Spike knew next to nothing of Satyrs.
Like a significantly larger number of creatures and folk than he’d expected, Equestria knew next to nothing about them, and prior to meeting Kipkirui, he’d never even heard of them. And because of that, he’d chosen to try and make sense of them by keeping a mental list of things Kipkirui had told him, or things he’d seen and assumed might be an overarching behavior of Satyrs.
He’d lived with the hyper organized Twilight his whole life, lists made things make sense.
The first thing he’d discovered is that there were different kinds. Pictures of Kipkirui’s extended family littered around the house revealed that while his uncle bore greater similarities to a moose, his aunt was much more like Kipkirui himself, a goat. That said, outside of appearances, Kipkirui bore some similarities to his Cervid uncle, and shed his horns annually. Spike discovered this after finding a box in a hall closet labeled old horns. He said that they typically fell out in late winter, which would be interesting to see if nothing else.
The second thing was that they were terrifyingly musically inclined. Everything that Kipkirui did had a natural rhythm to it, and virtually any instrument he touched seemed to bend to his will, even a simple harmonica. When asked about it, he beamed, and pulled out a large book and a pan flute.
“See Spike, most Satyr magic is done through music. Our horns can best be seen as conductors, or amplifiers, but the music does a lot of the leg work. You can cast spells without it, but it’s much easier with. Pan flutes are preferred, but we can do it with pretty much anything. It’s a bit of a magical adaptation. For example,” He flipped through the book, before stopping on one page in particular. “Watch, and see.” He ran his fingers along the pan flute a few times, before speeding into a joyful melody that felt like an incredible mood booster. As he played, his horns began emitting that same plasma-like energy, and the flute began to glow too, as the few clean dishes lying in the sink began to float themselves into the cabinets.
“Woah.” Though it wasn’t particularly interesting, he’d seen unicorns float things around all the time, but the fact that it was a brand new way of performing magic that he hadn’t seen yet was intriguing enough.
“Eh, two birds, one stone. I could do something a lot cooler, but I’m not good at memorizing melodies. Of course, for a lot of spells there is a certain intent basis, you can just freestyle and think of what you want to happen and it’ll happen, but the fancier stuff takes the actual music to do.” He closed the book, leaving it on the table. “The one big spell that I memorized was the Mini Star, it basically just makes bigger versions of the gem lights that can actually create heat or cold.”
“How do you choose which one?”
“Major or minor key.” He tweeted out some notes, and a small, slightly warm, yellow light floated aimlessly down the counter. He played the same notes again, only this time in a minor key, and a pale blue light appeared. Spike put his claw next to it, and had the strange sensation like the heat was literally being sucked out of the area the light was in.
“Cool. I can’t do magic with it, but I can play the piano.” Kipkirui nodded, slightly impressed.
“I didn’t peg you for classical.”
“Honestly it was more a thing I picked up than actually setting out to learn it. I heard a lot of piano growing up in Canterlot. Then I kind of reverse learned how to play, playing what I’d heard, then looking at sheet music and seeing what notes I was actually playing, and then learning how the Piano worked. “ Kipkirui had moved from impressed to near shock.
“How do you even do that? That sounds like more trouble than learning to play the Piano from scratch.” Spike shrugged.
“It’s just how I learned. If you happen to have a piano I could show you.” Kipkirui shook his head.
“I never got a piano. Didn’t know where’d keep it. Plus, I can’t play.”
“But you can read sheet music?”
“It’s like a weird mental block. My hands don’t like to make the right motions.”
It sounded a bit weird, but Spike could understand it. He hated a few specific types of calligraphy because his claws hated making the letters loop right.
The third thing he’d learned, and this is the one that he’d been almost completely sure was a Kipkirui only thing, was that habits and routines meant nothing to them. Kipkirui lived without structure and without routine, and Spike couldn’t tell if enjoyed it or not.
