//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Spikey-Wikey // Story: Where did you come from? // by Jeweled Pen //------------------------------// Rarity stared ahead, taking slow, steady breaths. This wouldn't be easy. Then again, whatever could be? Oh, she was doomed. She knew it. There was no escape from this. It was like staring at an avalanche as it came at you. And you were trapped with your hoof in a rock. There was nothing you could do but wait for the snow to wash over and carry you away. She stared into the eyes of her little sister and her two friends, standing in the doorway with their cousin behind them. All sipping on shakes. Claw was behind her. A foal with no cutie mark. There was no hope. No escape. There was nothing she could do now but ride the inevitable wave of the cutie mark crusaders and hope she wasn't bashed against the shore. It was a... very... tidal wavey... avalanche. “Who's that?” Sweetie asked. An innocent question. A simple question. Should she lie? What was the point? She'd find out soon enough, then just be upset she was lied to. “Time traveling baby pony slash dragon from the future that is the off spring of Spike and some unknown pony.” “Mommy, who's this?” Claw asked, staring at the ponies curiously. And just like that, she could see their eyes widening. The excitement. The dozens of plans forming in their heads. Truly, she was doomed. “You had a son in the future?” Scootaloo asked. “With Spike?” Applebloom asked. “Why didn't you tell me?” Sweetie asked. “If he's from the future she probably didn't know!” Scootaloo said with a wide grin. “Ohhhhh, is he the first time traveling pony? Is he going to get his cutie mark in that?” “Of course not, he's going to get a dragon cutie mark,” Applebloom said, rolling her eyes. “Jus' look at him, how could yah not get a cutie mark like that?” “You had a baby and you didn't tell me?” Sweetie asked, the only one seemingly immune to the call of the cutie mark. “I didn't--” Rarity said, but there was no time for her to finish. Claw suddenly pounced, landing on Scootaloo and giving her a big lick, before cocking his head. “Aunt Chickenwings?” There was a momentary pause, followed by the full unleashed laughter of Scootaloo's friends. “I'm not a chicken!” she snapped angrily. “Claw,” Rarity said with a shake of her head, a moment before he was twisted around and Scootaloo had him in a full body hold. She couldn't help being a little impressed. “What's my name?” Scootaloo demanded. “Aunt Scootaloo, Aunt Scootaloo!” He shrieked, thrashing his little tail about until he was released, jumping back. He gave a little glare. “I have a nephew?” Sweetie asked, her eyes still wide and shocked. “We should help him get his cutie mark!” Applebloom said and Rarity gave a sigh of defeat. There it was, the final push of the avalanche. She then noticed Silverbelle in the back, just looking on with confusion. “Ah, hello Silverbelle,” Rarity said with a smile. “I do hope my sister and her friends are being good hosts. I'd hate to think she was forsaking her duties.” “Huh? Eeep!” Sweetie's eyes bulged as she looked back at her cousin. “We forgot to show you your room, it's...” The words caught in her throat as she looked down the street. Rarity glanced back and even gasped at the sight. Four pegasi royal guards were escorting... CHEERILEE? Of all ponies? What could she have possibly done to get in trouble with the royal guards? On her back was a little black colt, staring out with wide eyed wonder, looking at all the buildings. Pointing some out. “Ohhhh, I'm going to turn that one into the torture chamber! Oh, that'll be the magic research facility! That one will be the stables! Ohhh, that is the one I'm going to take and put a BLEEPing sign that has all those BLEEPing words on it for your BLEEPing princesses to read!” Rarity blinked a few times, her mouth falling open. She then shook her head. “Okay, everypony inside! Go!” she ordered. She didn't know what the buck was wrong with that pony, but she would not let her sister, possible son, cousin and their friends hear such foul language! To her horror, Silverbelle was staring at the pony. The poor dear had probably never heard such crude language in all her life and was now stricken. She gently picked the filly up in her magic and carried her into the house. “I'll need to rearrange a few things to make sure I have space for everypony,” the mare said. “I suppose if I compressed my work room and storage room into one, I'd have two available...” She looked down at Claw. “Dear, will you be okay in the smaller room?” He nodded, staring at Applebloom. Finally he jumped forward and pinned her. “Aunt Applebloom!” Oh, of course. SHE got her full name. The filly let out a shriek as she tried to push him off. It got even worse when he licked her. Sweetie giggled softly and then smiled at him. “Oh? Then you know who I am, right?” He looked at her and just looked confused. Rarity could practically see the gears in his head trying to work, until finally his eyes widened. “Aunt Sunny!” Yet another tackle and lick. “Eek, no, stop!” He did after a few moments before blinking. “Where are your wings? Why you so small? Why's your mane all... pink and not rainbowy?” Rarity frowned. Was she mistaking Sweetie for Celestia? How could he know her friends, but not h-- She locked up and her eyes widened. “Claw, how about you come with me and help me clean out the storage room? Sweetie, dear, how about you and your friends go play?” “But we--” “Go along, darling. Now,” the mare said quickly before trotting off, dragging Claw behind her in her magic. He gave a whine, but soon relented to her parental authority. She trotted upstairs and stepped into the storage room, which was filled with all manner of fabrics. Once there, she closed the door and turned towards him. He was already halfway to the dresser, reaching for the little bowl of sapphires on it. “Claw, dear! Stop!” she ordered. He whined, but turned to her. “But mommyyyyy!” “You can have some in a few moments. But first, let's talk. Now, you