Editor’s note: For whatever reason, I kept typing ‘Bottom’ instead of ‘Button’.
Another note: This is a large chapter. I’m proud of me.
Chapter Five
Twilight gave a happy hum as she placed a book onto a shelf. And then her eye caught sight of her research notes for the mirror. She sighed, leaning her head against the crystal of the shelf.
“H- Hello? Twilight? Are you in here?” Fluttershy’s voice sounded. Twilight perked up. A distraction in the form of her friend. She then scolded herself for using that sentence, even if it was just in her mind.
“I’m in the Library,” Twilight said, directing her voice towards the door. Fluttershy entered, and Twilight decided to close the doors behind her. A quick reach with a ‘magic net’, Twilight’s favorite method of interacting with objects, and the door swung close. Or, it should have.
“Ow! Oops, sorry,” a colt’s voice sounded. Twilight estimated the foal might be close to his twenties. Unless it was a griffin, in that case, the child would be about eight years of age.
“Sorry about that. I didn’t realize that someone was behind Fluttershy.” Twilight walked towards the door as it swung back open. She bent down slightly to look at the creature better. “Hmm. Changing Crystal. Skill level of seven or ten, based on the size, glow, solidity, and complexity of your form. Welcome to my Library. What kind of book would you like?” she asked, straightening back up.
“A- a book? What’s that?” the Crystal asked, facial features arranging, head tilting, and ears moving as if to indicate confusion. Skill level was at least an eight, to imitate emotions though body movement and facial expression. Voice had a very melodious effect to it, indicating that this Changing Crystal imitated a voice using an extremely controlled song, so perhaps a skill level of eleven.
Twilight gave a small squeal of excitement. Another creature to teach reading to! She rushed to a bookshelf, second row from the floor, eighth column; searching for a thin book with a red cover and golden spine with black spirals; book name, ‘Learning the E Alphabet’. “Let’s begin with the basics.” She lifted the book from its place, turning to face the Crystal.
“Um, I don’t mean to be rude, but, um. Well, we actually came so you could ask him some questions about him, since I may not understand some of the answers he gives me,” Fluttershy explained.
“He?” Twilight asked.
“Well, he sounds like a colt.” Fluttershy turned and looked at the Crystal. “Y- You are, right?”
The Crystal looked away from the vase he was inspecting. “Huh? Oh, yes, we are.” Twilight noted that the Changing Crystal identifies as male, and refers to itself as ‘we’. Twilight then frowned. Why did the Crystal alter its voice to imitate surprise, instead of letting out a surprised music note? “Um, is something wrong?”
Twilight shook her head slightly, causing her mane to shift but not bend. “No, nothing’s wrong. So, what am I supposed to ask you?”
“Um, anything, I guess,” he answered, looking at the vase. Most probable reasoning for that behavior was he was trying to memorize the proportions and patterns so he could shift into it, should the need arise.
“Alright. Take a seat.” Twilight sat in one of the large purple chairs with a high back and plush cushions. “Let’s begin with the basics. What’s your name?”
“I’m Friend. Or Fiend, but not often,” Friend answered as he sat on a red cushion of about level six plush and level four soft. He moved his appendages experimentally, as if testing the softness. Fiend was likely a name he used to separate emotions, a common practice of Changing Crystals.
“Where are you from?”
“I’m from Paradise,” he answered, turning in a small circle. There were five places in Equestria with Paradise as a name; two were towns inhabited by creatures commonly recognized as sentient.
“Could you describe this Paradise?” Twilight asked, placing away the reading book.
“Well, the main color is blue. Most of the shapes that live there are Flowers, but sometimes, there’s a Cube.” Friend poked at the cushion. He stepped off and tapped the ground, then went back onto the pillow. Twilight noted the behavior. Most likely explanation: Fluttershy found this Crystal in a cave that hasn’t been recorded before, seeing as how recorded Changing Crystals’ natural forms were rough spheres. This Crystal was a youngling wanting to explore the outside world, and was quick to learn the basic form of a quadrilateral creature. Well, better to work off of fact than notion.
“Fluttershy, where did you find Friend?” she asked, looking at Fluttershy’s spot at one of the tables.
“Oh. He was by the edge of the Everfree. Button Mash said he was a bird. Well, there were two of them. Oh, dear, I’m messing up.”
“It’s okay. Just try from the start,” Twilight assured. Cube bounced on the cushion, and then his face became one of surprise. His bounced again. He then seemed to lower himself. Most likely explanation: He hadn’t intended to design knees into his shape, and thus was testing his invisible knees.
