Dragons, the living weapons that they were, were capable of utilizing their natural fire in several different ways. From rendering cities to ash with a single cataclysmic fireball, to melting mountains with a steady stream of flame, to covering up the entirety of the sky with the smoke they generated alone. Spike, the wingless purple dragon, a drake, was the first to discover that dragon fire could have magical properties. To his knowledge he was at least, and to the knowledge of any living pony he could think of.
Ever since he was a little he’d been sending flammable objects all around him from one place to another with his unnatural green breath. His emerald flames came more naturally to him than their nonmagical amber variety. Mail and luggage were rarely an issue for the purple dragon. So long as it could burn, Spike could send it wherever it was needed, without worrying about distance. Eventually he learned he could also use this ability to hold onto objects that he needed to by simply sending them to himself, or by holding onto his breath for a moment whenever someone else sent an object to him, utterly unconcerned about size or weight.
For most of his life, this was the only one of abilities that had ever concerned him. The destructive capability of his orange fire was only to be used as a last resort, as self defense for himself, his family, or for the princess, should any of them need it. Or to light a birthday candle or two when dad inevitably forgot how to cast his rarely used spark spell. And his resistances to heat and fire, in both their magical and nonmagical forms, were only truly useful in the environment that dragons had evolved to be in, the ever so creatively named ‘Dragon Lands’.
Recently however, Spike had discovered another ability. He had been fighting Nightmare Star, Princess Luna’s estranged younger sister turned demon alicorn. He had ventured into the depths of a dark, possibly sentient forest with five ponies in search of a set of ancient artifacts with the power to stop Nightmare Star’s rampage. The Elements of Harmony. Just when he had found them, Nightmare had taken them, but Spike was not willing to let the monster pony have her way. He charged at her, ready to unleash the inferno within him and get to the elements, but just as he did, he found himself in the middle of the items. He had somehow passed by the burning alicorn entirely.
All that he could remember clearly from that moment after the adrenaline had faded was a flash of blue and the feeling that, at that moment, he needed more than anything to get to the elements and ignite their spark, to reveal the sixth element and put an end to Nightmare Star.
A glance at the clock told him that it was a bit more than a quarter after twelve. Twilight should be almost done with her extra work. Her teacher, Ms. Cherry Blossom, would only give it to her after school was already done, as per Spike’s request, and it always took the clever little filly about a half hour to complete it. She loved schoolwork, and always dove straight into it with endless enthusiasm, but her focus on the magical sciences always distracted her from her other, more basic studies. Not that it made them any more challenging to her of course, she was still the Twilight Sparkle, academic prodigy, but still.
Closing the book he had been staring blankly at for the last ten minutes, he rose from his ‘bed’, a pillow and blanket thrown vaguely in the corner of the bedroom, to put it away. As he descended the stairs, he looked to the empty place on the shelf that the book was meant to go in. He thought for a moment, pausing before he reached the last step. His ‘emerald dragonflame’, as his older brother, Shining Armor, had called it all those years ago, could move and hold objects, but he could never use it on himself. Not fully, at least. Normal flames fell away from his scales as water would on stone, but whenever he’d tried it with his dragonflame, he’d only manage to send away the dirt and dust that had accumulated over the day. It made bathing a complete nonissue, but it wasn’t particularly useful outside of a rapid wardrobe change for one of Canterlot’s many unsettlingly specific holiday events. For himself and a few other key royal servants at least. Most of Princess Luna’s closet consisted of inflammable materials, which made costume changes for everything a hassle.
But that wasn’t what happened against Luna’s sister. His fire wasn’t it’s signature grassy color, nor the amber of a nonmagical blaze, but a deep ocean blue. It didn’t just send away an everyday object, it had sent him away, something it shouldn’t have been able to do even if he wasn’t fireproof, as proven through rigorous testing by, again, his older brother, after he had learned a fireproofing spell from their dad. A spell that had proven to be more than worth it to have while Spike was still small and unable to control his breath.
