“Twilight, I know you’re excited, but look at him.” Spike rubbed at his eyes, secondhand exhaustion crashing over him in waves. He’d been on the receiving end of a Twilight question barrage, and while he might be used to it, poor Pumice most certainly was not. “I’m pretty sure he couldn’t answer most of these questions if he tried, let alone when his brain is half-fried from all of the questions you’ve already asked him.”
Twilight pouted. “But Spike, this is the first time that-”
“No buts!” Spike got up from his seat, moving to grab Pumice by the paw. “Alright, I’m gonna take him back to his dad, you can compile what is undoubtedly a way too long list of questions, and I’ll answer what I can when I get back.” Spike and Pumice were gone in a literal flash, and Discord was quick as ever to fawn over his new disciple’s progress.
“Bridging the gaps between two remarkably different species! Even I struggle with that! He’s advancing so fast it’s incredible!” Floating down to Twilight’s level, he asked, literal stars floating in his eyes, “Is this how you feel when Miss Starlight starts understanding her friendship lessons? What a rush!”
“Well, it might be a bit different. Starlight’s lessons usually have less learning to do, and more, ‘you already know how, you just took the most complicated path because you’re insecure about your ability to interact with people in a positive way’.” Twilight furrowed her brow, scratching at her chin. “Actually, now that I think about it, should I work on getting Starlight a therapist?”
Discord blinked slowly. “...Yes. Yes you should.” His emotions rebounded back to comically excited, very quickly. “If this is what Spike is capable of now, imagine what can happen in two years, ten years, fifty! If he’s creating a new species now, in a few years he could be changing the ecosystem, creating new landmasses and populating them with unique species and fauna!”
“He can do all that?” Candace seemed astonished, and it was very well deserved. Thorax was letting the information permeate his mind, and he was feeling overwhelmed. Until recently, Changeling magic wasn’t much besides disguises and the occasional magic bolt. The level of transfiguration and conjuration magic to create an entirely new landmass…
“Well, yes, he should be able to once he gets full control over the static.” Thorax sat up at that.
“Do you mean the same static that I’ve heard when Spike used his powers seriously before?”
“Indeed. That static is, simply put, a much more powerful magical instinct. Most instances of that static jumping out was Spike not knowing what to do, but having the power to do something. Sort of akin to a fight or flight response, it jumps out when he has something important to do that can be life or death for him or someone else, and because of that, it can be as much of a detriment as it can be a benefit. If he panics while using his powers, the static steps in and tries to stitch together the pieces.” Discord’s explanation put some context behind Spike’s power surges, at least. “The problem is, the static is a bit akin to an overzealous helicopter parent, and if you let it do too much, it tries to do everything. It’s sapient, overly cautious, and if you give it an inch it’ll take a mile. It’ll materialize as its own being once it reaches that tipping point, and it’ll start rewriting things that we do not want rewritten for the sake of a faux ‘safety’, and it can be exceptionally dangerous given that Spike would be the only person who could stop it. And Spike-”
“Has had three big uses.” Thorax frowned as he realized what Discord meant. “I’m guessing we’re not far from it materializing?”
“If I had to guess,” Discord said cautiously, as if he wanted them to prepare for the worst, “We only have one power surge left before it does.”
The troubling implications hung in the air like thunderclouds, ready to begin a downpour at a moment’s notice.
Fortunately, Spike was back before the mood could sour too severely to recover.
“Did you all know that Diamond Dogs hug really, really, really hard?” He stretched, and the pop of his spine echoed through the room. “His dad wouldn’t let go of me. I feel like my spine folded in half.”
“Well, considering they have an incredible bicep strength of around 5500 newtons, that makes sense. Now, I have my list of questions, so-”
“Not so fast, Ms. Princess.” Discord was quick to swoop in, interrupting Twilight. “He has a bit more work to do. Outside of the actual creation of a new species, there are two questions we need answered. A name, and in this specific case, how they would be created. Now, Pumice is an unusual circumstance, and while you could certainly say that his species is created whenever Diamond Dogs decide to hit it off with a Dragon, that would make the species absurdly rare. You need a name and a way they show up. Luckily, you really only need to speak it into existence for it to work. Now, if you’ll excuse me-” Discord snapped his fingers, and a set of gaudy, tropical beachwear appeared. “-I’ll be going to offer Fluttershy an impromptu visit to Los Pegasus.” With a polite bow, Discord disappeared, and the rest of the group returned to comfortable sitting positions, while Twilight began her cascade of questions.
“I’m a little surprised this is where you picked for our first date.”
“And why’s that?”
“I didn’t even think you knew it existed.” Spike looked over the lights of the small town from their vantage point atop a peak some distance from the settlement. The flowing of rivers was as pleasant a background noise as the crickets and owls, and the dim glow of the flowing rainbows provided just enough light to eat, as the two sat with their picnic far above the beautiful scenery of Rainbow Falls. “Still, it is a pretty good pick. I love this place, and it’s so pretty at night.”
“Truth be told, I went and talked to a bunch of ponies about places with nice scenery, and this is the one that came up most frequently.” Thorax seemed almost sheepish admitting it. “I do think it was a good choice though. This is beautiful.”
The two were mostly silent while they ate, just enjoying the view and the cool mountain air while they watched over the ponies, and while they slowly made their way into their homes for the night, Spike and Thorax sat far above the small mountain town, simply drinking in the atmosphere.
Then came the first scream.
Spike was on his feet in seconds, surveying the area until he spotted her, a single pony cowering before a bull that seemed to be emitting green gas. Spike’s eyes went wide as he recognized the monster, and he blurted something to Thorax as he dived down towards the town, ready to help get these monsters out of the way.
Katoblepones. A sort of bull monster with exceptionally dangerous breath, and inhaling too much of the toxic gas meant you would be sick for days, if not weeks. They weren’t aggressive, but that didn’t mean much because they didn’t have any real concept of personal space, and had a tendency to get very close to other creatures by accident, putting them out of commission really quickly. It also didn’t help that their gaze could stun you.
For not being aggressive, these things were comically difficult to deal with.
The first one was easy. It was the rest that were a problem, especially when the rest of the town got involved. Not only was it a whole herd of the beasts, around thirty of them, the one mare’s scream got the whole town looking out their windows and coming outside to help. Now the ponies were chased into corners avoiding what they quickly realized from the noxious fumes and Spike’s shouting, was toxic breath, and on the other hand, Spike was playing cowboy, trying to herd the creatures back down the path they’d come up from. Needless to say, it wasn’t going well.
“This is getting out of hand…” Spike considered using his powers in some way to get the Katoblepones out of the town, when he heard a weak cry that made his blood run cold. He whirled around to see Thorax, herded between around six of the creatures, his vibrant green chitin gone a duller, grey green from the effects of the Katoblepones toxic breath.
Thorax heard the static long before Spike did. His eyes went wide at the realization, and he grimaced, with fear in his eyes as he realized there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Spike crumpled to the ground, and from his prone form rose a very incorrect version, made of swirling greys and shifting squares. The faux Spike slowly raised it’s claw, and snapped.