//------------------------------// // To the Over Worked, and the Under Paid. // Story: Equestrian Eeveelution. // by Symphonicdysonince //------------------------------// “…And finally, aside from subject Zann’s odd ability to exhale star shaped rays, most of the specimens appear to favour physical contact for defense. I believe that subject Zann’s unique ability comes from losing a leg, reducing its mobility.” Twilight finished her long report. It was more of a summation of her notes on us thus far than a proper report, but Spike wrote her words down dutifully nonetheless. Fluttershy had managed to convince the rest of the Eevee pack, as Twilight insists on calling us, to join Yomega, Zann, and I in Twilight’s treebrary. Twilight, for her part, spent most of the last three days taking extensive notes. On everything. “And, done!” Spike lay the parchment and quill on a nearby table. “I’m going to go take the little guys on a walk, give my claw some rest.” He started to head up the basement stairs. Being the only one down in the basement with Twilight and Spike, I rushed up the stairs ahead of Spike. Walks were the only time Twilight seemed to let us outside. “I’m just glad you don’t have a friendship report you need me to send out,” I heard Spike continue behind me, “my poor claw’s starting to cramp again.” “What?! Wait, what day is it?” Twilight called up to us. Spike looked over at the calendar. “Um, Tuesday…?” “Oh, nononono,” Twilight burst up from basement, “this is bad! I thought I would’ve learned from last week!” She turned to Spike and I. “Look after the Eevees, I’ve got to go find and solve a friendship problem before I’m tardy!” “I-” Spike couldn’t get more than that out before Twilight had ran out the door. “Okay, then.” He march over to one of the shelves, and pulled a scroll out from one of the lower drawers. “Good thing I wrote this up last week.” Tucking the scroll into the hammerspace all ponies seem to have, he turned to the front door. Or, more specifically, the hook he recently put in beside it to hold our leashes. Pulling them of their hook, he gave them a quick jangle. I made sure I was behind him when he did so. The rest of the pack ran out from their hiding places. I think I even saw Lulu pop out from under a bookshelf. We all waited patiently for Spike to hook us into our leashes. We don’t know why, but we had made an unspoken agreement not to give Spike any grief. I think that, with all the other crap he has to put up with, we figured we could give him a break. I mean, the only other pony that would help him look after us was Fluttershy, and she couldn’t spend her entire day with us. Even with us going easy on him, there was still a lot of work to do. Nine bowls of food every morning and evening, daily walks, cleaning the berry juices out of our fur, and all this on top of his normal chores? What little spare time he had was now eaten up by ‘nine little balls of stress and work’, as he once called us. <> Vince asked has he was getting his leash attached. Yomega looked towards the door. <> <> I said, moving out of Spike’s way so he could open the door. <> Spike led us to the nearby park. Then he let us off our leashes. That was another thing we liked about him: as long as we came back when he called, and did what he asked, he let us largely do our own thing. That wasn’t to say we were unsupervised. If we went too far from him, he would whistle to bring us back. On days when his claws weren’t cramped, he’d even bring a few frisbees for us to chase. I did not realize just how fun playing fetch was until I was the one bringing the frisbees back. Spike let us run off our energy for an hour or so before calling us back. Just as he finished clipping the last leash on, a rainbow colored mushroom cloud burst up from the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. Spike just sighed before looking down at us. “Alright, let’s go see what that’s all about then…” It took us a few minutes to get there, but we reached the entrance to the farm as Rainbow Dash was about to leave. “Hey, Rainbow!” Spike tossed the handle of the leashes over a fence post before running over the prismatic mare. “Do you know what the cloud earlier was about?” “Heh, sure do! That was me knocking down the last of AJ’s old barn.” Her gaze wandered over Spike before landing on us. “Hey, are those the Eevee things that Twilight was studying?” She took flight to hover over us. “Yup! I’m just taking them for a walk so they don’t start running around the library.” “Cool. How fast are they?” <> Zann grumbled. Spike rubbed the back of his head. “Well, Twilight doesn’t want me to give out specifics, but they’re actually slower than a normal pony. And they tire out faster, too.” “Aww, c’mon, Twilight said that they were faster than any other animal she’s seen!” She crossed her forelegs. “How can they be slower?!” “Well, that’s just it.” Spike shrugged, looking us over. “They seem to be able to pull burst of incredible speed out from nowhere, but they can’t sustain it for very long. Nothing Twilight’s found out about them seems to match any other kind of animal on Equis, so we’re thinking they’re some new kind of creature from the deep parts of the Everfree.” “Well, okay then. I gotta go get ready for that picnic we’re having later. See ya!” With that, Rainbow sped off. Spike shook his head as he grabbed our leashes. He led us back through Ponyville to the library. He didn’t stay long after removing our leashes before saying he needed to pick something up for Twilight. “Spike seems to be doing a lot for Twilight.” Cy began. “I kinda feel bad for him.” “I got an idea.” Abes stated, looking over Spike’s gem drawer. “Princess Celestia, wait! How did you know I was in trouble?” I could hear Twilight run out onto her balcony. The day had passed, to the best of our knowledge, as it had in the show. Only, Spike had come home far sooner than Twilight, and discovered nine dirt caked Eevees in the main room. He had quickly set about to cleaning us before Princess Celestia, Twilight, and Twilight’s friends could arrive. Now the princess was about to leave. “Your friend Spike made me aware that you were letting your fears get the best of you.” Came Celestia’s reply. “I commend him for taking your feelings seriously. Now, if you would all excuse me, I must return to Canterlot. I’m expecting some mail.” “Ya’ll heard the Princess,” Applejack’s voice rang out, “Spike, take a letter…. Spike?!” Spike rolled his eyes, grabbing a towel to dry his claws as he left the bathroom. “One second, I’ll be right there.” Spike left the room and turned to go down the stairs, tossing the towel behind him. Thankfully it landed near the tub. One by one, we jumped out to land on the towel, trying to do the best our best to dry ourselves off. We were still slightly damp when we made our way down the stairs. “So, what were you doing in the bathroom, Spike?” “Rainbow, you can’t just ask somepony that!” Rarity chastised. We came around the bend of the stairs to see the room below. “I was washing the Eevees off in the tub. They were covered in dirt when I got home.” Spike glanced over at Twilight. “I made sure the doors were closed before I left. I don’t know how they got out!” <> Conner yelled down. “Oh, no!” Twilight rushed to the basement door, dragging Spike in her aura. “With all the excitement, I forgot to give Celestia my preliminary findings on the Eevees! Quick, Spike, we got to send it now!” The other ponies collectively shook their heads before following the purple unicorn into the basement. Us Eevees, however, just went up to Spike’s room, and the small pile of gems we had manage to dig up over the afternoon. <> Conner asked, <>