Spike thought about the confrontation with Celestia’s evil self and glanced at the book in his hand. He took a breath, willing for the flame to send the book away to its proper place, and blew out a jet of sapphire fire. Sa-fire?
The flames curled around his claws and covered the book. He smiled slightly as he felt the volume swiftly growing lighter as it ate away the pages. That smile immediately faded when those pages fell to the ground in a pile of ash. “Huh. I saw that going differently in my head...”
Sighing, the drake continued down the stairs to grab a broom and dustpan, wondering to himself just what the differences were between this new flame and his signature ability. More pressingly, he tried to remember the title of the book that had just been burned so that he could order another copy and replace it before his bibliophile sister could find out that it was missing.
A frown found itself on Spike’s face when he glanced at the sun. It was far into the afternoon, and Twilight had not come home to continue reading her way through the entirety of their libraries’ collection like she normally did. Though he supposed that she was nearly done with that particular activity, and had been reading every day since they officially moved into Ponyville almost a week ago. It would make sense that she’d want a break, or would want to wait for another order of new books to arrive. He’d have to get on that soon.
Still, maybe he’d check in with Apple Bloom to see if Twilight was pestering the Apple family. She’d always talked about wanting to visit Sweet Apple Acres to talk to them again, but never seemed to muster up the motivation to go on her own.
Maybe it was Scootaloo that the filly was bothering then? The earthbound pegasus seemed to be the only pony capable of keeping up with his sister’s magic babble, and they both did seem to have a common interest in the form of technomagical engineering. Twilight was only beginning to grasp the basics of enchantment, but Scoots had a few years of experience under her wings already. Granted, from what Spike could gather, the three pony tribes had magic that was entirely alien to one another. What Scootaloo did to her creations might not even be applicable to how Twilight could cast, not that it would stop her from trying.
Sweetie Belle? She was the only other unicorn that Twilight really knew about, and despite her protests, she did really seem to have fun playing with Rarity on that first day in town. The little dragon slayer to-be certainly had a creative mind, a trait coveted by any mage, both aspiring and established. Twilight would likely become fast friends with her, if she would just let herself get away from her studies.
Making his way towards the door, he found himself worrying about his younger sister probably a little more than was warranted. She was still a filly, but she was more than capable of taking care of herself in just about any situation. She was probably just distracted with her studies or something. He was sure he’d be able to find her with Apple Bloom. Or the school, having finally met her match with a worksheet sent to her from her teachers back in Canterlot.
“Hey, Apple Bloom. You got a minute?” Spike asked as he approached the mare, not wanting to interrupt her while she was bucking apple trees and get kicked accidentally or something.
“I can chat for a second. What ya need, Spike?”
“It’s getting late and I haven’t seen Twilight all day. Is she here with you, somewhere on the farm?”
“Nope. Sorry Spike. Haven’t seen her all day.” Apple Bloom apologized. “AJ came home earlier than she usually does on days like these talkin’ about her though. Maybe somethin’ happened at the schoolhouse? Y’should check in with Cherry Blossom.” She offered. “I gotta get back to these apples now. They’re not gonna buck themselves offa these branches, but lemme know if’n ya need anything else.”
“I will, thanks. See you around.”
Opening the door to the school, Spike took a second to scan the desks for his sister. All empty. “Hey, Miss Cherry Blossom?” Spike called, knocking twice on the open door.
“Oh!” She yelled in surprise, quickly pushing closed a large drawer in her desk, something bright green getting stuck in it before being violently shoved back in and slammed closed. “Mister The Dragon- er, Spike Sparkle- wait no that’s not right...”
“Just Spike is fine. Sorry if I’m interrupting anything. I was just wondering if something happened at school today with Twilight?”
“No, nothing out of the ordinary happened at school today Spike.” Ms. Cherry explained, visibly calming. “Wait, no, that’s a lie.” She said, correcting herself. “Your sister left early. Couldn’t tell you why, though. I just saw her talking to Applejack, turned around to clean the chalkboard, and when I turned back she was gone. I had to put her unfinished work away in her desk.”
