When Twilight and Peanut arrived at the library, Twilight opened the door and gestured Peanut too go in first. Peanut slithered inside the hollowed out tree and checked his surroundings. All across the library, there were stacks of books; at least a few dozen. Notes were strewn across the ground, almost completely covering the floor. On the table was a large coffee pot with a coffee mug next to it. Twilight smiled sheepishly and said, "Sorry about the mess, I was doing some research before you came along." Peanut didn't really care all that much. "Spike! I'm back, and I brought a guest home," she called out.
The little feet of Ponyville's resident dragon could be heard scurrying upstairs. Spike appeared at the top looking relieved. "Twilight!" he said, "Thank Celestia you're back! I was just about to write a letter to the Prin-" Spike stopped talking immediately when he noticed Peanut. "Twilight, what's that?" he said, pointing at the orange blob.
Twilight chuckled before answering, "This is Peanut, the 'monster' Lily was screaming about earlier."
"Really? Jeez, someponies got tell her to take a chill pill if she's freaking out about this thing. I mean, look at it, it's just sitting there making gurgling sounds. Where'd it come from anyway?"
"The Cutie Mark Crusaders found Peanut near the Everfree Forest, and they're calling Peanut a he."
Spike had walked down to the bottom of the stairs at this point. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders? This I gotta hear."
For the next half-hour, Twilight explained everything that happened since she left to confront Peanut.
...
"You what?!" Spike exclaimed at the end of Twilight's explanation.
Twilight rubbed the back of her head, having a guilty expression on her face. "I'm sorry, Spike, I completely forgot in all the excitement."
Spike looked hurt when Twilight said that, "How could you forgot to bring your number one assistant to a Pinkie Party?"
The guilt Twilight was feeling had just been doubled.
"Did you at least bring me back a cupcake?" he asked, hopefully.
Make that tripled.
"Aww man," Spike said, his hopes crushed after seeing the expression on Twilight's face. Before she could say anything to him, Peanut came up from behind him and wrapped his body around Spike's, leaving his head exposed. "Uh Twilight, what's it doin- heh, hehe, *snort*, *snickering*, bwahahahahahahaha! Twilight! M-make him stop! H-he's tickling mehehehehe!"
Twilight was having great difficulty trying not to laugh at the scene before her. "Sorry, Spike," she said, hiding her smirk with a hoof, "but this will do you some good."
For the next 5 minutes, Spike endured the tickle-torture of his life. When Peanut finally let him go, Spike laid there on the ground, wheezing and giggling here and there, trying to recover from the unexpected assault. "That...that was awesome," he finally managed to wheeze out.
Twilight just chuckled. "Feeling better?" she asked her surrogate brother.
"Yeah, like, tons better. What was that anyway?"
"Well, I can't say for certain, but from what I've seen so far, whenever Peanut comes into direct contact with a pony, that pony feels an immediate euphoria, putting them in a positive mood. He even managed to get Fluttershy to dance at the party. She actually did very well."
"Seriously? Man, now I really wish I was at the party."
Twilight's ears perked up at the flapping of wings. Turning her head, she saw Owlicious landing on his perch and staring at Peanut Butter. "Hey, Owlicious, this here is Peanut Butter," Spike said, standing on shaky legs.
"Who," Owlicious said in response.
"This guy. He's the monster Lily was screaming about earlier."
"Who."
"The one who woke you up from your nap. Anyways, the Cutie Mark Crusaders found him near the Everfree Forest."
"Who."
Spike glared at Owlicious, "You know who they are, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo."
"Who."
Spike groaned in annoyance. Before he could say anything else, he felt a hoof rest on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw Twilight with a smirk on her face. "Spike," she began, not even bothering to hide the amusement, "you're doing it again." Spike sat there for a few moments, blinking in confusion until the realization dawned on him. His face met claw.
"Whoooo~" both Twilight and Spike looked up to see Owlicious being cuddled by Peanut. It was funny to see the owl with half-lidded eyes and what could have been a smile on his face. The moment was ruined when a scribbling noise was heard. Spike, Peanut, and Owlicious turned to see Twilight writing notes. She looked up to see all three of them looking at her. She smiled sheepishly before turning to Spike.
