//------------------------------// // Chapter 38 Quick Fix // Story: Spike the Knight // by vadram //------------------------------// Quick Fix “Unless you want to remain a filly a little longer,” Imamu told Zecora as he picked her and Apple Bloom with one hand. Her white coat did little to hide the redness that appeared across her face. It didn’t take the giant long to reach Spike. Zecora jumped down and landed near him. “Spike, do not worry, We’ll fix you in a hurry.” Spike could only smile weakly at her. Imamu took him in his other hand, his head resting against his thumb. Now, walking towards the cave, Zecora and Kirabo running beside him, Spike could better see the cave they emerged from earlier. It was still too big to fully grasp, so that even Imamu had no problem entering it. Two large stalagmites stood on the opposed sides of the entrance, behind them a series of ever smaller ones led to the entrance. Above them there were an almost identical pattern of stalactites were formed. There were no side walls until they were gone, and the ceiling had large holes in it. As they entered a few more details came to light. Except for the crystals that were embedded in them, the walls and ceiling seemed very smooth, only a couple of stalactites popped out, right in the middle of the ceiling from time to time. As the tunnel itself got bigger so did the rocky formations. For a while Spike could only stare at the art pieces that decorated the lower part of the wall. All seemed to be made with the same love and attentions as the ones he saw earlier, and all were made out of bones. Spike thought about it for a bit. “The Everfree is a dangerous place, if not THE most dangerous place in all of Equestria, so death must be a common sight here. And for someone that had been living here for Celestia knows how long, survival must of meant making some hard decisions. I am not sure if Imamu killed, or even... ate... all these creatures. But, if using what remained of an already dead creature meant staying alive a little longer, I don’t think I am in any position to judge. And he does seem to be on good terms with Zecora, so he can’t be that bad, could he?” Spike tried thinking about anything just to keep himself distracted from the pain he was in. Soon he noticed that they passed the bed he had rested in some time ago, as well as the fire that he knew had been closeby while resting in said bed. The tunnel opened up even more as they entered a larger area of the cave. The floor stopped, suddenly dropping rapidly. Imamu gently moved Apple Bloom from one hand to another, placing her next to Spike. He clenched his free hand into a fist, and with a rapid movement hit the wall. The sound echoed through the room. As his eyes adjusted to the bright light Spike could see that they were now standing in the doorway to a large and brightly lit part of the cave. Large was an understatement, huge would still be way off, there were few things that it could be compared to, there were only two that he could think of, one was too small and the other was too big. The first one was Ponyville itself, while the town covered more area that the cave, with a little planning all the building could fit in nicely and there would still be room left. The other was Shining Armors Aegis Shield Spell, the giant pink bubble that surrounded Canterlot during the changeling invasion. That one was too big, but not by much. On the edges of the cave there were stone arches stopping the massive cave from collapsing. But all of these paled in comparison to what took up the better part of the room. Crystals, gigantic crystals, larger than a house, larger than the Library, larger than anything in Ponyville for that matter, larger than any other building he had seen, except for Canterlot Castle itself, and of course Cloudsdale, since the entire city was just a single structure. Spike could not stop drooling at the sight. “It is beautiful.” Was all that he could say. Imamu laughed. “Rarity would never be the same if she saw this.” Imamu bent his knees, picked Zecora up with his free hand and jumped. He landed on the largest crystal in the bunch, a giant blue one, that covered almost a quarter of the surface. He placed the trio down on the smooth and surprisingly warm surface before jumping over it’s edge. He returned shortly with a large iron chest under his arm. His cloak now parted revealed more of his body. There was some yellow fur that ran from his shoulder to his chest in a v pattern, before turning into a white strip and running down his stomach, past his groin and crotch and down the insides of his legs. The rest of his body was a brown, getting darker as it reached his arms and legs before turning black. His feet looked just like Kirabo’s as well as his own hands. He was an unusual creature, but Spike got used to his appearance rather quickly. He places the chest next to them. The force of the impact knocked him, the fillies as well as Kirabo up in the air. Kirabo bent his knees and stood straight in an instant. Zecora tried to steady herself but slipped and landed on her stomach. Somehow Apple Bloom landed face first, waking up and immediately placing her hooves in front of her nose to stop the bleeding. And Spike fell flat on his back, screaming in pain. His screams were quickly muffled as he felt something being pushed into his mouth. It was a piece of cloth, dipped into some unknown liquid. “Suck on it.” Kirabo said bluntly as he held Spikes mouth shut making sure he did not spit it out. Spike tried to resist at first, mostly because of the horrible taste the liquid had, but as more and more dripped into his mouth it started to taste less and less bad, what’s more the pain he was previously in started dying down, but as the same time his vision started getting blurry and his hearing seemed to be failing him as well. “... we remove the eye... then toss him... a few days... dinner...” They were the last things he managed to hear before it all went black.