“I see. Thank you for your time.” Scootaloo’s then.
“Hey, Scoot. Has Twilight come by to talk with you about anything?”
“Nah, haven’t seen her since we helped Bloom with her bet. Even if she did come here, I don’t really trust her around any of my tools.” Scootaloo admitted. “I woulda sent her back your way if she came by without you.”
“I’m grateful you think about her safety.”
“I’m looking out for my stuff, man. Most of the junk I make is pretty easily torn apart, and she’s very clearly the kind of pony who wants to take things apart just to see the inside.” Hm.
“She hasn’t come by, no.” Sweetie said, her violent, violet maned sibling swinging a roll of fabric at Spike as her sister spoke, Spike lightly bopping it out of the way whenever it came too close to his face.
“Darn. I can’t really find her anywhere. This was kinda the last place I could think of to check.” Spike worried.
“You don’t think something might’ve happened to her, do you?”
“That’s what I’m thinking. She never really wanders off like this, she always makes sure to stay where she knows me or our parents can find her.” The roll smacked him in the nose the moment he stopped paying attention. “Ow.”
“Rarity, put that away, this could be serious.” The filly skulked off to her room. She seemed lonely. Spike made a mental note to ensure Twilight had time to hang out with her. “I’ll go get the others and meet you at the library. We’ll find your sister, don’t worry Spike.”
Sure enough, Sweetie Belle had gathered the rest of the newly founded ‘Elements of Harmony’. That didn’t really roll off the tongue, Spike thought. Spirits of Harmony? That’s not much better. Ponyville Gang? No, that made them sound like a bunch of thugs. Spike shook his head and focused, explaining to his friends the problem. Twilight was missing. She would likely be somewhere that she could learn. She favored magic, but other subjects could easily catch her attention. Neither she nor Spike knew the town very well yet, so she easily could have gotten lost, or worse.
With that, the group split up to look for the missing unicorn. Spike and Zephyr Breeze would patrol the areas that he’d been to so far, and would check the last place that he knew but hadn’t been to yet, the Town Hall, but it would likely be up to the rest of the group to really find her. Apple Bloom and Maud Pie explored the apple farm. Bloom hadn’t seen Twilight there, but it was a large place. She could have easily found herself stuck in the orchards, having passed by the mare entirely. Finally Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo worked together to sweep through the rest of the town, Sweetie using her magic to project her voice far and wide, calling out for the filly, while Scoot utilized her unmatched speed to zip from one side of the town to the other, only slowing for the tighter turns so that her momentum didn’t throw her through a wall or three.
It didn’t take long for everyone to conclude that Twilight wasn’t in any of their assigned areas, meaning that she was actively hiding from them, she wasn’t anywhere inside Ponyville, or worse. Spike leaned on the Apple’s fence for support, having a full on panic attack. He had tried taking deep breaths to calm himself down, but after almost setting fire to Apple Bloom’s house he had gone outside to have his fit.
Looking to Celestia’s orange sky, he wondered to himself where his sister could be. What did he miss? He’d thought she’d be with the Apple’s. They were what she was the most excited about when the two of them first came to town, but she wasn’t at the farm, and Apple Bloom hadn’t seen her...
Wait a minute... The sky’s color had reminded him about something. Apple Bloom wasn’t the only Apple. Twilight’s Teacher mentioned that she was talking to Applejack before disappearing. Hurrying back into the house, Spike called out for his sister’s classmate. “Applejack!”
Of course it was the Evermute. She just had to follow a mysterious spirit pony into the Evermute of all places, the single creepiest part of Ponyville. The last time Spike was in there he’d had to deal with falling off a cliff, getting slapped around by a manticore, almost having to watch his new friends burn in a circle of fire, being boiled alive, being blown up by his own fire, and getting into a physical altercation with the sun in pony form. It really shouldn’t have to be said, but the Evermute sucked. He just wanted to get his sister and get out.