He never told Spike to wake up at a specific time, and he was never up by a specific time, and he went to bed when he felt tired, never trying to stay up to get something done or go to sleep early if he had to be up early. He ate when he was hungry, and even though he did have named meals, the reason he usually left the vast majority to Spike wasn’t just because he had to eat more, it was because he only ate as much as he needed to feel satisfied, and when he felt hungry in the middle of the day, he made something to eat.
Now, Spike wasn’t judging, he had a lot of those habits too, but living with Twilight he’d expected at least mild rigidity. She got up at seven in the morning, and went to bed at nine at night, always. Assuming the rare situation where she had to be up earlier, she would adjust accordingly, and make sure that she always got exactly ten hours of sleep. Unless she was in the midst of a worry fit, freak out, or deep study session. It was clockwork, and she held him to a looser, but still relatively similar system. She let him sleep earlier usually, but in return she usually woke him up when she woke up. Unless he really protested, then she let him sleep in. She let him snack, but she made sure that he didn’t over eat. Was it over eating if he was supposed to eat so much? Well, it was usually junk food, so it still probably counts. Regardless, Kipkirui had no qualms about waking up at noon and going to bed at five in the morning, heck, Spike had seen him do it in the five or so days that he’d been here. It didn’t interrupt him much, but he found it odd to have such a lack of structure.
Of course, he became much more willing to believe this final thing was a Kipkirui only thing, because if it wasn’t, he doubted that Kipkirui would know exactly when the store opened, or that the employees would probably show up late.
As they walked through the somewhat dense forest, Spike had a moment of wondering how Kipkirui’s clothes managed to stay so immaculately clean when he frequently walked through dirt, plants, and mud, given that he never seemed to leave the forest. Kipkirui was tall, sure, but when you kick up dirt, height doesn’t help your coat stay clean if the dirt flies upward, and it did, constantly.
“How do you do it?” Kipkirui looked over at him.
“Do what?”
“Stay so clean. I’m struggling to keep minimal dirt off me here. You’re a bigger target and there’s nothing on you.”
“Satyrs are nature mages, and unless it’s sticky, or something only semi-natural, or even not natural at all, it kinda just slides off of us. Dirt, grass, twigs, it all just kind of slides off.”
“How does that extend to your clothes?”
“It’s magical in nature, so it's more of a field of magic than my skin or fur doing the work.”
“Wow, I wish that were me.” Kipkirui reached into a pocket on the interior of his coat (Spike knew because he had the same pocket) and pulled out a smaller set of pan pipes. He ran across the pipes quickly, playing a melody that seemed slightly familiar to Spike, when a wave of magic flew from his horns and washed over Spike. He looked himself over, and realized that the light amount of dirt and grass that had accumulated on him practically melted off, and he smiled. “Thanks!”
“No problem. Recognize that melody, by any chance?” Spike furrowed his brow as he tried to remember.
“Was it… part of Sonata number 17 in D… no, C!” Kipkirui nodded. Spike pumped his fist in celebration. “My limited knowledge of classical music paid off.”
“It’s a popular one, and it sounds pretty alright on Pan Flute, if a little high.”
From then on the walk to the village was a game of music, Spike trying to guess what songs Kipkirui played, while Kipkirui tried his best to translate the notes.
Twilight moved as fast as she could, hoping to catch up to Spike, who continued to move away. Weaving through the trees wasn’t easy, and she got caught up a few times by places she couldn’t squeeze through and had to move around, but it barely slowed her down at all. She needed to find him. Applejack was right with her, and she was faring even better. She even quipped about it being good training for the next rodeo. The pings got louder and louder, and when she eventually happened upon a clearing, she saw him. Spike, oddly dressed up, talking with a creature she didn’t recognize, standing in front of a tree even larger than the one she’d first caught ping of him at. She ran out of the last of the trees, smiling more than she had in days.
“Spike!” He turned to face her, and a whirlwind of emotions seemed to hit him at once before it eventually turned to happiness. He ran to her, and the creature he was standing with followed.
