***Wednesday, Day 32, morning***
“Hello? Rhino? Hey are you awake?”
The unknown voice causes my eyes to shoot open. I barely register the fact that something’s eyes are looking down at me before my reflexes kick in and adrenalin instantly floods my veins causing my pupils to shrink and the fur along my spine to stand on end.
“GAH!” I let out an involuntary shout of surprise and fling my sheets over the shape while throwing myself against the wall on the opposite side of the room, causing a loud thumping sound when I hit it.
As I see the intruder struggling beneath the sheets entrapping it, some back part of my mind registers that the shape is much smaller than I am. Despite this information, I still wrap my magic around the glass shard I still had on my shelf after the last time we had an intruder. The sounds of rhythmic hoofsteps cause my frantic eyes to switch to the door in fear. The door slams open and to my relief, in come Hydro and Atom, the latter with his hilt in hoof but the blade not yet materialized. My two housemates lock eyes with me and I direct them to the sheets, the confines of which, the shape is almost free of. As the sheet comes off, all three of us tense up, only to let down our guard in shock at what emerges from underneath it.
I stutter slightly from shock, “W-what? A nimbat?”
The foxlike shape, large eyes with no white areas, and bat-like wings do indeed give the intruder the form of a nimbat. However, it is not the nimbat we had all come to know. This nimbat is smaller than Iroh, it also lacks his beard. Along with those details, its eyes are yellow to Iroh’s orange, its fur is black where Iroh’s is red, though it’s grey on its tail tip, paws, and the underside of its stomach. Finally, its wings are black to match its fur. Hydro, Atom, and I simply stare at the unexpected form.
I cease taking in its appearance and ask directly, “Who are you?”
The nimbat‘s ears fold back slightly, as if unsure how to respond. After a moment it answers, in a voice like a young colt, “I’m Specter.”
Hydro scoffs, “Yeah, right. Specter is a squirrel.”
The black creature looks back at me, “I was… up until I woke up this morning.”
While my initial thoughts are of disbelief, certain facts pop up into my mind.
I went to sleep with Specter in my grasp last night… he would have still been there, or at least on the bed when I woke up. Even when I’ve woken up after him, he never leaves the room in the mornings until I do. My squirrel isn’t here right now… only this thing. Specter would have at least come back from all the noise being made.
I take another look at the nimbat.
He has the same coloring as Specter. His eyes are the same yellow. Now that I look closer… he even has the same white lines starting from the bridge of his nose, going over his eyes, and to the base of his ears. It… seems impossible and yet… the feelings I’m getting from the slightly sad look he’s giving me…
I put down the glass shard I had been holding and give the nimbat an appraising glance as I ask, “How did Specter and I meet?”
The black creature answers, “It was at Fluttershy’s house. I was having recurring intense stomach pains and she asked you to come over and help. You discovered that a spice meant for phoenixes had been trickling onto my food. You were really nice, you didn’t charge her, and you even let me sleep on you. You adopted me the next morning.”
I have never told anypony what happened there, no one even knows that Specter was the patient I treated there.
As I hold my silence at the answer, I see the nimbat’s face slowly sink from the hopeful posture it took when I asked the question, back down to the slightly sad look it had when I asked its name. A familiar pang in my heart causes me to soften my gaze.
I look curiously, but not suspiciously at the small furry creature before me and ask hesitantly, but with a slight note of hope, “Specter?”
The little nimbat responds by slowly walking towards me, climbing up my leg, and coming to rest on my head, blending in with my mane. This small act convinces me, and I take the small creature from my head with a gentle touch of magic and levitate him in front of me at eye level. After a moment of looking at him, I simply reach out with my forelegs and bring him in for a hug.
A short time later and Specter and I start our business as usual as we head out the door, him on my head. However, the situation is anything but usual. My pet has become a different species overnight, not only that but he has become a creature with the capability of speech, so presumably he now has an intelligence boost as well. Also is the fact that I am leaving the house much earlier than I normally would, not to go to work, but to seek out a certain ambassador who had not come home from the library last night. Specter and I are searching for Iroh due to the fact that all we really know that happened is that Specter woke up as a nimbat, thus we seek out the only other nimbat we know to see if he has any idea what has happened.
As we round a block, I see the red target in question sitting at a table at an outdoor café drinking tea. I hail him as we approach, “There you are.”
Iroh looks up as we approach, answering happily, “Good morning, Rhino. It appears you were looking for me, sorry about that. I stayed at the library last night to assist Ms. Sparkle with her nimbat information records. Voltage and I were simply grabbing breakfast.” He gestures across the table.
At the nimbat’s gesture, I look to see the electric unicorn in question, completely unseen by me in my slight tunnel vision from slight anxiety due to the situation. I clear my throat and chuckle nervously while looking at the bandages on Volt’s head, “Heh, umm, hello Volt. So, first thing, I am truly sorry about what happened yesterday. I didn’t mean to get you hurt like that.”
The sea-green unicorn simply shrugs with a good natured smile on his face, “Apology accepted I guess. It was only a minor concussion anyway. Though it was pretty weird how you fled like that.”