Luckily, the Evermute seemed helpful today, more or less. Almost as soon as he and his fellow elements/spirits/thugs had entered the forest, he spotted his sister talking with, as Applejack explained, the spirit of the Evermute herself. They just had to walk through a patch of blue weeds that went up past their knees. Peachy. “Twilight Sparkle! There you are! We’ve been looking for you all day! Do you have any idea how worried I was?!” Spike yelled to the filly, immediately picking her up and tossing her onto his back.
Twilight scrunched her face and looked up at the canopy, partially illuminated by only a few struggling beams of deep orange light. “Sorry, Spike. I didn’t think I was out that long.”
“Beware! Beware, you pony folk! Those leaves of blue are not a joke!” The spirit lady yelled, fading off into the darkness as the group hurried their way out of the Evermute, Spike using his claws to cut the weeds out of the way in annoyance.
“You can’t just follow strange ponies off into the Evermute. The only reason I even knew where to look for you was because Applejack got scared you were hurt and told us what you were doing. You can’t just stalk ponies, Twilight. You are so grounded.” He didn’t know what he’d really do as a grounding. She didn’t really do much except read. Maybe he’d ask her teacher to start giving him the assignments sent to Twilight from Luna’s school so that she couldn’t do them until he said she was allowed to.
“Zebra...” The filly mumbled to herself quietly as they exited the forest, the moon rising into the sky as the sun was gently lowered below the opposite horizon.
Spike sat in the library and sighed to himself. It took him years to figure out everything he could do with his emerald dragonflame. What made him think that he’d be able to figure out the sapphire version of it after he’d used it just once? It was prideful of him to think that he’d had it already after one successful attempt. Greedy of him to expect that knowledge to simply come to him on its own.
But he was better than that. He could be patient when he wanted to be. He was more than willing to spend the time he needed to to practice with and use his newfound power. He took a breath and waited for the heat to build up in his chest, to rise up his neck and condense together in his maw. A small burst didn’t cut it for the book, but a larger, more powerful one had worked against himself. Looking down, he let forth a bright blue blaze along his scales.
The fire slid off his violet hide, almost appearing like it was repelled by him, and onto the ground. The wooden ground. He gasped as he realized what he just did, quickly moving to smother the absolute bonfire before it could spread, but he was too late to react. Before he could really process what happened, the bonfire had consumed every book in the library, making their way up the shelves and walls... up towards the bedroom.
“Twilight!” Spike screamed. He rushed up the carved stairs, but they crumbled away beneath him and he fell back into the inferno. He tried to grasp the wall, tried to sink his claws into the soft wood and climb up to save his sleeping sister, but it fell way at his touch and he dropped further and further, ash rising around him as his home and life burned to the ground around him. The blue coloration to the fire, his fire, shifted to a blood red, and over the roar he heard a sick laughter. A cackling that he thought he’d never have to hear again.
Tendrils of flame coiled together and exploded, spreading the blaze even more and revealing the tyrant princess, Nightmare Star. Spike closed his eyes and curled into himself in response to his fear and despair. He could do nothing to fight the princess of flame and rage. He could feel his tears rise as steam, instantly vaporized by the heat she gave off.
As suddenly as everything fell apart, there was silence. The roar of the fire and Nightmare’s wicked laughter faded away into nothing, leaving only Spike’s choked sobbing. A calm, gentle hoof found itself on his shoulder, telling him to open his eyes.
Obeying the silent call, he found himself being held by a large white unicorn stallion, his blue hair and eyes complimented by a warm looking indigo scarf, held in place by a platinum badge. The badge of Luna’s Dream Guard, the elite commanders of the Lunar Guard. Spike glanced around, noting the change in scenery. The inferno he had caused was replaced with a starry blue void. He sighed in relief and wiped away whatever was left of his evaporated tears.
Looking back to his savior, he started to speak. “I know what you’re gonna say. I know I’m worried over nothing. I’m just stressed out from today.” It wasn’t the first time that Spike had had this nightmare. He couldn’t quite recall the details, but he’d always had worries about accidentally burning down his home. It was the main reason why everyone in his family had learned spells to fireproof everything. To ease his mind.
