strongest magic that was not limited to their normal abilities but instead their imagination. Many ponies intermingled and found love after a time and their children began to show signs of minor mutations that worried Celestia greatly, worried that the magic was turning on her people. She had requested that Star Swirl look for a way to fix these missteps in his journey so that upon her next life would be a chance for new hope. Ever the faithful student, Star Swirl did as he was told. He traveled high and low for years, trying to achieve this while also working to protect Equestria from the evils that seemed to pop up every few months. He was unsuccessful. The sisters returned to their positions to find that more of these strange hybrid ponies were popping up across Equestria with strange and unstable magic. Pegasi that could not live in the clouds because their bodies could not rest on the clouds or could not tame the storm clouds that wandered through the sky. Some had micro wings or even thicker bones that made them too heavy to take to the air. Unicorns with strange horns that either could not correctly direct their magic or made it impossible to utilize it without dire mistakes. Earth ponies so weak, sickly, and fragile that they were bedbound most of their lives. It all seemed so cruel and strange to happen. Celestia and Luna did their best to reassure those who were living in these ways. Provide aid to their towns when damages happened and offer different tutors/instructors to help make transitioning into a different lifestyle easier, one that is away from most of society. Anything to keep people safe. To keep Equestria safe. Unbeknownst to all of Equestria, Celestia had begun taking her own precautions and conducting her own experiments when not going about her duties. Utilizing the council Star Swirl had created for the first decade and a half her return. In this time she had been secretly channeling magic to empower unicorns throughout their lands. It was meant to make them superior in not only body but power and that it will pass on to their children. Stygian, while a lesser conduit of the Pillars, had been one of the many unicorns that she had chosen for the inner power he had. She had not learned from her past dealing of tinkering with ponies and the levels of magic that they had (see Crystal Kingdom and Changelings). Stygian's power was great and it created a heavy manifestation and this corruption grew until it threatened to unravel the very fabric of reality. The rest is history, as they say. As the last in a long line of royals who had studied under Celestia and Luna, Star Swirl bore witness to the rise and fall of monarchs, his steadfast commitment to duty and honor guiding him through the tumultuous ages. And though the sisters would eventually return to reclaim their rightful place as rulers of Equestria, Star Swirl's legacy would forever be enshrined in the annals of history, a testament to the enduring power of magic and friendship. Spike turns to see Fluttershy once more and whispers, “She was giving them more magic...” Author's Note This took a bit but I’m glad to finally have it posed! I’ll be doing another soon! Let me know your thoughts below
DreamsSpike hadn’t expected to be promptly scooped up and carried from the library by a frazzled Fluttershy. He wasn’t anymore prepared to be dropped off at his room with a rushed, mumbled apology. Of course, he had been confused about what she was doing but he burped up a letter not long after that was written by Twilight. It didn’t give much away. She wrote of Fluttershy having to leave since Discord popped in with complaints of Angel’s ‘spawn’ causing problems. Added in that Fluttershy mentioned the weird info they’d found and that Twilight had gone to check in on the book some time ago, eager to see this new information he’d found. And, right at the end, there is a small blurb about getting the nap that he’d promised to take. Truly disappointing to know the yellow pegasus gave up the goat so quick but by the time he was curled up in bed and ready to sleep there was no malice or annoyance at the observation. Friends don’t want to keep secrets from each other and good ones do their best to not have to ever try. Spike’s eyes slip closed as he yawns and wonders aloud, “If Celestia’s magic did that... I wonder what else she did.” “Spike... Spike...,” a voice whispers in the darkness. No, not a voice. A chorus of voices. Spike jerks his head left and right in surprise, suddenly taking in his surroundings. He’s in a forest of crystal trees, thing and willowy as if a strong gust of wind could shatter them into pieces. They reflect the purples and greens of his scales until a eerie, muted hue takes over the space. A shiver runs up his spine as he feels something cool and delicate skate across his talons, his legs, and his tail. He looks down to see thick smoke swirling around him and obscuring the floor from the waist down; every muscle in his body tenses in terror, in surprise. The young dragon has no clue how he got there. “Spike... Spike, hurry. You must hurry...,” the voices whisper. There’s nothing but trees around him. He squints to try and get a better look at everything around him, to find the figure that keeps calling out to him in this moment. There’s no body in sight but the voice doesn’t sound too far away. Over the years he’s balanced a healthy dose of skepticism and fear when it came to the unknown as you never know what lurked in the darkness. Now, met with darkness once more, he remembers that he’s not just some baby dragon anymore. He is alone and there is something out there that