//------------------------------// // Griffon, the Bit** Off // Story: Twilight gets a Puppy // by TDR //------------------------------// Twilight Gets a Puppy. By TDR Griffon, the bitch off [One week after apple buck season, Golden Oaks Library] “You've gotten stronger.” Twilight stated flatly looking at the data the machine printed out. “Woof.” Rahs grumbled, still hooked up to said machine by a large number of wires, diodes, and sensors. “ I seriously doubt your protein intake has anything to do with it.” Twilight grumbled.” Your weight and mass haven't increased,but your energy output and recovery rate have.” “Bark?” Rahs questioned. “The apples?” Twilight considered. “Maybe, I'm not sure how much you get from eating magic over a long period of time. You do eat them a lot so perhaps the increase of magic consumption compared to how you were in Canterlot has something to do with it. Not much else has changed.......” “Bork!” Rahs snarked. “Of course I didn't forget we have a connection. What does that have to do with this.....oh.”Twilight muttered. “ I didn't consider that. I'll need to run more tests.” “Bork!” Rahs growled. “Oh calm down, not on you. If my magic has increased enough for the trickle you gain from the link then how much has the Element of Magic boosted my abilities. I really wish I had a base line on the other girls so I could have checked to see if they changed too.” “Bark.” Rahs responded. “Maybe. I mean that was pretty ridiculous. One pony managed that many apples.. But according to Big Mac it only takes the two of them to harvest it all every year. Though he did claim it was a bumper crop and they had a lot of trees producing for the first time this year.” Twilight considered as she unhooked her brother from the machine. “I'll need to recalibrate this to check myself out then I will try to get the other girls in for a reading.” “Woof.” Rahs pointed out as he stood up and stretched. “True I could use Sweetiebelle or Applebloom to give a related reading, but there's too many variables in that with how young they are.” “Grrr.” Rahs growled with a smirk. “Hmm, also true. I could get a reading from Big Mac, though his being male might alter the readings as well..... wait...” Twilight narrowed her eyes glaring at her brother as he whistled innocently. “ Stop trying to play match maker! I get enough of that from Cadence and mom!” “Bork!” Rahs chuckled. “I am not crushing on him!” Twilight snapped looking back at her equipment.” And for the record I look damn good in a lab coat thank you very much!” “Bark!” Rahs wailed getting a glare from Twilight. “I do NOT look like Dr. Frankfurter.” Twilight huffed.” I still don't know how you managed the part of Eddie. Also whoever wrote that play is nuts. How did that even get cleared to be shown again?” “Woof.” Rahs smirked . “Right,theater trade secrets.” Twilight grumbled looking at the data as she changed the subject again.” Remember to keep away from Fluttershy's. We don't need any more property destruction.” “Bork!” “ I don't care who started it. I told you before, I don't care how mad you were, the amount of destruction you and that rabbit caused should not have been possible. At the very least you should have been hurt more. You had a barn collapse on top of you.” “Bark.” Rahs grumbled pointed at the machine. “Because if I ask Fluttershy to study him that means I will have to keep that rabbit here for a while and I expect it is much easier to get you to sit still.” Twilight snorted.” Any way I need you to head up stairs and keep any one from bothering me. Pinkie Pie has a few days off and after she raved about Rainbow Dash for two hours earlier I'm not sure I want to deal with it in the middle of this. This research maybe important.” “Woof.” Rahs shrugged. “You don't really feel any different, huh? Maybe I should check Spike out too....” Twilight blinked as both of them heard knocking on the door upstairs, it stopped for a moment then started again when there was no answer.” I guess Spike's still out getting the scrolls I wanted from town hall. You mind getting that while I work on this?” Rahs nodded heading up the stairs, grabbing his coat on the way up, pulling it on. One day he was going to have to take Rarity up on her offer. “Woof?” Rahs asked as he opened the front door of the library. His ears perked up as he looked around curiously not seeing any one there. He sniffed the air catching hints of Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash, as well as a host of other ponies who had come and gone. But none of them was close enough to have been the one who knocked. He shrugged about to head back in when something caught his eye, a small circle of red sitting on the edge of the step. It was wiggling ever so slightly as if enticing him. He narrowed his eyes a little looking at it as it swayed back and forth. He stared at it a moment before he slapped a paw down atop of it. He lifted his hand up to look at it curiously only to see the spot wasn't on his paw. Looking down he noticed it was on the other side of the step. He slapped his paw down on that only for the spot to move out of the way, he swatted at it again only for it to dart out of reach again. Rahs growled leaping after it as it started trying to escape across the yard. And thus the chase was on. Twilight hadn't noticed that her brother hadn't come back. In truth she had expected him to depart first chance he got, he never liked these tests, then again neither did Spike. Still both she and princess Celestia had thought in necessary for her to have them done and to have a machine like this handy. Rahs feeding off her magic might cause complications when she was older, or if she was particularly drained. Though the latter turned out not to be a threat. They had tested what would happen if Twilight overcast all her magic on something, and surprisingly the link to Rahs remained intact, but it started flowing backwards draining magic from Rahs in order to return her to at least a base line of power. With the device watching the flows it was noticed that Rahs was pulling magic from other sources including both Spike and Shining Armor. While they could test what happened when Shining overcast, no one knew enough about draconic magic to figure out how to stop the flow from Spike, as distance didn't seem to be a factor. Still the mana reading device had been rather invaluable to monitor the flow of magic in her. And a good way to boost her ego as well. The average unicorn had around 200 mp, or Mana Production