Without a word, the unicorn guard nodded and lit up his horn, officially ending the nightmare and allowing Spike to rest peacefully for the rest of the night.
“Thanks for the save though, big bro. I really appreciate it.”
After a night’s rest, Spike found himself able to think a bit more clearly about the situation from the other day, not to say that he was happy about it. Twilight was just curious and was trying to learn about something she’d never gotten the chance to before. Beyond that, she was actually taking interest in another pony outside of the Apple family. That Zecora lady might be a stranger, but Ponyville was a safe town. Besides, even on the off chance that Bloom’s sister was right, and Zecora was some evil forest spirit, he was a dragon. Sure, burning down the Evermute might be a bit extreme, but as far as Spike was concerned, Equestria could do without it. Still though, he’d stay true to his word. Twilight wandered off without telling anyone where she was going, and there would be repercussions for that.
Heading down to the kitchen, he prepared breakfast for himself and Twilight. He didn’t really feel like bothering with cooking, just throwing the batter he had prepared into a pan and taking a breath to flash-cook it as the library’s local lavender unicorn made her way into the dining room and sat down. Something felt off though. The pressure was there in his chest, but it wasn’t heat that was forcing its way up his throat and building in his mouth. Opening his jaw, he released into the pan a stream of emerald green... bubbles. Spike was immediately unsure if he was still asleep or not.
“Spike, did you... eat a bar of soap?” Twilight asked, utterly dumbfounded.
“What on earth just happened?” Spike asked, watching as the iridescent green bubbles seemed to absorb the pancake batter into themselves before floating off to Luna knows where.
Spike was about to raise a claw to pop one of the bubbles, but without warning the library door slammed open, audibly splintering, and Scootaloo called out for him. “Flame! Are you okay man? Flame!”
The drake and filly duo made their way out of the dining room to meet the pegasus in the main room, shocked to find most of Spike’s new friends had seemingly been mutated. Maud’s coat was no longer her regular dull gray but was a bright shade of yellow, which then shifted to an odd shade of green as she saw Spike, then changed back to yellow once more. Apple Bloom was covered with vines, bark, leaves and blue flowers, a pair of branches jutting out of her head like antlers, both bearing various, seemingly random fruits at the end of each tine.
The biggest change was clearly Zephyr. He had gone from equine to bovine. He wasn’t even a stallion, er, bull anymore, as far as Spike could tell. In place of his wings were dark blue spots, his mane traded out for unreasonably long eyelashes, and his original lanky, bony figure was replaced with what looked to be several hundred pounds of fat and muscle. He couldn’t even fit through the door due to his newfound size. He could almost look Spike in the eye, were the drake to stand upright.
“I have so many questions.” Spike started. “I think I’d like to start by asking why Zephyr’s a cow... No, actually. I can’t get over the fact that you just kicked my door in.” He cringed, glancing over to the pile of wood chunks that was, at one point, the bottom half of the library door. He’d need to get that replaced. Maybe Scootaloo would be up for fixing it, seeing as she was clearly the one who broke it open for Luna knows what reason.
“I didn’t.” Scootaloo seethed. “I’ve been breaking things all morning. I ripped off the door to my pantry when I tried to get some cereal, crushed the cereal box, accidentally threw my bowl into a wall at mach 3, snapped off the handles on my scooter, and put a second hole in my wall with the door handle when I bumped it as I was leaving today. Maud keeps changing color, seems to be tied to how she feels, and Zeph’s been having an identity crisis since he woke up.”
“Yeesh. Guess we’re all weird now. I just started breathing bubbles when I tried to get some pancakes going. Well, except for Sweetie Belle, I guess. You seem completely normal.”
In response, Sweetie shook her head, backed up, and kicked the wall next to a bookshelf with what seemed to be all of her strength, her bare hooves utterly silent as they connected. A few of the tomes rattled and fell, hitting the floor with not even the slightest sound. Sweetie seemed to try and speak, but only seemed to be mouthing some words that Spike couldn’t understand.