"Hey, Spike, why don't you go get Peewee so he can meet Peanut as well?"
"That's a great idea!" he said before scampering up the stairs to get his pet, baby phoenix. Owlicious went around putting the piles of books back on the shelves, looking livelier than he did earlier. Peanut made his way over to Twilight to give her her first hug from him. Twilight met it with her own.
"So this is what it feels like," she said, smiling.
...
"...I think Peewee likes him," Spike whispered to Twilight. She just nodded her head in agreement. When Spike had brought Peewee down, Peanut seemed confused as to what the little phoenix was. Peewee walked up Peanut and gave him a gentle poke with his beak, just as curious. As soon as contact was made, Peanut snatched Peewee up in one tentacle and began to tickle his belly with another. It was quite an adorable sight.
Twilight and Spike watched as Peanut played with Peewee and Owlicious. Twilight was taking notes while Spike just sat back and watched. About 15 minutes later, Twilight said, "Alright everypony, that's enough playtime for now. I still need to study Peanut and report my findings to the princess."
Spike looked at the clock, it was 9 o'clock. "Really, Twi?" he began, "At this point, we're going to be up all night. Can't you just send the princess a letter what you know so far? I'd rather wait 'til tomorrow to do this. Besides, what your tree falling in a forest research?"
"First off, Spike, researching a possibly new species is way more important. Second, you should know by now that I can't wait when something new and unknown pops up like this. Third, I want to report my findings to Celestia and see if she knows anything about Peanut."
"Couldn't you, I don't know, send a letter to the princess tomorrow and ask her then? She's lived long enough to probably know something about him," he gestured to Peanut.
"Yes, I could, but that would take the fun out of it, wouldn't it?" she said with a mischievous smile. Spike just groaned. "I promise I'll make it up to you Spike. How about tomorrow, after the Cutie Mark Crusaders pick Peanut up, I take you to Sugarcube Corner and buy you the most expensive thing on the menu?" Spike crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile still on her face, "Fine, fine, I'll also add gem shavings to it. How does that sound?" Spike pretended to look thoughtful for a moment before nodding. He went to Peewee and picked him up, putting the bird on his head. He went upstairs to put the little gut to bed. Peewee waved goodnight to Peanut using one of his wings. Peanut returned the gesture in kind. "Come on Peanut, let's go downstairs to the lab and run some tests on you." He gurgled and followed.
...
"Fascinating! Peanut seems to be oil based, but this substance doesn't seem to match any known to modern science."
"That's great and all, Twi, but can we go to bed now?" Spike asked, yawning.
"Not yet, Spike, there are still plenty of tests I have to do."
Spike just groaned.
Twilight was looking at some of the slime that she collected at the party through a microscope. She had noticed that Peanut had stopped leaving a trail sometime before they got home. After some poking and prodding, she discovered that the slime within Peanut's thin membrane was the same as the slime trail he left behind.
"His diet appears to consist entirely of candy and sweets. He hasn't eaten any of the other foods I've given him other than candy."
"Yeah, and the way he eats it is pretty cool too."
"Rarity didn't think so."
Spike just shrugged.
"Although it does make me wonder what he ate while he was in the Everfree Forest."
Shortly after feeding Peanut, Twilight noticed that he was beginning to leave a trail of slime again. This led her to believe that Peanut's membrane could only hold a certain amount of the slime and released any excess that was made. She had to run some experiments with it on Spike.
...
"The slime appears to have similar effects as coming into direct contact with Peanut."
"Yeah it does," Spike said lying on his back, rubbing some of the slime on his belly with a claw with a content smile on his face..
Twilight just giggled.
...
After running several more tests, Twilight was ready to send her findings to Celestia.
"Read the letter to me one more time, Spike."
Spike yawned before complying:
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo (the Cutie Mark Crusaders) discovered a strange creature near the border of the Everfree Forest. The second message that will be sent following this one will be a report of my findings on the creature, also known as Peanut Butter. If you have any information about this creature or how I should deal with him, please let me know sometime before noon.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
P.S. Are there any others like Peanut?