“Twilight!” He hugged her forehoof, and she hugged him back, nearly in tears. Eventually he let go, and she pulled back. Applejack caught up and got the same treatment
“Well there you are, sugar cube. Twilight’s been in a right frenzy ever since you left.” Spike seemed a bit downtrodden at that.
“Sorry I didn’t tell you I left. I got caught up in my own head.” Twilight shook her head.
“No, I really shouldn’t have yelled at you, I know how you hate that. I’m just glad you’re safe.” He waved to the creature standing a couple feet back from the three.
“He’s the reason I’m safe. Meet Kipkirui. He’s a Satyr,” Spike said. Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve never heard of them.” Kipkirui interjected here.
“You wouldn’t have. We’re pretty secretive, and we don’t typically communicate with any other races. Except Zebras.” Applejack nodded.
“We know a Zebra. Her name is Zecora, she lives a bit out of Ponyville in the Everfree forest.” Applejack remarked. Kipkirui smiled.
“Zebras and Satyrs often communicate and work with each other on nature magic. We have similar bases, if different styles, so we typically work together pretty well. In any case, I found Spike the day after he left, and he’s been with me since.” Twilight bowed her head in thanks, and simply reiterated that it was no problem.
“I asked to stay with Kipkirui for now, and he said it was alright.” Spike said. Then, his face turned somber. “I think I’ll still stay with him for a while longer. I don’t know how long.” Twilight’s face fell.
“Are you still upset with us, is there anything we can-” Spike shook his head, trying to not let her fear spiral.
“It’s just that… I want to learn a little, that's all. Equestria doesn’t know a lot about dragons, heck, this probably wouldn’t have happened if we knew a little more. Satyrs might be kind of solitary, but they know a lot about everyone and everything. I'm pretty sure if you gave him some time, one of Kipkirui’s books has something about ponies that you didn’t know.”
“Like how earth ponies have a natural magic field that makes soil easier to break and makes crops take less nutrients from the soil, which can only be neutralized by a powerful outside source like Windigos.” Kipkirui interjected.
“See, like that. He knows a lot, and I want to learn more about dragons, without being around so many ponies that if something goes wrong I could really hurt a lot of people or mess a lot of stuff up.” Spike hugged Twilight, before tapping on her horn and blowing a small jet of the purple-green mist he used to send letters. “There, now you’re directly connected to my letter channel. I’ll write to you every week, just like how you write Celestia, alright?” Twilight’s face showed her confliction, but after a few seconds she wiped her eyes and pulled the dragon into a tight hug.
“Please stay safe, and write as often as you can, okay?” He nodded into the hug, and when she let go, she turned to Kipkirui. “I’ll send his comics over when I get the chance. Where do you live?” Kipkirui grimaced.
“Might be a bit hard to pin an address since I live in a pocket dimension inside of trees. Just send a letter through Spike and tell me when I can stop by to pick them up myself.” Twilight slapped her forehead.
“No wonder my locate spells didn’t work. Alright, I will. I love you, Spike.” She could see him trying to force back tears too.
“I love you too.”
On their return trip through the forest, Applejack questioned her on her intentions.
“I understand not wanting to make him upset, but are you sure letting him go with that Kipkirui fella is a good idea?” Twilight sighed.
“He seemed well intentioned, and if he was going to do anything to Spike, he probably would’ve by now. I’m more upset that Spike didn’t want to come back to Ponyville.”
“Because you’re upset he chose someone over you?” Twilight shook her head. She knew enough about jealousy from the modeling incident.
“No, I’m upset that he’s right. Ponies don’t know nearly enough about dragons. I might be a good friend, and he’s definitely family, but things like this are probably gonna keep cropping up. Us not knowing enough about dragons is gonna become a recurring issue at some point, and I’d prefer that he stay with someone else who knows what could happen than stay with us and be caught in the dark.” Applejack nodded, as somber as Twilight felt.
“Telling the others is not gonna be a fun time.” Twilight groaned.
“Tell me about it. What do you think Rainbow Dash is gonna think?” Applejack cringed.