//------------------------------// // Chapter 26: December 10-11, Owls Well That Ends Well // Story: Yet Another Human In Equestria Story // by Bardic_Knowledge //------------------------------// Yet Another Human in Equestria Story By: Bardic Knowledge Chapter 26: December 10-11, Owls Well That Ends Well “Come on, Joe!” said Trixie, knocking at the door. “I know you want to see the meteor shower.” “It's too cold out!” I replied, tossing a new log into the furnace. Not long before the snow fell, I had practically sequestered myself in the furnace room, both to make sure the house stayed warm and to be in the hottest room in the house. “I know your clothes have heating enchantments! I was there when you got them!” “It'll be psychosomatic cold!” “Don't make me use my secret weapon!” “I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE YELLING ABOUT!” shouted Pinkie. I blinked, sighed, then facepalmed before walking over to the door Trixie (and apparently Pinkie) was behind, opening it. “Pinkie raises a good point. I neither locked this door, nor is it my room. You could have entered at any time.” I had barely finished speaking when I noticed that, alongside Pinkie, who even Trixie looked confused about, Fluttershy was also in the game room. I think she was going to have me Stared if I didn't give in. Though we still weren't sure if the Stare would have the same effect on me as it would a cockatrice or dragon, I was inclined to think it was. “I'm still not sure why the house has a furnace like that,” Trixie said. “It doesn't go below freezing on even the most chilly day.” “I'm more sensitive to cold than most,” I reminded her. “Especially ponies, since you've got your fur.” I closed my eyes with a sigh. “Fine. I'll bundle up and join you on the hill.” “We've still got an hour, we may as well have something to eat before we go.” As we all headed up the stairs, I glanced to my right and muttered, “What does it say about me that my marefriend grabs another mare to use as a 'secret weapon.'” “Actually, Fluttershy was just stopping by to see Bacardi,” Trixie replied. “I was talking about something else.” “Oi, that was a private, fourth-wall-y interlude.” Trixie just rolled her eyes. She was so used to my idiosyncrasies at this point it made me smile. --- “You look ridiculous.” “But I feel so warm.” I knew where Trixie was coming from, though, since the only thing you could see of me was my eyes. My mouth and nose were covered by a Fourth Doctor-inspired scarf, and a thick woollen cap reminiscent of (though not quite like) Jayne's cunning hat. I also wore my Nightmare Night costume, with another coat over it. It was a little overboard, really, but I was motivated by a combination of my dislike of cold and feelings of whimsy. So toasty... The snow that wasn't present in the episode I was pretty sure this meteor shower heralded crunched underfoot and hoof as we headed to a hill near my house. As soon as she saw me, Twilight remarked, “Geez, Joe, it's not that cold!” Rarity glanced my way and choked on her punch, before resolutely looking the other direction. “Don't care, winter!” I replied. Dash rolled her eyes, “It's exactly the same temperature as the top of that mountain on your birthday.” “There was a dragon up there making it warmer.” “Including the dragon!” “Look, we're not here because of my irrational hatred of the cold, okay? Let's just watch some meteors.”After some snickering on Pinkie's side of things, everyone agreed (though Twilight saw fit to remind me that they were comets, not meteors) and I settled down on the almost incongruous picnic blanket. After some pleasantries and small talk, I learned that the centennial shower begun approximately a thousand-something years ago, but records of that time period were scarce enough that it could have been almost anything. I made note of Twilight's mention that she could look that information up if the “Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy" hadn't been “checked out.” Spike's cookies were good, but the punch was only kind of so-so. Tasted kind of grape-y but not quite. At least it didn't taste purple, like cough medicines. About half-way into the shower, Spike and Scootaloo were out cold, Spike dropping off in the middle of refilling his glass, spilling the punch bowl into the snow. I was mildly tempted to see if it tasted like a snow cone, but the lacklustre taste of the punch had me dismiss the idea out-of-hand. Trixie leaning up against me as we watched the sky contributed, too. Pinkie made her “Spiked punch” joke, which got a chuckle, and I lay my outermost coat over him (though he was warm enough being a dragon that it probably wasn't needed) so we could just keep watching the sky. The comet storm lasted until about 1:30-ish, and we packed up the picnic (dumping out the rest of the