//------------------------------// // Matutina Infirmitatem // Story: The Apex Predator // by Dakln //------------------------------// Spike found himself in a hazy space. Vibrant colors stretched out to what seemed like eternity. Confusion enveloped Spike’s mind as he stood up to scan the area. He noticed a large pool of black water right in front of him; as Spike looked into it, he noticed that the water was too dark to tell its depth. After examining it for a bit longer; Spike felt a force push him into the water. He screamed as his entire body felt nothing but unfamiliar cold while being submerged into the blackness. Pain also pierced his flesh; as he was squirming in agony. Then, in contrast with the cold, extreme heat pulsed through his body like molten lead, Spike’s heart began to pump faster and faster at a dangerous rate. The heat spread from his chest down to his arms and legs, and felt a dense, searing pain blast through his bones, as if the unseen force had a bone to pick with his marrow. During his turmoil, blurry visions appeared in his mind. Spike saw Rarity’s face; she was frightened and weak, a feed tube in her nose and blood trickling out of the side of her mouth, which strangely gave him feelings of anger and horror. He also saw an outraged stallion yelling at something, but didn’t quite see what the stallion was yelling at. The stallion was screaming what seemed like hurtful slurs and insults, throwing rocks at the unknown object. Many other random scenes of discomfort went through Spike’s mind; he saw many glimpses of Rarity, Twilight and his other friends. There were quick scenes of happiness, (like a scene with him, Rainbow Dash and Rarity laughing about something, but what it was, he couldn't tell) and quick moments of what seemed like pure chaos (a monstrous beast was tearing up Ponyville without even touching anything. But for some reason, this creature seemed familiar). The visions kept on coming though Spike, until they abruptly stopped, and were replaced with falling... falling... Spike woke with a start. Beads of sweat raced down his forehead, and the bed upon which he was currently resting was the finishing line. His head was pounding, each individual throb an excruciating promise of a thousand more to come. His vision was blurred, and occasionally, it would split into two separate images in his view, each one demanding his full, undivided attention. In his current state, that was simply too much to ask for. His eyes weren't the only blurry part of him. When he tried to recall what had happened the night before, the last thing he could pull up was him and Twilight leaving to see the comet. After that, it was a haze. He lifted his claws up to his head to rub his temple in a feeble attempt to remember the events of the night before. But, try as he might, he was unable to renew any memories. Finally, he lowered his claws in defeat. Then, without warning, nausea hit him harder than a freight train, and he found himself desperately searching for a bowl in which to hurl. He didn't have to look far though, because, as luck would have it, he found a bowl sitting next to the bed. And in the short window of time before he buried his face in said bowl, he also spotted a stain on the carpet, which he presumed to be his own vomit. "Jeez," he thought in between retches, "What the hay happened last night?" With the last retch came a small belch, but even as small as it was, it was enough to shoot a small flame from his mouth, which ignited the former contents of his stomach, instantly turning it into a vapor floating over his head. Thankfully, it didn't smell as bad as he would have thought. In fact, it smelled... good. Weirdly so. Spike had ignited vomit before, at a time when Twilight had the flu and he was taking care of her, thinking it would be a quicker, cleaner, and less smelly way to clean out the bowl. Oh boy, was he wrong! The flame had turned the bile into an acrid black smoke, whose fumes were so foul, so absolutely noxious, that it caused Spike to come down with his own case of the flu. After Spike and Twilight had evacuated the library, they had to call Fluttershy over to take care of them, as neither of them were in any condition to take care of themselves. But for some reason, the same did not apply here. The fumes that were given off by his upheaval couldn't even be called fumes. Steam would have been a more appropriate word. Said steam smelled, surprisingly enough, like tea tree oil. Or was it Aloe Vera? Did Aloe Vera have a smell? In any case, the steam also shared one other trait with tea tree oil, that being it's soothing, cool vapors, which seeped slowly through Spike's nostrils, easing his headache and relieving his nausea. Normally, such an occurrence would have confused him to the point where the mere thought of what was wrong with the situation would revive the headache. But it was too early, he was too tired, and the rest of his body was in too much pain for him to really care. Feeling a little trickle on the corner of his mouth, Spike lifted a claw and wiped his mouth clean. As he did this, the back of his claw brushed against his upper lip, and he felt something crusty there. Curious as to what it was, he picked at it a little bit until a little speck of whatever it was fell into his palm. The little speck was dark reddish-brown. It was blood. Dried blood. This managed to bring back an inkling of a memory. It wasn't much, but it was enough to clear up a lot about what had happened last night. They had gone to see the comet, and