I clarify for him, “I wasn’t fleeing from you. I was fleeing from Twilight. She seemed like she was about ready to blow from everything that happened.”
Another shrug, “Well I couldn’t really feel anything for a few minutes. But I did notice the temperature rise a little bit.”
“That was probably from when her mane started literally smoking like it was about to burst into flame. I have heard crazy things happen when powerful unicorns lose their tempers. Regardless, I am glad you aren’t too sore, both physically and emotionally I mean.”
He takes a bite of waffle, “Well I do like my mares smoking hot. But anyway, nah, not sore. Well, at least I’m not.”
I ask with trepidation, “I guess Twilight is still a bit angry?”
He grimaces, “’A bit’ would be the wrong words to use. She actually wanted me to stop being around you.”
I blink in surprise, “Really?”
He nods, “Yeah. But I told her that you saved my life and deserve to be forgiven.”
When did I do that?
I cock my head to one side in confusion, “I saved your life?”
More nodding, “Blue told me that Torchlight was going to squash my head when I was knocked out and that you came in and saved me. So unless you were planning to save my life then try and off me with books. We’re cool.”
Huh, forgot about that. Or I repressed it. Meh, really isn't a big deal either way.
I ask with a small amount of hope, “So Twilight is mad but forgives me.”
His answer flattens that hope immediately, “Absolutely not. She accepted the fact that I can still be friends with you, but she says there is no excuse for all the stuff you did to her.”
Somehow I doubt the fact that most of it was a string of unfortunate coincidences is going to work until sometime has passed.
I make sure my assumption is correct, “So, basically, I am on the blacklist of one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria.”
Volt rubs the back of his head and looks away, “Well I managed to stop her from getting the old Pony Hunting for Egg Heads out of the banned books section. Leave it to a librarian to try and get a pony’s funeral booked.”
I try to ignore the pun, but still let slip a slight groan as I turn back to the patient nimbat elder, “Sorry about that Iroh, now, there actually is a bit of a situation that I thought you might have some theories about.”
I twitch my ear a few times and Specter, in his new form, climbs down from my mane and onto the table. Iroh simply stares at him a moment before commenting, “Ah.”
I nod, “Yeah…”
The grey bearded nimbat sets down his tea and spreads his wings, flying around Specter a few times before landing back in his seat. If nothing else, the demonstration showed me that Specter is just under half of Iroh’s size, so pretty much the same size he was as a squirrel. The older nimbat peers at the former squirrel another moment before saying simply, “You’re that squirrel that was with Rhino yesterday.”
Specter nods in agreement as I ask, “How did you know that?”
“Many little things all added up. He has the same markings on his face, the same colors, he rode on your head, and he sits like a squirrel. Adding in that you had never seen a nimbat before you met me, this little one doesn’t seem to know how to use his wings, and the little incident that happened yesterday, and I’d say the chances were pretty high that this was your squirrel.”
My mind grasps onto a particular part of his statement, “So when he got hit yesterday at the library…”
Iroh finishes, “It would be my guess, and I have seen much in my 185 years so my guesses are usually fairly accurate. When Ms. Sparkle was transferring my essence to the journal and it was intercepted by your squirrel, my magical essence was infused within his body. Squirrels being a strictly non-magical race, his body used the new magic to adapt to a form more suitable to his new essence, leading to this new young addition to my species. Before you ask though, no, there would be no way to change him back. I am sorry. Now that he has a body accustomed to magic, he would not be able to revert back to a form that did not naturally have it.”
I sit down heavily on the ground as I absorb this new information. I look on the positive side as I ask, “Are there any… negative side effects I should be aware of?”
Iroh gives Specter another appraising eye, “No, his transformation appears to have been complete. He still retains all his memories, and thus his personality, but beyond that he is now a nimbat through and through. I would wager he knows how to speak now, even if he is not used to it and thus doesn’t do it often at first, but other than that, anything that is outside of what he knew as a squirrel will have to be learned.”
I stand up, having had enough time to at least have a plan while the information sinks in, “Alright, so I need to learn more about nimbats then. The best place to do that would be… from Twilight’s new journal you helped her make… oh boy…”
Iroh nods while turning back to his tea, “Yes, I wish you luck with that my good stallion.”
Volt nods, “We would help, but you know… waffles.”
I gulp as Specter climbs back up for the next leg of the trip.
***
We reach the library in short order and after a minute or two, I build myself up enough to knock on the door. My slight hopes of having the draconian assistant answer the door are short lived as a purple and quickly irked librarian answers the door leaving no amount of interpretation needed for her current thoughts on my presence.
I try to keep the potentially fiery mare calm and reasonable, “Good morning Twilight, I just wanted to come by and apologize for what happened yesterday. Speaking of yesterday though, I heard you had completed the journal on nimbats and I was wondering if I could check it out for some research.”
The mare adopts a eerily calm smile as she replies, “I wish I could help Rhino, but starting today, due to the damage to one of my books by your actions, you are now on this library’s book ban list. Have a nice day.”
She simply closes the door, leaving me standing in front of it.