is seeking him out. Some time ago it had been the instinct of his people and even later on than that was the makings of a new friend. Being brave wasn’t his strong suit, but it had never stopped Spike before so it certainly wouldn’t stop him now. He takes a steadying breathe before slowly walking in the direction of that voice. “Hello? Who’s out there? How do you know my name?” “This way... Quickly, Spike...,” the strange chorus sounds desperate. “Please, just tell me what this is about. I... I feel like I’ve been here before,” Spike finds himself admitting as he continues with more certainty each step. “You’ve read of us... You wish to know... We wish to tell you...,” the voices sing out sweetly, airily. Spike feels so aware of the cold, hard floor below him. Of the trees seeming to cluster closer and closer together as he walked further into this strange forest. He’s thankfully too small for these twisting figures to hinder him but it doesn’t stop the growing claustrophobic feeling it brings. Like he’s just a tiny mouse walking around a maze for the amusement of some distant onlooker. He keeps his eyes forward, uncertain what he’d see if he looked to the sky, and asks, “You’re the Elders?” The laughter is erratic yet slow from chuckling to full belly laughter among a sea of giggling, “No... No, we are the in-betweens... You wished to know us...” He keeps following the laughter as he consider this. What else could they be talking about? What had he been searching for? He was reading the papers because Twilight gave them to him and she only did that because they weren’t reading that old book anymore. A book about--- “You’re the Change?” The question makes them quiet down. There’s a pause before they whisper, “Almost... We’re the in-betweens...” He asks immediately, “What are in-betweens?” “The lives we’d lost... The people we were... Eaten away and swept aside...,” they explain. He widens “Wait, how is that possible? You’re saying that you’re all like Crissal and Lorna?” “Yes.” He freezes as he the voices seem to echo and surround him completely. He pauses and stands a bit straighter, the spines on the side of his head perking up. He waits and waits for a moment for them to continue, but silence drags on. When he slowly begins to keep moving forward a series of young, feminine voices speak up, “That book means to tell you Equestria’s history.” He nods, “Twilight says it’s older than most things in the library and has to be looked at magically.” “The history that she wants said,” they explain. “It's not real?" “It's twisted,” they insist Frustrated, he asks, “Then what’s the truth?” His pace picks up with a growing feeling of urgency. He goes from a jog to a run and then sprinting to try reaching these wayward voices, but they sound as if they only get further away. They keep calling out but they seem to realize his predicament and there’s a shift that his heart pounding, his ears ringing, and his breathe escaping in frantic gasps. The voices no longer whisper in this uproar of chaos and outrage, some of the voices devolve into sobbing while others are screaming in rage. Everything seems to echo and reverb off of the shifting, shimmering trees that seem to flash in an out of the world at random. He grunts each time he accidentally trips over a root or bumps into the side of one. His limbs hurt and he feels so frustrated, so overwhelmed that he finds tears beginning to build until they slip free. They call out in distorted wails, “Spike! Spike... Spike! Hurry, Spike!” “I’m trying! I’m coming!” He jolts forward as his food is suddenly caught. Looking down, a tangle of crystal roots are entangled around him in a grip that gets tighter every time he moves. He struggles against them, feeling the sharp edges of the crystal roots digging into his scales. Panic rises within him as he realizes he's trapped, the voices growing louder and more desperate around him. "Spike, help us! You're our only hope!" the voices cry out, their words distorted and echoing in the chaotic atmosphere. Spike thrashes against the crystal roots, but they only tighten their grip, constricting around him like vengeful serpents. He can feel the ground beneath him shifting, becoming soft and flimsy like a grassy field after a terrible rainstorm. His heart races as he realizes what's happening—the ground is giving way beneath him. "No, no, no!" Spike screams, his voice joining the chorus of cries that surround him. He claws desperately at the ground, trying to find purchase, but it's no use. The crystal roots continue to pull him down, dragging him deeper and deeper into the earth. The screams around him grow louder, more intense, as if the very ground itself is alive with anguish and despair. Spike's breath comes in short gasps as he struggles against the suffocating weight pressing down on him. And then, with a sickening lurch, Spike feels himself sinking into the crystal ground like fast-acting quicksand. He thrashes and kicks, but it only hastens his descent. The voices scream in his ears, a cacophony of terror and agony that threatens to overwhelm him. Just as Spike feels like he's about to be swallowed whole by the darkness, he hears a faint whisper, a voice cutting through the chaos like a beacon of hope. "Spike... wake up." “SPIKE!” He’s immediately met with pain. Hitting the floor as he topples off of the plush bed, the one that he’d claimed for himself after they’d moved into the Canterlot castle, and going head first into the carpeted floor. With a groan, he slowly sits up and cradles his face in his hands to try to ward off the mild agony that throbs through it. He pauses once he