“Huh. That’s probably the eeriest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Including the time Twilight dressed up as a ladybug for Nightmare Night.”
“You’re scared of ladybugs?” Zephyr asked, voice seeming to have changed to be more feminine.
“No. She is.” Spike nodded to his sister. “And she has a very active imagination. She glued hundreds of fake eyes to the spots on her costume and threw a bunch of glitter all over it. Imagine that running up to you at freaking midnight, lights off, moonlight catching every other speck of glitter and winking out as it gets closer and closer. Never screamed more in my life.” A shiver ran down his spine as he recalled the event, causing him the lash his tail and scraping it against the wood floor.
“Can we get back on topic please?” Scootaloo interrupted. “What in the world is happening to us?”
“It’s a curse.” Twilight said. “That zebra, Zecora, she must be some kind of enchantress! Applejack told me about her yesterday. She must have cursed you all when you came to find me!”
Apple Bloom just shook her head and sighed. “Oh great, did that silly filly get in your head, Twilight? Zecora ain’t no forest spirit, she’s just a mare. Curses are just ponytales.” She explained before mumbling to herself. “Gonna have to talk some sense into that pony when I get home.”
“Curse or not, it’s clearly something magical.” Scoot said. “Ponies don’t just turn into cows or start changing color. Or whatever is going on with Apple Bloom.” She motioned vaguely in the plant-ponies’ direction, her hoof suddenly jutting out uncontrollably and punching one of the fruits growing on the nearest branch, rocketing it into a wall and turning it into a fruit paste.
“Hey!’ The mare scolded.
“Sorry.” Scoots apologized, taking a step away from the group, making sure to keep away from any other nearby fragile objects.
“Right, so, how about we take care of this before Scootaloo breaks someone’s bones?” Zephyr suggested.
“Any ideas?” Spike asked.
“We could try the spa.”
“The... spa. For an affliction that we have determined to be magical in nature.”
“Yeah! I work there part time as a coat and mane specialist. Aloe and Lotus know the ins and outs of ponies bodies better than any doctor I know. They might be able to tell us if something is in or on us that’s making us like this, and maybe even how to fix it.”
“Couldn’t hurt to try it. Let’s get going.”
“You were wrong, you were so wrong!” Apple Bloom groaned as the light blue spa pony, Lotus Blossom, twisted her around into some kind of plant-pony pretzel. “Is that my tail?!”
“I am sorry that we can not help you two.” Lotus’ color flipped sister, Aloe, apologized to Spike and Zephyr. “We did not think about having ready any detailed services for not ponies.”
“It’s fine. We’ll uh... figure something out.” Spike said, grateful that he wasn’t over on a table with Bloom, Scoot, Belle, or Maud. Maud in particular looked to be having an odd time, her yellow coat changing from yellow to pink to green to red, back to pink, then to purple, all in the first few seconds of her own pretzel-ifying.
“Unfortunately we can not do what you have asked us to do. Outside of helping the orange and yellow ponies release the, and I can not stress this enough, un-be-liev-able amount of stress in their bodies, your ailment goes outside of our skill set.”
“Shoot.” A loud pop caused the trio to look over to Scootaloo. One of her wings appeared to be... longer than before, is the least grotesque way to put it. “You pull something out of place there, Scoot? Do you need a medic?”
“Please.” The pegasus pretzel whimpered.
A hop, skip and a jump later and Scootaloo had her joint snap, crackle, popped back into place. The group asked the actual medical professional, Nurse Redheart, if she knew what was going on with them, but the earth pony medic knew nothing about their ailments. She quickly sent everyone on their way after bandaging Scoot’s wing to her side and instructing her not to move it too much for at least a week.
“Whelp, I’m out of ideas. Sorry everypony.” Zephyr apologized.
