Day 3 (12AM) - Kolec
Have you ever been to a family reunion where a simple disagreement ruins the atmosphere and makes everything from there on out uncomfortable? Well, apply the uncomfortable-ness to this situation and you get a good idea how long everything seemed. The girls were all in the tree house, the lights were all on, and they stared at me and Basak. Whether it be a stare of bewilderment, fear, or something else, I had no idea. All I knew was that the hours we all spent together felt like days every minute we couldn't leave.
As much as I enjoyed hanging out with Pinkie Pie, was this truly worth it? I sure talked the talk about a 'lack of repercussions', but of course, the worst outcome occurs. Lovely, now Basak will be all I told you so! Stop being a moron!, and I hate it when I prove his theories right . . .
"Why didn't you come to us sooner, Spikes?" A heavy emphasis on the 's' was given from the rainbow pony. "You had to have been around for at least two weeks and you didn't think once to- AH!" She quickly jumped as a fire dart just dodged her.
"I told you, don't you ever call me Spike. I know how to use fire." His voice got very dark as he went put out the small dart of fire with his foot. "I don't insult you for no reason, do the same for me for Tartarus sake." He grumbled as he went back to his starting position. For some reason, I got chills when he said Tartarus.
"Oh you little-!" The rainbow pony quickly said before walking up quickly to Basak. I want to point out that Basak and I are at least half a head taller than all of the ponies present (yes, we are at least teenage drakes), so naturally he gave a small chuckle to her remark. It was a struggle, but I managed not to make a sound, though a smile crept across my face. "You aren't hot stuff! Stop acting so edgy and just answer the question already!" She seemed quick to anger, but I didn't want to bring that up, obviously, that's like dousing a small fire with gasoline.
"Um . . . I'm gonna make a guess and say, Rainbow Dash?" I said pointing a finger to her, to which she nodded with the distain still on her face. "Y'see, he doesn't like being called Spike. It's a bit of a rough spot for us to bring up. Besides, you DID provoke him. . ." I'm not sure how much that may have altered her anger, but she seemed to have gone back to a poker face. "Oh, right! I'm going to assume that you already know Twilight told us not to speak up. That's fairly obvious in this situation. But, to tell you the truth, we are just as unaware to the situation as everyone else is." And that was true of me to say. Ever since I popped into the room where the Duality Gem supposedly was, I didn't remember much of anything beforehand. "What were me and him supposed to say? Hey, we are dragons that resulted from an unknown effect of this weird gem the Princess found. Want to hang out?"
Rainbow Dash anger seemed to dim but she held a more indifferent composure now, "Well . . . I don't know! If I came from some random experimental thingy I certainly wouldn't be sitting in here all day! Even if Twilight told me to do so!"
"Now Dashie . . ." Pinkie began, "You know how scary Twili can get when we don't follow her instructions. You know Spike would never hear the end of anything he did if he didn't do it the exact way she told him to!" She even managed a giggle, "Don't be so hard on them, they have an excuse: they were practically born yesterday!"
"Actually . . .We first came out of that gem process a little over two weeks ago." Basak with a raised eyebrow remarked.
"No, silly!" She shook her head quite rapidly, "Just because you came into existence at that time doesn't mean you actually lived! When I broke in yesterday and you had to do stuff on your own, that's when life began for you two! Just as life never started for me until I threw my first few parties! They were so~ much fun and now I can host parties pinktuple the fun!"
"Did she just make up that word from her name?" Basak whispered to me; I responded with a confused shrug. "I'm not even gonna argue the 'not-living' point with you . . ." He spoke once more, giving himself a slow face palm. He walked away from us and left for the stairs. If you couldn't tell already, Basak is very cynical and sarcastic, almost a bit full of himself to an extent, but he means well. He may seem like an entitled jerk, but that's not all there is to him, trust me.