punch into the snow as well. No one really wanted dragon as an added taste), Rainbow volunteering to take Scoots home. As we headed back home, I smiled at the sky before speaking, “You know, I never got the chance to see something like that back on Earth.” “Really?” Trixie replied. “Yeah, any celestial event, like an eclipse, gets obscured by clouds by the time it happens. Stupid Michigan weather.” “Eclipse?” “Oh, that's right. With the sun and moon controlled by the Princesses, it's no wonder you don't have that word. An eclipse occurs when the position of the sun, the Earth, and the moon is just right as to overshadow one of them. If I remember right, solar eclipses only happen once every four years, but the Earth is large enough that it isn't always visible from Michigan, and even then it tends to be covered by clouds. Might be why I always loved watching lightning.” Trixie remained silent for a few moments. “I hear there's some lightning art places in Los Pegasus. We could make a vacation of it someday.” “Sounds like a date.” --- The next day, Trixie and I found ourselves at the library, where Twilight was already showing off Owlo... Owloysius? Ah, Owlowiscious (Shadows, I can never remember how to spell his name). Pinkie giggled, “Oh, what a fantastical, flufflicious feathery little friend! I'm... HOOked!” This was apparently funny, because almost everypony laughed. “He's just wonderful,” murmured Fluttershy. This elicited some grumbling from Spike in the window above us, which he quickly attempted to cover up. “And Owlowiscious is just such a star I just had to make this little bow for you,” said Rarity, fixing a near-duplicate of the bow-tie she gave Spike the night before to the owl's neck. This was obviously the last straw, because Spike slammed his book shut and stomped his way back inside. “What's he all saddle sore about?” complained Applejack. “He's worried,” I answered. “He's used to being Twilight's only assistant and he's thinks Owlowiscious will replace him.” “Replace him?” Twilight scoffed. “Hah! That's crazy! Spike knows he can't be replaced.” I forced myself to remain silent on the issue, knowing that Spike's worst fear was to have Twilight send him away. We needed as many Friendship Reports as possible to make sure she broke out of her future discording. Instead I said, “I wonder if he'd like to meet Bacardi, as a fellow creature of the night.” “Hoo?” Owlowiscious hooted. In response, I used my fingers to give a loud whistle; this apparently was piercing enough to make everypony rub at their ears. Regardless, a couple moments later Bacardi came flapping up to us. He landed on my shoulder, where I pet him, before introducing them. “Bacardi, this is Owlowiscious. Owlowiscious, this is Bacardi.” “Hoo.” “Squeak.” Bacardi replied. They seemed to have a conversation while we watched, Fluttershy occasionally giggling at something (but she wouldn't say what, just waved her hoof at us). After a few minutes, everyone had places to be. I was due to start transcribing The Hand of Oberon (fourth book of The Chronicles of Amber), and had only come to town for a memory spell. Bacardi stuck with me as I went home, Trixie going with Rarity and Fluttershy to a spa date (apparently). Later that afternoon, I was interrupted in my writing when Spike knocked on my basement door and asked if he could borrow a quill. “Uh, yeah. I think I've got a spare in the desk.” I fetched the quill for him and he headed off, looking ecstatic. I really felt bad for the little guy, knowing what he'd find when he got back to the library. --- That night, I was explaining the episode's events to Trixie, “And, while he's sleeping on the stairs, Twilight discovers that he accidentally burned the pages out of her book and wakes him up to confront him. She scolds him, but he takes it pretty hard.” “And you didn't do anything to fix things?” “Well, back when Spike and I went to Canterlot, before you showed up, I cautioned him to be careful around dusty books, but that was months ago. I'm surprised I remember it. Anyways, distraught, Spike runs away from home an-” The door burst open in a flash of purple magic, Twilight bursting in in a panic. “Joe! Have you seen Spike?” “Have you tried following his ketchup footprints?” I replied. “Ketchup-? You knew this WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?!” she shouted. I'm pretty sure she was starting to glow white, while Trixie quickly moved to calm her down, looking rather worried. “He's in the Everfree! A green dragon's cave, and if you want to save him, we need to move out, now!” I pointed out the door. I wasn't intending to get involved, but apparently my mere existence managed to screw up the timeline slightly. I got on Trixie's back as Owlowiscious swooped down in front of us, Bacardi flying out behind us as we galloped