“Maybe I should send a letter to Princess Luna. If I still can, that is.” Spike offered. Sweetie Belle’s jaw fell and she stared at him in shock before shaking the sense back into herself mouthing yet more words that Spike couldn’t piece together. “Can anypony translate silence?”
“She’s wonderin’ why ya didn’t just do that to begin with if that was an option that’s on the table.” Apple Bloom clarified. “Frankly, I’d like to know that too. I know you’re her student and all, but I thought the only reason that you didn’t already ask for help was ‘cause that wasn’t allowed or somethin’.”
“The princess is almost constantly busy juggling her responsibilities. Without me there to act as an extra set of hands, it’s up to her and Advisor Kibitz alone to keep everything on track. Plus, with Princess Celestia’s apparent return to the throne, I expect that Luna’s taken to a fully nocturnal lifestyle, so she’s probably asleep right now.” Spike explained. “But, if nopony local has any idea of what’s going on with us though, we might as well stop wasting our time and jump straight to the top.”
Taking in a small breath, Spike blew out a single, large green bubble. Sparkling smoke swirled within it before it popped in a green flash, dropping an empty letter and quill onto the dirt path. “Guess my magic still mostly works, even if my fire doesn’t, so there’s that at least.” He blew out a second, smaller bubble, again filled with smoke, which dropped a small puddle of some kind of ink next to the quill. Why it was just the ink without a bottle, nopony present could tell.
“That can’t taste too good.” Bloom stated, electing to ignore the lack of an ink bottle.
“You’d think that, but it actually tastes just fine. I guess its like, gemstone-based shampoo or whatever that I’m breathing out.” The purple dragon admitted, sitting down and dipping the quill into the puddle before starting to write his letter.
“Wait, if’n Princess Luna’s asleep, then why’re ya writing to her instead of Celestia?”
“Three reasons. The first is that she’s still acclimating to modern life. She was stuck on the moon for a thousand years. Her view of ‘modern medicine’ is likely entirely alien to our own, and possibly even dangerous.” Spike explained, blowing air on the letter to help the ink dry faster. “The second is that she might be sour from her defeat. Celestia and Nightmare Star seem like radically different persona’s, but that doesn’t mean she’ll take a loss any more gracefully than I expect Miss Star would.” Pausing to take a breath, he blew a final, iridescent green bubble around the scroll in his claws, the soap instantly absorbing the parchment into itself and beginning to float off towards the castle atop Mount Canterhorn. “Wow, that is slow. Anyway, the third reason? I’m not super thrilled by the idea of seeing her again so soon. I haven’t exactly been having pleasant dreams about our last encounter with her.”
“I thought she was being controlled by a dark spell or something though?” Zephyr asked.
“I have no idea about the real details that lead to her turning into a monster, all I know is that Luna’s story about it said it was caused by her resentment. You have to have some unreal anger issues to have the contents of your heart manifest like that, and the fact that they did doesn’t imply a whole lot of mental stability, if you ask me.”
“But what if we got hit by whatever she had though? Like, if this is some kind of centuries old alicorn disease that was passed to us?”
“We don’t even know if we all have the same thing. Sneaky Belle is utterly silent, Brutaloo is breaking everything around her, including herself, Apple Bud is some kind of treant, Mood Pie has turned into a walking mood ring, you went from being Zephyr to Heifer, and I’m breathing soap. That isn’t much of a pattern of symptoms. For all we know, we could all have different, entirely unrelated things going on. This isn’t really the time to be throwing out silly, unfounded theories, we need real, effective help before things have the chance to get worse.”
“You saw how slow your letter was going. It’s gonna be a while before that letter gets to the princess and we hear back from her, assuming she’s even awake right now, and that she decides to respond. We might as well try and figure out what’s going on while we wait, right?”
“I think it’s better that we don’t think about it at all. I’m not, at least. After what happened yesterday, I don’t think I’m in the right headspace for that. I’ll just fall down a rabbit hole of terrible, traumatizing theories and end up freaking myself out. Have fun the with idea of this being an ancient moon disease or whatever, I’m gonna go take advantage of the very unique opportunity that I just realized I have.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Yup. Gonna go get some ice cream.”