"Yeah . . . Sorry to make it seem so boring, Rainbow, but there's really not much to be said that hasn't already been figured out, considering Rarity sort of manipulated Basak." Rarity seemed offended by it, but I cut her off before she even began, "Come on, even if you were trying to get to the bottom of the situation, you still took advantage of his ignorance. No grudges or anything, but it was technically manipulation, just of a good-natured kind, I suppose." That seemed to calm her down, but it became obvious that I have to watch what I say around them, girls are a lot different from Basak and even Twilight (she'd kill me for saying that, but it's true!).
"U-Um..." A soft voice coming from the back of the group cut through them, the yellow mare in particular beginning an approach, "D-do you know if Spike is alright? Can you . . . um, sense anything about him? I hope he's alright, he was such a good dragon . . ." I couldn't think of what her name was, but I definitely knew about her character.
Here's the thing: I may remember things about people or remember their names, rarely both. To give an example, I do not know much about Rainbow Dash, although I did know her name and how she and Spike met. The same applies to Basak, although he usually remembered knowledge from books more than other ponies. A lot of the evidence seems to suggest that me and Basak are split from Spike, but the specifics don't lead me in one direction or the other, and I sorta have a hard time believing the theory. It is a hunch, but I'm going to just say that me and Basak have a connection to Spike for now.
Knowing all of this, I was unsure on how to answer the mare truthfully; there was no clear answer to the situation. If I gave her hope, then it may be crushed, but if I give her the worst, she'll be devastated for months, possibly over the course of a year. Trying to reach a middle ground, I spoke out, "Twilight and the Princess have told me that the likelihood Spike was killed or hurt is low. That is all I can say for sure, but I think he is safe." I'm not sure if she was comforted or upset by the answer, though it seemed to satisfy enough. She wasn't crying nor did she have tears, so I could sense that was a good thing from her.
"Whut do yah mean, fine? The only thang that makes sense is that Spike was split into you and Basak! You can't just keep trying to toy with Fluttershy's emotions!" Applejack told me with a stern glare. Fluttershy is her name, got it. I thought to myself. I had to be swift with my response so Fluttershy wouldn't think she is completely true.
"There are plenty of theories that make sense. The Princess even said so, but considering I'm one of the two who are connected to Spike, I think I can sense things better than others about him, I can safely say Spike is more than dandy." I may have exaggerated a little bit, but I don't want any of these girls to think they know the full story when even me and Basak don't have the clearest picture.
"I will trust you for now. But if you were attempting to hide the truth you may know, you will be thinking twice for the rest of your days when I find out." She was definitely not someone I wanted to have on my bad side, as her statement rightfully showed. Luckily for me, I didn't necessarily hide the truth, I simply inferred and got a decent answer. I'll just have to hope she thinks the same way I do if, for whatever reason, I'm wrong.
I looked at the clock, and it was almost a quarter after twelve. Twilight would be here any minute, I was sure of it, and she would not be happy that they all figured out. I better hope that the girls side with me in a way that makes me not get in trouble . . . What was that?
Clop, clop, clop, clop came from outside the front door. There were small jingles, likely her key ring, and an unlock. That's when things got awkward; the door didn't actually open. It wasn't like she was trying to open the door either, she simply trotted away from it
"Stay put, girls." Rainbow said, "It may be a trick to avoid us." She obviously wouldn't buy just anything after Twilight avoided them all. It's respectable, but such a mindset could cause issues in the wrong situation. I disregarded her statement and walked to the door, only the realize I was locked in. What!? She has a key like that? Why would she lock us in without even knowing who is in here? I had to act it off though, I didn't know her plan and can't just try to do something that may make me look worse.
"I'll stay put with you then, she can't avoid me forever; I live here." I said in defeat.
Basak
Waiting on Twilight to come back made me realize something: she was acting extremely off before she left to go wherever she went. Most of the time she was silent, though when she did talk it was mumbles to herself with a hopeless exterior. In fact, now that I think about it, she never even said she was going anywhere before she left. We only knew she'd be back around twelve-fifteen because she left a small note just stating she'll be back at that time.