towards the Everfree Forest. “I don't know the exact location of the cave, but since there's only one entrance to the Everfree, we should be able to find his footprints. It will be difficult for us to see, no matter how good my darkvision is, but Owlowiscious and Bacardi should be able to guide us to him. When we reach the cave, you might want to have a teleport spell cued up to get us out of there, because the dragon is going to be angry at Spike for chewing on his hoard.” “Why would Spike do that?” Trixie asked. “Because he didn't know it was a dragon's hoard at the time.” We reached the entrance to the Everfree then, and Owlowiscious flew closer to the ground to try and find his footprints. After a couple tension-filled moments, he hooted loudly and took off, Bacardi next to him. Together, the guided us into the forest, Bacardi warning Owlowiscious when there was something in the trees he didn't see, and Owlowiscious keeping his eyes on the ground, where the footprints lay. Not long after we entered we heard a cry for help. I shouldn't have been surprised we found him so quickly, considering the speed we had been travelling at. The instant we heard Spike's shout, Bacardi took over guiding us completely, using his echolocation skills to guide us to a cave. Bat and owl both flew straight in, distracting the dragon I knew of as Razorfang while Twilight grabbed Spike in his magic and put him on her back. She started to charge up a teleport, but dropped the spell in fright when Razorfang breathed flame right over our heads. I tried to think of a way to appease him, offer him replacement gems or something, but he was obviously too angry to listen to what anyone had to say. Instead, Trixie wheeled about and all six of our party burst from the cave, the dragon right behind us. The pets guided us out again until we had left Razorfang behind, roaring in futility. We came to a stop as we hit the entrance Spike and I dismounting as Owlowiscious and Bacardi landed in our places. Twilight panted as she spoke, “Spike. We were so worried about you. I was so worried about you. Why did you run away?” Spike looked dejectedly at the ground. “I thought you didn't need me anymore. And that you didn't love me anymore.” “Spike.” Twilight sighed. “Sure, I was disappointed, but you are my number one assistant! And friend. And you always will be. It's just that sometimes I need some help at night. I can't ask you to stay up late. You're a baby dragon and you need your rest. Owls are nocturnal. So I asked Owlowiscious to help. But not to take your place. No one could ever replace you, Spike. Not even when you are being a jealous numbskull.” “There are many interpretations of your relationship with Twilight,” I added, “from a surrogate mother, due to her hatching your egg, to an adoptive sister, since you've been there most of her life. One thing you can be sure of is that you're family.” A quote popped into my head. “'Ohana means family. Family means, no one gets left behind.'” Twilight nodded in agreement. “I'm sorry, Twilight. I never should have been so jealous.” “And I'm sorry too, Spike. I should have been more sensitive.” Twilight hugged Spike. “To be fair, you're still pretty new to this whole 'friendship' business. Tact can be tough.” I pointed out. Spike nodded, then turned to Owlowiscious. “And Owlowiscious... I know now that you weren't out to take my job. Forgive me?” “Hoo?” Oh, here we go. “Me. Forgive me, Spike.” “Hoo!” “Squeak!” added Bacardi. The animals started hooting and chittering in a laughing manner, Twilight, Trixie, and I joining in. “He forgives you, Spike,” Twilight added. Trixie levitated my watch out of my pocket and glanced at it. “If I'm going to be to work on time, we should probably start heading back,” Trixie said. We agreed and made our way back to Ponyville. After a few minutes of walking, Spike jerked back in a moment of epiphany. “Hey! How did you guys know where I was?” “Well, first they came to my house,” I said. “And I pointed out that your feet should have left behind ketchup-flavoured footprints. When we got to the entrance of the Everfree, Owlowiscious was able to follow them most of the way there, and then Bacardi followed your screams the rest of the way. That bat is getting extra treats tonight, I tell you what.” Bacardi jumped from Trixie's back to my shoulder and licked my cheek. “Oh, yeah... The ketchup. It looked pretty real, though, right?” Twilight gave him a sardonic look and he giggled nervously. “Maybe if the mouse toy you used hadn't looked patchwork. And the feathers from the pillow had looked like owl feathers.” I lectured. “Also, owls tend to eat prey whole, so your deception was also rather misinformed. Furthermore-” “I think he gets the picture, Joe,” Trixie said, magicking my mouth shut. I rolled my eyes and nodded.