“Okay. Sweetie Belle and Button Mash were helping me repair the chicken coop, and then I let them take a break. Button Mash said there were birds fighting, and then I guess the birds flew into their mouths somehow. They spat them out and ran off, and the birds landed in a bush by the edge of the Everfree. I sent Fred to make sure they were alright, and he came back later to let me know that the children were okay.
“Anyways, I had gone to the bush, when a bright flash of light came from it. I found Friend inside. I gave him some hot chocolate, and then Angel came into the room. He complained about Friend being in his spot and kept kicking him. Then- well. Um, Friend, is it okay if I tell her?" Fluttershy asked, turning towards him.
He looked up in surprise, balancing on his left limbs. "Huh? Oh- oh. Yes, it's alright."
Fluttershy nodded. "Thank you. Um, so, he became pink, and attacked Angel. But when Angel was hit, he also became pink. I think it may be a parasitic infection, but I'm not sure yet. He calmed down, and turned Angel, or, err, Devil back. Then, because it was getting late, I decided that I should take him to Rarity's to get something to cover him up, since he looks- Well, he looks like a Gelatinous Cube.
"Rarity pulled me to the side to ask me about him, and it upset him that Rarity was questioning about him. He turned pink again, but I calmed him down," Fluttershy said. Friend got up and went back to inspecting the vase. "Rarity gave him that cloak he's wearing, and she said that we should come to you to ask questions about him, since I wouldn't know what to ask. And now, here we are." She turned her head to watch Friend as Twilight digested the information.
“What color is this?” Friend asked, pointing at the vase.
“Hmm? Oh, it’s grey. Well, I like to call it storm-cloud-grey on the account of that being the design,” Twilight answered, forming the next questions to ask in advance.
“Grey. Not a color I’ve seen before. It’s almost . . . dry? But it’s a light shade of dry?” Cube tapped the vase. Because of its weight, it didn’t wobble.
“Alright, Friend. If you would like to take a seat, we can continue with the questions.” Friend went back to the cushion, lowering his body to it. “Could you tell me more about Paradise? Say, lands by it, the ‘colors’ and ‘shapes’ of the area, and the weather.”
“Alright. Um, Paradise is home to the Flowers and Cubes, although, some go to the other island chains. Paradise has fields and the Tree” - Twilight noted the use of singular. Perhaps there is a larger importance? - “on the main island, and a volcano on either of its smaller ones. Both are active. Um, there’s Utopia. Pentagons and Hexagons form there, but it’s home to circles and hexagons as well. There are blue forests on those islands. Um, Circles and Triangles are formed in Perfection. Those islands are flat and rocky, with some risings here and there, like caves above the ground. Water flows through, and there are springs everywhere. And then, there are Stars and Pluses. They live up in the sky with the sun. They control the weather during the night.”
Twilight noted all the information. Friend seemed to get sidetracked when he started on one set of information, since he did not answer about the colors. She should be writing this down. She sat up with a start. “Oops,” she muttered. She forgot to get Spike. He never forgot the importance of writing a note. She cleared her throat. “Spike! To the Library, please!” She relaxed her back, already hearing the sounds of his running feet. What a great little brother.
Spike threw open the doors to the Library. “I’m here!” he shouted. Friend jumped up in surprise of the shout. He landed on one limb at an angle, but that limb was on the cushion, causing him to slide. He fell, hitting the ground.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Spike called out. He ran over to Friend, about to help him up. Then Twilight spotted the glint in his eye that told him he found the scene ‘hilarious’. Spike stopped, looked at Friend sprawled out on the ground, and started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Friend asked as he attempted to get up. One limb was still on the pillow, and thus the angle of the force caused the pillow to slide, causing Friend to lose his balance once more.
“You are! You keep slipping around! It’s hilarious!” He continued to laugh.
“Spike, that’s not nice. Say sorry,” Twilight told Spike. She noticed a worried look on Fluttershy’s face.
“But look at it!” Spike insisted. Friend now looked nervous. He flashed pink, glaring in that moment. Twilight was surprised. Changing colors for emotion? She was starting to doubt that this was a Changing Cube.
He finally settled on pink, leaping up into the air and landing on his limbs evenly. “That’s it! Time for Fiend!” Before even Twilight could react, music began playing, and Friend’s, or rather, Fiend’s front limbs became clamps of some sort, grabbing the ground and turning it pink. He lifted it up, elongating the material, then let it drop. The floor rippled like water, hitting Spike directly. Twilight and Fluttershy were seated far enough away that only a few drops of pink landed by them.
“Spike!” Twilight called out.
“Stop! Don’t touch the pink!” Fluttershy warned. Twilight drew back her hoof. Fiend’s arms returned to normal and the music stopped, only to be replaced with a different rhythm.