Spike then began to read the 'shortened' version of the report:
Name: Peanut Butter
Species: Unknown
Peanut Butter appears to be a large, amorphous, gelatinous mass of translucent orange slime, weighing about 54 kg (120 lbs) with a consistency similar to that of peanut butter. Subject’s size and shape constantly change, though most of the time its form is the size of a large beanbag chair. Peanut Butter's composition is oil-based, but consists of a substance unknown to modern science. Other than a thin, transparent membrane surrounding the orange mass, subject appears to have no other organs to speak of.
Subject’s temperament is best described as playful and dog-like: when approached, Peanut Butter will react with overwhelming elation, slithering over to the nearest pony and leaping upon them, “hugging” them with a pair of pseudopods while nuzzling the pony’s face with a third pseudopod, all the while emitting high-pitched gurgling and cooing noises. The surface of Peanut Butter emits a pleasing odor that differs with whomever it is interacting with. Recorded scents include chocolate, roses, fresh laundry (discovered by me), and one smell that a resident dragon couldn't identify, but reported smelled delicious and made him hungry.
Simply touching Peanut Butter’s surface causes an immediate euphoria, which intensifies the longer one is exposed to Peanut Butter, and lasts long after separation from the creature. Subject’s favorite activity is tickle-wrestling, often by completely enveloping a pony from the neck down and tickling them until asked to stop (though it does not always comply with this request) .The excess slime that the creature gives off appears to have similar effects. While the creature will interact with anypony, it seems to have a special interest in those who are unhappy or hurt in any way.
In addition to its playful behavior, Peanut Butter seems to love all animals so far (especially sentient creatures). The subject’s intellect is still inconclusive: though its behavior is infantile, it seems to understand equestrian speech and most modern technology. The creature’s diet consists entirely of candy and sweets, its eating methods are similar to those of an amoeba.
Further research will be necessary.
Spike looked up at Twilight who gave a nod in approval. He blew his magical green flames on the letter before doing the same with the report, sending them both to the princess. A couple of minutes later, Spike burped out a response from the princess.
"Wow, that was fast," he said, surprised.
"Well, she's been doing paperwork for thousands of years, so she's probably a master speed reader," Twilight said before grabbing the letter with her magic. She began to read the report out loud:
To my faithful student, Twilight,
I know of the creature you speak of for my sister and I have met him before (she's practically ecstatic that you've found him), as he is the only one of his kind. I do not know where he comes from or how he came into being. All I do know is that he existed before the reign of Discord who actually kept him as a pet and claimed that he found him wandering alone in some forest.
After we trapped Discord in stone. We took this creature with us seeing as its former home was now destroyed. When we built our kingdom, we allowed Peanut Butter to roam free throughout the city, letting him interact with the other citizens and then bringing him back to the castle when night fell. I suggest that you do the same with him there in Ponyville; it would do the residents some good I'm sure.
He preferred Luna at the time, who was almost constantly depressed that ponies didn't love her night. After interacting with him, she had a much more positive outlook and stayed happy for about a month before falling into her depression again. He disappeared one night and we didn't realize it until the next day. We searched for weeks, but we were unable to find him. Luna's depression slowly became worse and eventually transformed into Nightmare Moon. I'm quite surprised that he has been in the Everfree Forest this whole time, as that was where our capital once presided.
As I said before, let him roam free around Ponyville, let him interact with the other ponies and keep me updated on how he is doing.
Your Friend,
Celestia
P.S. Refer to me as Celestia, Twilight, you're a princess now too.
P.S.S. Tell Peanut Butter that Luna and I said hello.
Twilight and Spike stood there, their jaws agape, unable to believe what Celestia had said. Peanut Butter was gurgling happily when he Celestia and Luna's names mentioned. Spike was first to speak.
"So let me get this straight, Peanut Butter is older than Luna or Celestia, possibly even Discord?"
"Yeah," Twilight said quietly.
"And we're just supposed to let him roam free?"
"Yeah."
...
...
...
"Well I'm off to bed. See you tomorrow, Twilight," Spike said before walking upstairs to go to bed.
Twilight stood there for awhile until she felt Peanut poking her. Twilight went upstairs to join Spike, who was already curled up in his basket. As she got into bed, Peanut hopped up joining her. She hugged him as he cuddled up against her, making cooing noises, gently lulling her to sleep
Her last thoughts before drifting off to sleep were what tomorrow would bring.