Now, with your deductive reasoning skills, figure this out. Was Twilight: a) going do something dangerous, risky, or stupid, b) doing something ten times worse than that, c) ignoring her brain and doing something a thousand times worse, or d) all of the above? I'm going to go with 'd', because you'd have to be extremely ditzy to not think that.
Unlike Kolec, I think about stuff like that more carefully and notice faults. Axioms, mathematical laws stated to be true, have often been put in situations where they are no longer true. What do mathematicians do from there? They usually ignore the issue and don't let math get into such situations where it happens. However, despite how Kolec the genius may be treating it, Twilight's problems cannot be ignored or avoided. She isn't the most reliable source and has slowly been going crazy without her assistant, the oh-so wonderful Spike she never fails to mention. (More on that later, now isn't the time.)
There are advantages to going upstairs to be alone from the group that stayed downstairs. One example? Seeing Twilight approaching the tree house and trotting around to the front from her bedroom window. Let me tell you something, I was not about to be caught downstairs in the midst of the madness that was surely about to ensue. I liked to be in a calm state of mind and such an argument would not only annoy me, but keep me from thinking about things that are genuinely important. That isn't what happened though, which came as a shocker.
The lavender mare walked back into the sight from the window and, I guess, tried walking out from view. However, I could still see her barely from my field, and what I saw was . . .a bit surprising, to say the least. She had a potion in a test tube in one hoof with a book in the other. Naturally, I was suspicious. Very quietly, I unhooked the window seal and slid it up. Instinct told me to get out there and I did. It took a lot of effort, but I made no noise loud enough for the mare to take notice and turn around. Then, the mood finally revealed itself: she was sobbing.
Listen, I don't get emotional about nearly anyone when it comes to anything, or at least I haven't yet because of nothing serious. But . . . seeing her so choked up opened my heart. I didn't even know what she was going through and somehow I felt her pain. I reached out a claw with true sorrow in my face, though I held it back. Sometimes you can't take away from a moment and this felt like something I needed to see, at least part of it. Through chokes and sniffles, Twilight began to slowly talk to herself.
"I'm sorry, but it is the only way I can get close to figuring out anything . . . Please forgive me, everybody . . ." She finished and levitated the potion. She wiped her eyes with her hooves and began to bring the potion closer, but I would not let it reach her lips.
"Twilight, don't!" I rushed to her and plugged the tube with a finger, steadying a firm grip on it. She looked up, our eyes connected, and I could see it all: every bit of pain that has been going through her mind that she couldn't necessarily share. Words were not coming for either of us, all I thought to do was take the potion with my left claw and hug her. She continued her soft sobs on my shoulder but I didn't stop her. The worst part of it all happening was that I never shed a tear. They didn't come to me because I didn't know her, yet I did . . . It sounds complicated, and it is, but I felt really awful in the moment.
Wanna know the perfect way to kill a touching moment? Having five ponies and a dragon appear from the window in that moment and watch it all happen. With a snarling look on my face, I motioned for them to shut their traps and go back inside. They did, to my surprise (they seemed too stubborn!), and I got out of the hug and told Twilight, "Listen, let's go inside. The girls are here and they know a lot about the situation, Kolec let them in for some ungodly reason. You can't avoid it, we need to face it finally." The truth was, I didn't want to face it any less than she did, but I had to be strong and encourage her.
The final tears dropped from her face and she cleared the areas the stream came from and took a step back, "A-Alright. Thank you, Basak..." We walked to the front of the tree house and she unlocked the door, opening to reveal Kolec and the five mares. I knew this was going to be a long night. I did what I could though, and not much else I could've done would make me be of any more assistance. I gave Kolec a look of If you don't help her I'm going to beat you to a pulp. Considering he nervously shook his head as Twilight and I walked in, I think he got the message. Maybe it was an ego thing, but I couldn't comfort her in front of the rest of them, so I retreated back up the stairs as I took one more glance down at everyone.
Besides, I had to take a look at the potion I took from her and see exactly what it was.