“Were... were you not able to do that before..?
“I could, but nothing ever makes it past my teeth without getting melted or burned. It has utterly destroyed my tastes. The only thing I’ve ever been able to feel in my mouth is food that is crunchy or liquefied. I have never, in my life, been able to just savor something that wasn’t some kind of rock.”
“Oh you poor child, you need to fix that right now.”
“I’m giving you a pass for calling me that only because I’m the youngest one here. Just because I don’t have my wings yet doesn’t mean I’m a baby dragon anymore, so please don’t treat me like one. I get enough of that from my family.”
“Sorry...”
“It’s fine, no harm done, I’m just telling you now so you don’t set me off later when I’m stressed.”
“Sorry..!”
“Seriously, you’re cool, I’m not mad. You didn’t know, that’s why I’m telling you about it.”
Dropping his spoon into an empty bowl, which at one point had been filled with the wondrous monstrosity known as ‘Chocolate Chip Charade’, which Spike found to just be chocolate ice cream filled with vanilla and strawberry flavored chocolate chips, he sighed, content in the knowledge the he had managed to actually eat a food as it was meant to be eaten. He now knew that he hated how ice cream felt in his mouth, but he was glad he tried it at least.
He couldn’t help but think about his curse, as Twilight called it. Something was off with his breath because of it, and more than just the fact it wasn’t fire. He recalled the letter he’d sent, the pancakes he failed to cook, and the items he dropped.
When items reformed from his flames and smoke, they would contract into themselves, but the smoke had fallen from the bubble along with the parchment and quill, almost like a fog. Maybe it was a fog, now that Spike thought about it. Why would he still have smoke if he didn’t have fire?
When he sent items away, they would burn into sparkling ash and be whisked away by his will alone to appear at his intended destination, but the bubble hadn’t deconstructed the letter into fog. It just took the parchment into itself and floated away lazily. And then there was the pancake batter...
The drake looked up to the roof, spotting the batter filled bubbles stuck to it. His fire wouldn’t have affected the batter if he didn’t want it to, which he hadn’t when he was trying to cook it, but the soap had absorbed it anyway, totally aimless in its journey to deliver the wet, pancakey ingredients. He wasn’t sure what to make of this, but he realized one thing; the rules to his fire didn’t seem to always apply to his new bubbly breath.
Glancing back down to his bowl, he thought about those rules he knew of. For his emerald dragonflame, he needed to have a destination in mind, he needed to be familiar with the area and/or creature he was sending something to, he couldn’t use it on animals, and he couldn’t use it on things that didn’t instantly burn, and the size of items he could send was proportional to the size of the breaths he took, the fourth rule being why he exclusively used oil-based inks. The bubbles had already seemed to break the same one, along with the first, if his failed breakfast was any indicator.
He took a breath, blowing a small bubble around the spoon. Just as he predicted, it floated lazily upwards, joining the almost food on the ceiling. He probably should have thought about how he was going to get it down before he did that. Maybe he’d ask Twilight for some help.
“Spike?” And there she was, like she was summoned by the thought.
“Yeah Twi?”
“I know what’s going on with your breath, and Scootaloo’s limbs, and Maud’s fur, and everything. I know how to fix it, and I’ve got the cure already made.”
“Didn’t you call it a curse earlier? You seemed pretty sure of yourself. What changed?”
“I went to Zecora to get her help in fixing things. I gave her my ticket to the Gala for it.”
“You gave her your ticket to the Gala?”
“I’ve been to it before. We both know I won’t be missing much.”
“Fair enough.”
“So... am I un-grounded?”
“You said you went to Zecora to fix the problem?”
“Yes. I think she wants to teach me stuff, too!”
“That’s fine, but you ran off into the Evermute, without my knowledge, for the second day in a row.”
“Oh.”
“You’re lucky you have a fix for things ready or you’d be double grounded. Now, what do I need to drink?”
“Bathe in, actually. You need a bubble bath.”