Spike was gripping his chest, where a pink glow in the shape of a Love Spell Heart was on his chest, directly over the place of his own. The rhythm sounded out; 1. 2-3, 4. 1. 2-3. 4. Loop. With each beat, the pink spread. Twilight wracked her mind for a solution to this situation.
The pink glow covered Spike, and continued outwards. Fiend looked amused as it continued. Downwards and outwards, it grew, lifting Spike up. He kept growing to the beat, the end result being a pink version of Spike when he grew from Dragon Greed. The deepest shade of pink was by the heart, where it kept beating to the rhythm. He nodded his head to his heartbeat, and a giant scroll appeared by his left hand; by his right was a giant feather quill. The ground around him was spreading with pink, and it was slowly spreading up the furniture. Twilight and Fluttershy backed away to avoid the spread.
The giant Spike cleared his throat. Surprisingly, it was not much different than before, save for the addition of a growl-like sound accompanying it. “Paper, check. Quill, check. Twilight, check. Alright, Twilight, what do I need to write?” he said, his voice accompanied by the same voice-like growl.
“No, you laughing idiot! Turn them!” Fiend shouted.
“. . . Why?” Spike asked.
Fiend started tapping the ground in time to Spike’s rhythm. A low bass hum joined in. After a moment, Fiend stopped. “You’re old enough, Spiked Attack! Get them!”
Spike, or rather, Spiked scratched his head. “Well, it seems that dragons stay a baby longer, and then turn older faster at a certain point. Spike is still a baby, so he can’t infect anyone quickly. Just items.”
“Then throw an infected item at them! You are large enough! I’d do it myself, but my burden is too strong!”
“Yeah, I could feel that.”
“. . . Argh! I’ll turn them myself!” Fiend turned towards Fluttershy, who was trying to hide in her mane. Upon seeing her frightened state, he twitched, flashing blue. He stumbled back and forth, before settling on blue. “I’m so sorry!” he called out. Twilight noted that where he stepped was ‘de-pinked’. He went over to Spiked Attack. “May I turn you back?” he asked.
Spiked Attack shrugged. “I don’t see why not. He has enough of his mind to make me not want to move, so I’m kinda useless for conquest.”
Friend nodded. His ears floated into the air, a hum sounding out. With another hum, the triangle went into Spiked Attack, causing a spectrum of colors to radiate. The pink faded in a moment, and the ground and items were purged. Spike’s ‘Heart’ floated down, now a larger version of the Crystal Heart. As he touched the ground, the crystal faded, letting him gently slip to the ground.
Spike sat up, giving his left arm a flex. “That felt weird. . . But awesome at the same time! How’d you make me all strong like that? And who’s this ‘King’ I was thinking about?” he asked, getting to his feet.
Friend shook his head. “I’m sorry. It’s hard for me to think after I get upset and he comes out.”
Twilight stared, trying to calculate how much magic it would take to allow an infectious virus to also cast a physical shell as a radial. No, but that would mean a self replicating energy. Or maybe a different form of magic? Or maybe, for this scenario, she could call magic simply another form of energy, so she could compare it to this energy. Twilight’s ears twitched. Was sad music playing? It was a sort of a three-beat, but it wasn’t consistent.
She looked towards Fluttershy, to ask if she heard the sound. When Fluttershy wasn’t where she expected her to be, Twilight glanced about, her mane swishing. Spike tugged her mane, pointing out the now open Library doors. Lifting Spike onto her back, Twilight exited the room. She followed the three-beat sound, until she came across Fluttershy and Friend.
Friend was sitting on the ground, body shaking to the rhythm; Fluttershy had her arm across the region that would be considered shoulders on Friend. With a start, Twilight realized Friend was crying.
She stepped closer to them. One of Friend’s ‘ears’ flicked. He turned his head to look at Twilight, rotating his head about one-hundred twenty degrees. His left eye was still the flat line from earlier, angled outwards. His right eye, however, had become large and round, close to that of an Earth-Pony Written Q, a pink circle in the ring. “I’m sorry,” he said. “He’s so strong. It’s hard to hold him back. I’m so sorry.” He shook again, causing the uneven music to play. He faced forward. “I can’t even cry right!”
He continued to cry. Twilight reached a hoof out, then drew it back, unsure on how to comfort Friend. “. . . Maybe Pinkie could come over?” she thought out loud.
Fluttershy looked up. “That’s a wonderful idea! But since Pinkie works today, we could go to Sugar Cube Corner, and get some sweets in the process.” She looked at Friend. “Doesn’t that sound nice?”
“Sweets?” he asked. He looked at Fluttershy in what appeared to be surprise, but the context of the situation made it more likely that the expression was that of interest. “As in, candies?”
Fluttershy smiled. “Yes, candies.”