registers the warm tears that had streaked down his cheeks and are pooling into his sore palms. Guess he wasn’t just crying in his dreams. Great. “Oh Celestia, are you alright, Spike?” He reluctantly raises his head up to greet the purple alicorn that looked down at him worriedly. The tall, lean mare leaning down to gently nudge the top of his head in a comforting manner as she took in the pained and crying sight of her ward. She crouches down a bit before using her large wings to scoop him up and place him back up on the bed before joining him. A hoof rests on his shoulder as she asks again, “Are you alright, Spike? I didn’t mean to scare you awake like that.” “It wasn’t your fault.” Her expression becomes empathetic and she rubbed his shoulder in soothing circles, her voice soft as she asked, “Did you have a nightmare, then?” That’s what it had felt like, but he wasn’t sure if that’s what it really was. He remembers the running, he can almost see the crystal trees still, and can almost feel the coolness of the ground again. Those wayward voices wanted to show him something and give him answers to what he’s been looking for. Yet, he can feel that oppressive and watchful gaze still lingering above him like a dark shroud. A shiver wracks his form that was enough incentive for the woman to pull him into a hug. He wraps his arms around her instantly to squeeze her tight till his hands stop shaking and his tail stops thumping against the bed in anxiety. Ticks and twitching that he hadn’t even noticed till he had such a steady figure to hold onto. “It’s okay, Spike. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do anything. I’m only really useful for things like this at night,” Twilight quietly apologized. It was never easy coming upon new responsibilities or learning such important skills, but the new ruler of Equestria was rushing to do both with mixed success. Raising the sun and moon had weirdly been the easiest of the tasks to do while learning to dream walk had been the very worst to do. She often complained about getting lost, about trying to understand the way dreams worked, and how she could fix things while still teaching lessons to those citizens. “No, it’s alright. I needed sleep, like you said,” Spike tries to reassure her. “As the new queen and the Princess of Friendship, it’s my duty to--,” Twilight’s speech is cut off by Spike breaking free of the hug to stare up at her. She lets out a small grunt at the sudden movement and looks down at her little brother, almost son if she allowed herself to really think about it in the most technical terms. “I was about to ramble again, wasn’t I?” “Yep.” She sheepishly smiles, “Sorry...” “It’s fine, Twilight. You know I don’t blame you for stuff like that and no one else would. Not like anyone besides little fillies nap in the daytime or anything,” Spike can’t help but say with a dry chuckle. His eyes moving towards the far wall where a window resides with a much dimmer glow than earlier. It must have been closer to late afternoon at this point and in a handful of hours it’ll be dinner time. His stomach growls in agreement at the reminder. “I should have asked them to make you something. Lunch’s already passed and everyone’s busy on prep work right now for dinner. We could either sneak in to get ourselves a snack or, maybe, the two of us could take a small trip to a friend that might have just the snack you’re looking for,” Twilight says with a bright and cheery grin. Spike rolls his eyes, “Wow, that’s really clear and totally helpful. Who could you possibly be talking about after managing to befriend creatures from all over Equestria?” “Well, hold on, not everypony. I know that I’m the Princess of Friendship, but I don’t really take the time to visit everyone---,” Twilight splutters, feeling called out. “Sure, fine. Let’s narrow it down,” Spike concedes as he leans back and crosses his arms. He playfully looks around the room as if he’s lost in thought while humming to himself as he ‘considers’ his options. “Let’s see, we can cross Fluttershy off the list because she was here earlier so it can’t be her. Unless you’re REALLY trying to throw me off and it is her, but she’s bringing Discord in so that he can bring me like a weird rainbow rock. He’s probably got super weird gems in his home dimension! Wouldn’t that be something?” “No, no. It’s just the one friend, I promise.” “Speaking of promise, the friend wouldn’t happen to be Pinkie Pie, would it? I’ve really been looking forward to seeing if she’s felt the presence of an incoming promise being made. Maybe she can even tell me if it’s already on the verge of being broken,” he gives her a knowing look. The alicorn once more tries to come up with something to say. Spike waves her off, “Rainbow’s got that big show coming up and Rarity is supposed to be out negotiating with Dragon Lord Ember if I remember correctly. Starlight still has the school in session for another two months so that just leaves one pony, right? Or am I missing someone?” “Yes, yes. You got it,” Twilight playfully nudges him as she rolls her eyes and stands from the bed. “We’re going to meet Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres for a quick snack since I was able to finish my meetings a bit early.” “Really? How’d you convince Jet Set and Upper Crust to actually finish a meeting on time,” Spike can’t help but gape at the alicorn. It wasn’t uncommon for many of the more wealthier and higher class ponies to take many liberties when it came to the new, young princess. Many were eager to see if she’d marry and have children at some point before Celestia and Luna return to the