supposedly, a piece of it had fallen into the field before them. Personally, he didn't think it was a piece of Faust's Comet, because that had never happened before. After that, it was hazy. Either way, something had made his nose bleed. Spike looked around and saw, amongst the many bookshelves that hugged around the circumference of the room, as if they were the wallpaper, the door to the bathroom. I better clean my face off, he thought to himself, getting up out of bed and lethargically shuffling over to the bathroom, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he did so. Once there, he turned the faucet on to its hottest setting and waited until the water was giving off steam so thick it could be cut with a knife. He cupped his claws under the flow of scalding water and was unphased by it. The same applied when he splashed the piping hot water onto his face, save for the fact that the heat cleared up his sinuses as well as the fogginess in his head, that one would feel after waking up. Spike just wished that that applied to his memories of last night. He searched through the sink cabinets for something he could use to scrape of the scabs underneath his nose. After a little bit, he managed to find some steel wool and, upon seeing it, winced. His scales were weaker around his face, and thus, were more susceptible to pain, meaning that this was probably going to hurt, if only a little bit. But at least that would be better than having a bunch of unsightly scabs under his nose. He squirted a little soap into the steel wool, put it under the water and, working up a lather, began scraping his philtrium. As he did, the heat and steam continued to clear his head, and in this moment of clarity, a wild thought appeared. Since when have I been tall enough to use the sink without my stool? he thought. As the realization hit him, he stopped scrubbing and his eyes widened. He realized that he had never gotten a chance to look at himself in the mirror, and promptly looked up... Spike could not believe his eyes. 5 minutes earlier... Twilight awoke slowly, with Applejack gently pushing her shoulder "...and I thought MY jokes were bad..." she slurred groggily as she woke, having been pulled from a dream... it was... something about a pencil... and maybe there was a clown in there... It didn't matter, it was gone now. "What was that, sugarcube?" asked a curious Applejack, having heard the nonsensical mumblings, but not fully understanding. Twilight took a moment to look around, and saw all of her friends standing around her with worried stares painted on their faces. "She said something about her jokes being bad" Rainbow Dash replied. "I wouldn't worry about it though." "And I neither," Rarity chimed. "After all, it only seemed like the ramblings of an interrupted dream. It's nothing, really." "What do you mean, it's nothing?!!" Shouted Pinkie Pie, "a joke that's not good is like a cake without frosting! Or a PB&J without the J or the PB, or--" "Girls!" Twilight giggled. "Please! Just give me a second to get up and breathe!" "Aw shucks," replied Applejack, "We jest got a little worried is all, what with you not getting any sleep by the time we dosed off." "Well, what can I say? I was taking care of Spike all night. Ever since he touched that meteor, he's been throwing up all over the place and his nose's been bleeding, the poor thing. I don't know when I got to sleep last night." "You finally crashed at about four in the morning," Fluttershy finally piped up. "You fell asleep on the floor right in front of the bedroom. I got up to get a glass of water right around the same time. I couldn't just leave you there like that, so I made a pallet for you." "Thanks, Fluttershy." Twilight smiled. Then, from behind the door, Twilight heard the most unpleasant sound of retching and coughing, accompanied by the sound of sloshing liquids. "Ohh... Listen to him!" She groaned sadly. "He sounds so horrible!" Then, the sounds changed from bad to worse, as the retches switched to sounds more akin to strained screams, and the liquid sounds became as frothy as that layer of bubbles that appear atop a soda when it's first poured. "You should probably make him some soup", said Fluttershy. "You know what?" replied Twilight, "That is a wonderful idea, I'm going to do that right now." And with that, she went into the kitchen and grabbed a small pot. But before she could turn on the burner, a pleasant smell caught her attention. "Do you smell Aloe Vera?" she asked. "Hmm..." replied Rarity, upon taking a whiff herself, "More like tea tree oil, darling. But where is it coming from?" And then, just as quickly as it came, it went. Twilight found this a little odd, but decided not to worry about that and turned on the burner. "Now, what would you recommend, Fluttershy?" she asked. "I would use tomato bisque," Fluttershy answered. "That always seems to do wonders whenever one of my patients has the flu." "OK, then, tomato bisque. Let me see if I have that" Twilight mused as she searched through the cupboard. It took her a little bit, but she managed to find a can of the stuff, the contents of which she promptly poured into the pot, which had just begun to warm up. Suddenly, a scream emanated from the room in which Spike was currently resting. An unfamiliar voice, a foreign voice. A stallion's voice. The girls said nothing, not even hesitating to rush into the room from when the scream had come. Throwing open the door, they were all ready to fight whoever it was that was attacking Spike. They could not believe their eyes.