Units, untrained. Depending on age, genetic heritage, training, and even environment, that number could be lower or higher. Her parents were slightly above average with her father at 300 even, and her mother at 352. Shining Armor was at an astounding 873, though that had jumped from 378 after his basic training. Twilight's baseline was 1431 point 813, there were probably continuing numbers, but the equipment was only so sensitive. Foals tended to fluctuate all over the place until they reached maturity which meant that their power could be massive at first , then taper off to average or lower in adulthood. Granted it could also go the other way. Princess Celestia shorted out the machine the one time she was tested and the machine's MP meter went to 9000. So did Cadence. The machine could be used to test Earth Pony magic and Pegasus magic too, though it was far less accurate. There were other machines to test other ponies. Fortunately the machine worked on Rahs as most of the magic in him came from Twilight. On average his readings were a baseline of around 700 shifting depending on what he had eaten recently as well as his proximity to his three siblings. His highest reading had been when Shining and Spike were also in the room and that was 902. Currently his readings were at 1512. That was enough to worry her, but Twilight had run her own base line again while Rahs was gone and had found out why. Her current baseline was 3141 point 592. She had run the test three times and found the readings to be the same each time. She REALLY needed to talk to Princess Luna about Rahs, and Princess Celestia about the Elements of Harmony. Rahs sat up and spit out the half gallon of water he felt like he swallowed as he coughed. The dot had managed to trick him into leaping into the river after he chased it across town. He had run it up buildings, under ponies, and through market stalls. He was pretty sure he had sent a few ponies and products flying as he chased the vile red dot. Still he hadn't heard any one screaming at him, just a lot of laughter so evidently he hadn't broken anything in his single minded pursuit. Looking around he didn't see the dot but he heard a lot more laughing. Shaking his head to clear the water from his ears, he noticed a cloud nearby with a rainbow colored tail sticking out of it and a bush on the ground with a fluffy pink one poking out of it. Both of those were laughing hysterically. Not seeing the dot Rahs climbed out of the water going over to see what was going on. Pinkie Pie was laughing so hard she was crying and Rainbow Dash was the same way from what he could see. Both of them were holding small mirrors with red film over them. Rahs blinked as both of them stopped laughing a moment to look at the confused and completely soaked Moon Dog, before they fell over laughing again. [ The next day] Rahs raised a brow looking at Rainbow Dash's friend. The Griffoness Gilda looked up at him. They both looked at Rainbow Dash curiously. The Cyan mare looked at Spike. Spike shrugged. “What? You expected the two of them to hit it off because they both eat meat?” Spike rolled his eyes. "Seriously do you expect a pony to be friends with every other pony because they eat cupcakes or something?” “Pinkie Pie.” Gilda frowned deeper and Rainbow Dash smirked as Spike grumbled. “Right okay, but we've already established that mare's not right.” Spike rolled his eyes. “Any way we've told you Pinkie Pie is having a party for Gilda. Our job's done.” “Where are you off to anyway?” Dash asked. “While your prank was a good one Twilight needed those scrolls and the Princess isn't going to send them back by dragon fire so we have to go to Canterlot and pick them up along with the rest of the stuff we were moving down here.” Spike explained. “You're willing to miss the party?” Gilda asked. “It's Pinkie Pie. If we asked she'd throw us a 'we missed the party', party.”Spike sighed. ”It's no biggy.” “Woof?” Rahs asked. “What?” Gilda demanded. “Hmm oh he wants to know if you're related to a Griffon we know in Canterlot who works for the Princess.” Spike answered. “Oh of course because every Griffon ever is related.” Gilda snapped. “Bark.”Rahs added. “He says you smell like him. That's why he asked.” Spike added. “I smell like him?” Gilda asked looking up at Rahs her eyes narrowing. “ Perv.” Rahs chuckled showing his fangs and offering a rather theatrical bow to the Griffoness, though his amber eyes never left her. “Yeah yeah come on, I'd like to get back before next week, we already have to stay the night.” Spike grumbled waddling off towards the new train station.” Nice meeting you Gilda.” Gilda and Rainbow Dash watched the pair leave before Gilda grumbled looking at the cyan mare. “So how do you know those two idiots?” Gilda demanded. “Huh, oh, they're the brothers of another friend of mine. I'll introduce you to her at the party.” Dash chuckled.” Little dude spat fire at an immortal nightmare goddess to save every pony and the tall one was flung across a chasm to help me out when I was surrounded by like a dozen shadow monster things. He was freaking awesome. He only got two of them while I cleared out the rest and he had to chase down the last one, but it was still cool.” “Ehh i'll take your word for it.” Gilda smirked. ”He might be the most interesting thing I've seen here yet.” “It's definitely been a trip since those three showed up.” Dash agreed. “Yeah... pity he doesn't have wings.” Gilda muttered. “Two to Canterlot.” Spike told the ticket mare setting a claw full of bits on the counter as payment. He turned glaring at Rahs who was still smirking. “Okay spill it, what's got you so amused?” Spike grumbled, more upset at missing Pinkie Pie's party than he was trying to let on. Sure she would hold another, but free cake was free cake. “Woof.” Rahs chuckled. “Yeah I guess she was kinda pretty. A bit rough around the edges though.” Spike shrugged. “Didn't quite hit the cute or beautiful scale hard enough for me though.” “Bark.” Rahs added. “She smelled pretty? Oh right that predator, prey thing you keep sayings kept you from ever getting a date.” Spike grinned. “Grrrrr.” Rahs growled, as Spike collected the tickets. “Oh, no, no, I totally believe you that pony's smell too much like something to eat for you to be attracted to them. Yep toooootally get that's the only reason you're still single.”Spike snarked. “BORK!” Rahs snapped. “ Of course I've not seriously dated any one, I'm twelve. What' your excuse?” Spike grinned as the pair boarded the train.