throne. It was how many others had achieved power, after all, and they were all just so excited to introduce her to their very single relatives. The preppy and snobby unicorn couple were no different. “I promised to have them and a plus one EACH a spot at a small luncheon in two weeks. Sent them running before we even reached the halfway point of our time. So we have about a half hour,” Twilight dipped her head away to hide her embarrassment. The luncheon was already going to be packed with different ambassadors bringing along their own young bachelors and bachelorettes in hopes of creating more solid bonds of peace. All of it under the guise of setting up new trade routes in the new pathways that she’d helped to create over the last few months. The worst part is that everyone knows so none of them are too concerned with pretending in any sense of the word. “Wow.” She curls in even further, hiding under her wings as she groans, “I know, I know! You don’t have to say it!” “I’m honestly impressed. You can barely stand listening to people flirt next to you, yet you added two extra that’ll be flirting AT you. I’ll be surprised if you don’t just combust on sight,” Spike snorts. “I wanted to do something nice! If you’re not interested than I can just call them back now and say I change my mind,” she threatened without a hint of bite. He hops down, chuckling in amusement as he pulls the other into another quick hug, “You’re right, you’re right! Thank you, I really appreciate it.” Twilight turns her head away with an exaggerated pout, “No, it’s fine. I get that you’d rather spend your time cooped up in here. I should have realized that you’re in that rebellious age now. All you want is to leave the nest.” “Leave the nest? Who’s going to help keep your schedule if I take off on you?” “That is true. It’s hard to find good help these days," Twilight teases, nudging Spike playfully with her hoof. Spike laughs, feeling a sense of warmth and comfort wash over him despite the lingering unease from his nightmare. "Exactly! So, are we going to this black tie event at Sweet Apple Acres or what?" Twilight chuckles, shaking her head. "Oh, Spike. You never fail to make me smile. But no, it's just a casual visit to see Applejack and grab a snack." Spike grins mischievously. "Well, you should've told me. I would've brought my fanciest scales." Twilight rolls her eyes, giving him a playful shove. "Go on, go splash a bit of water on your face and brush up your scales. We don't want to keep Applejack waiting." Spike salutes jokingly before heading to the bathroom. As he closes the door behind him and opens the crystal mirror doors of the medicine cabinet, he spots something unusual—a scroll, unsealed and lying innocuously among the potions and remedies. His curiosity piqued, Spike picks up the scroll and unrolls it carefully, scanning the contents with furrowed brows. But as he reads, his expression shifts from curiosity to unease, his heart pounding in his chest. Twilight's voice calls out from the other side of the door. "Spike, are you almost ready? Applejack's probably wondering where we are!" Spike quickly rolls up the scroll and tucks it into his pocket, pushing aside his unease for now. "Yeah, just a sec!" he calls back, his mind already racing with questions and concerns. But as he splashes water on his face and brushes up his scales, the image of the unsealed scroll remains etched in his mind, a nagging sense of foreboding lingering in the back of his thoughts. Little did he know, this seemingly innocuous scroll would set into motion events that would change the course of Equestria's history forever. Dear Princess Celestia, My name is Kiwi Bliss and I am a pegasus. My momma told me that I don’t have the right magic to be a pegasus, though. She’s worried for me and my auntie told me that to be safe I should reach out to you. It makes sense when she explained it to me, but I don’t really mind living on the ground with my cousins. They’re all really funny and they promised to show me all types of fun that we can get up to as I get used to earth powers. It’s all really good, I promise. I’m mostly reaching out to you because of the dream that I had yesterday. I’ve never had one like it and I think that I saw you! My momma said that when we dream that we sometimes see our heroes and you’re the biggest hero in Equestria, but... Well, I guess I can’t agree with her on this. Cause this wasn’t like the usual dreams. You weren’t helping me fly or saving my town from or even giving my papa a medal for being the best flier ever! No, you were just kinda walking. You were looking at this floating, glowing orb that had a blue pony in it and I couldn't really hear what you were saying but it looked like you were really sad. Are you okay? My momma says eating cookies can help you feel better. You should eat some soon to feel better! I hope you feel better soon! Sincerely, Kiwi Bliss Spike carefully rolled the scroll up once more. He placed it back where he’d found it, turned, and stared at himself in the mirror. He kept his face as neutral as possible as that feeling was back again, the feeling of being watched. He still doesn’t know who or what it is and he can’t fathom just what they even want from him at this point. It felt like all he’s found recently is more clues that bring about more questions than answers. There’s no time to think more on it since there was a chance that Twilight was--- “Spike, are you ready to go?” Forcing himself to smile, Spike calls back, “Coming!” Author's Note Spike once again gets to learn some fun things as he waits to learn more, but not without some draw backs.