do remember my little sister, right?” He nodded rapidly. She relaxed. “Good. And her name is...?” He blinked and then hummed. “Aunt Test, Aunt Chicken, Aunt Applebloom, Aunt Apples, Aunt--” “What? No! Not the ponies who are like a sister to me! My actual sister. You know, Sweetie Belle? The dear little mare with the pink mane?” He cocked his head to the side. “Pink mane?” He paused. “Like yours!” Then blinked. “But it's not pink anymore...” She opened her mouth to object, then froze. She closed her eyes. “Darling. I have... a pink... mane?” He nodded rapidly. “And, dear. Do tell me, what is my cutie mark?” He perked up and grinned. “Purple!” “Of course. Now... is it three little marks, or one big mark?” “A big purple shield!” “Very good dear.” She hovered the gems down to him, feeling something inside her snap. “Let's go have another talk with... daddy.” “Yayyyyy!” ------ Twilight looked up as the door to the library opened. “Presenting, Cheerilee and Val!” Spike said in a boisterous announcement. She rolled her eyes as she noticed he forgot to mention the escorts. She looked over them for a moment, only pausing when she noticed Flash was amongst them. She gave him a nervous smile, only to shake her head and look back to her book. Right, save her number one assistant and THEN worry about cute guard. “Wonderful, so.” She motioned towards the machine. “Spike, could you help strapping him in?” “Sure,” the dragon said. However, when he walked over Val just glared at him. “Are... you a dragon?” he asked softly. “Eeyup!” Spike said proudly. “Wow, that's so pathetic. Are dragons in this universe so lame that they take orders from ponies? That'd be like... I don't know, a human taking orders from an ant. Come on, where's the fire, the brim stone? The vast hordes of riches?” Cheerilee just stared at him in horror. She quickly looked to the dragon. “I am so, so sorry, Spike. He's not... well, we're not sure where he's from. Possibly another dimension.” Twilight hadn't even looked away from her work. “Spike? Are you almost done?” The dragon just stared at the child. Finally, he spoke up. “Hey!” “Oh my gosh you're dumb, too,” Val said with a shake of his head. Cheerilee couldn't help it. She bucked slightly and the child let out a shriek as he fell off, crashing to the ground. “Ow.” “Listen, I'm Twilight's number one assistant and--” “Oh come off it!” Val said as he got shakily to his hooves. “Look at her. She's a BLEEPing pony! She's bright PURPLE! PURPLE! Could you possibly get more lame than that? And what did you all say she was, friendship? That's the most--” He let out a yelp as Spike struck him upside the head. “D-don't you talk about Twilight like that!” the dragon said, glaring angrily at the colt. “Oh yeah? Or what? You hit like a drunken elf. And your pony looks like a dried out--” Cheerilee eeped as the two suddenly went into full scrape mode, a little whirl of dust on the ground. She took a deep breath, before stomping her hooves. “ENOUGH!” she snapped in full teacher voice. “You two are both going into time out!” “B-but he started it,” Spike said. “I don't care. Spike, you're older and smarter than Val is, you should know better. Val, go sit on the round thing over there.” “Hey! I'm not dumb!” the colt whined. “Now!” Cheerilee sighed and shook her head as the child walked off, grumbling darkly about working ponies in the mines. She then caught sight of Twilight who... was standing at attention. Ah, right. Teacher voice. “Spike, would you be a dear and help him get set up?” He grumbled and nodded, moving over to the colt. Val opened his mouth to speak. “Not a word,” Cheerilee snapped. Soon he was all hooked up and the dragon stepped back. “There.” Twilight quickly got to work. “There's got to be... something. I sent Claw back to when this pony arrived for some reason... Now, please do a basic telekinesis spell.” “A what now? Why would I know a useless spell like that? I have hands!” He paused. “Had hands!” She glanced back to him. “Do you know... any spells?” He grinned and his horn glowed. Two orbs of black light formed above his head and then sailed straight at her. Cheerilee's eyes bulged. Okay, she wasn't sure but she was at least ninety percent certain that assaulting one of the princesses with dark magic was a pretty severe crime. Twilight merely waved a hoof and both orbs stopped in mid flight, popping into little purple bubbles. “Wonderful! Ohhh, interesting. This is definitely black magic, but not like any I've seen before. Who taught you this spell?” “I just... I just know it,” he mumbled softly, staring at her. “It's... magic missile. I just... fel magiced it and... and how are you doing that?” “Hmmm? Doing what?” “You... you can't trap magic missiles. That's not... you can't... they don't...” “Starswirl's Swift Spell Storage Stassis Spell. Or the SSSSSS for short,” Twilight said proudly. “It's great for capturing and studying swift moving spells such as these.” “R-right,” he said, looking shaken. “Do you know any others?” She then paused. “That's... interesting. Your drain was... hmmm... cast a few more spells for me, please. Like this, if you could.” Suddenly the door to the room opened and Cheerilee let out a frightened little eep. Even the guards took a step back. Rarity stood in the frame, but the teacher had never seen her like this. She looked... out of sorts. Her mane was frazzled, her eyes were twitching and, most importantly, her pupils had gotten very small. “Oh Spikey-wikey?” she said in the sweetest tone. The dragon turned instantly, hearts in his eyes. “Yes, oh-- eep!” Even he froze in the presence of her glance. He let out a frightened yipe as he was lifted into the air by her magic. “I... think we need to have a talk. Come, darling.” “E-eep.” Cheerilee looked down at their son, the very confused Claw. He just smiled back. “Do you have any gems?” “I'm afraid not. Perhaps you should stick with your mother.” She gave a worried glance towards the disappearing unicorn and dragon. She did hope they'd be okay. But first she needed to focus on Val.