Twilight's Oddities

by FleetingChance

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight –

“Okay this isn’t fair,” the hybrid Griffin complained as he was once again beaten in another flying race against Spike. “You’re just about the size of one of those new bus thingy in Manehatten.”

“Let me guess is it an Apple bus?” Sweetie Belle said from under the big shade tree.

“Why, yes. Have you been to Manehatten to see them?” The hybrid Griffin said turning to look at the young mare.

“Nope, my friend’s mentor actually invented those buses and named them after my friend. She said she helped him come up with the idea and the fuel for the buses. Mixture of magic and apples is what makes them move,” Sweetie Belle said leaning against the big shade tree.

“Interesting. My son would love to meet her, he’s dreaming of becoming an engineer,” the hybrid Griffin said.

“I thought he wanted to become a dragon?” Spike said coming to rest beside Sweetie Belle.

“Long story short he found out the hard way he couldn’t become a dragon,” he said coming to sit with the two of them. It was a sunny day outside and the wind was blowing softly ruffling all their manes. “We had to take him to a healer to get the burn treated.”

“He tried to see if he was resistant to fire?” Spike asked arching an eyebrow. “Aren’t Griffins naturally resistant to fire?”

“Yeah, but he’s a quarter pony. He’s not entirely resistant to fire because of that. However the burn would have been worse if he had more pony in him than Griffin,” he said. “He got better quick enough, because of his Griffin genetics.”

“Now I am curious as to how he got the burn,” Spike said with a grin.

Buck grinned back. “My wife is a blacksmith who makes weapons and armor for the royal guard in Canterlot and in any neighboring Griffins. So she was in the garage, what we call her shop, working on an order for the Crystal Empire. She had been particularly excited to make this one because Princess Candance herself sent special ores from the Empire to use in the weapons and armor. While she was working my daughter was in there helping her by keeping the fire at the high temperature that was needed to mold the ore from the Empire. My son had snuck in there knowing that his mother was working on an order. My daughter didn’t notice her brother sneaking in because she was so preoccupied with keeping the fire lit. So he snuck to the fire pit and stuck a wing and a paw into the fire. The resulting scream was heard five streets away.”

“I hope he learned his lesson after that,” Sweetie Belle said worriedly.

“Oh he did after he had fire shot down his neck from his mother,” Buck snickered. “My wife loves her children, but the second they do something she doesn’t approve of…let’s just say she has us trained.”

Spike snorted. “Maybe Twilight will be like that.”

Buck arched an eyebrow. “Is the Princess pregnant?”

“Oh no, she isn’t even dating. I just said that because she’s gotten after me when I was still a young hatchling,” he said.

“Aren’t all of the Mane Six married?” Buck said. “Fluttershy is married to Discord, the lord of Chaos. Rarity is married to…Fancy Pants up in Canterlot. Applejack is married to Flim, never understood what happened there. Pinkie Pie is married to Pokie Peirce, did you know she has a Pegasi son?”

“It’s Pinkie Pie,” Spike and Sweetie Belle said together.

Buck arched an eyebrow, but went on. “Rainbow Dash is married to Volturi.”

“How do you know all of this?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“My daughter is obsessed with anything Princess related,” Buck said simply crossing his hind legs together and flopping down on his side. “So naturally I know just about anything related to them. She makes me watch reruns of the Canterlot wedding that happened years before she was born. Oh you’ll love this. She fainted when she saw Princess Candance.”

“She fainted?” Spike said hiding a snort when Sweetie hit him with her back hoof.

“Yep, the Princess felt so bad she tried to offer us a free tour of the Empire led by Prince Shining Armor and herself. Naturally I declined saying she’d be fine in an hour or so. My daughter was livid when she heard I declined,” he smirked. “She’s like her mother when she’s mad.”

Spike smirked. “You should see Twilight when she gets mad. There was this one time…”

“Come quick,” Applejack said bursting through the doors of the castle. Twilight looked up to see Applejack in her armor that Princess Celestia herself had given the entire Mane Six. Coming to meet her friend in the hallway she saw an extra plate of armor wrapped around Applejack’s stomach. “Had it made by a Griffin blacksmith and had it bewitched to resist all spells,” she said seeing Twilight’s eyes dart to it. “Ah wanted it made just in case ah had to go into battle while pregnant.”

“Battle?” Twilight said her eyes going wide. Her own armor appeared out of thin air strapping itself to her body. Normally this would have scared anypony, but Applejack stood there like it was normal to see a full set of armor appear out of thin air. “What happened? Is anypony harmed?”

“Not yet. We’ve managed to evacuate most of the citizens,” Applejack said cantering out of the castle. Despite being pregnant she kept up with Twilight easily. “Rarity attacked Sweetie Belle with a curse when she wasn’t aware.”

“I thought she was better?” Twilight said looking around the town. While most of the buildings were still in working order. A couple were smashed or damaged with distinctive marks. “Spike.”

“Eyup,” Applejack said mimicking her older brother. “He went berserk when he saw Rarity hit Sweetie Belle with the curse. He is currently going after Rarity while she is still trying to do more damage to her sister.”

“Do you still think it is the greed?” Twilight said darting ahead to shove a young Earth Pony and Pegasi Pony out from under a falling tree. She helped the two Ponies up before she teleported back to Applejack’s side.

“Ah honestly don’t know,” Applejack said. They rounded the corner where roars and wicked laughter could be heard.

A thought came to Twilight’s mind she didn’t voice. What if it is the same thing that was possessing Luna? She thought. Then she shook her head, it can’t be. Rarity would never let herself come under the influence of the Darkness. Then a sudden bright light startled her. Seemingly out of nowhere appearing the Ruling Sisters in full armor. Twilight ran to their sides with Applejack by her side. “What is going on?”

Luna turned to look at Twilight. “The Darkness has been detected in Equestria again and yes the same that I was under the influence of.”

“But, but how can it influence a holder of an Element of Harmony?” Twilight said looking up at the tall dark Alicorn.

“How can it influence a natural born Alicorn?” Luna said looking back at her. “Don’t be ashamed young one. We don’t have proper knowledge of how The Darkness works. All recorded knowledge was lost a few years before I was sent to the moon.”

Twilight thought for a moment. “Can we detain Rarity without sending her to the moon?”

Celestia bit back a grin. Luna threw a side long glance at her. “We can, but it’ll require her being put into a coma like state. In the state The Darkness will be powerless to use her and when that happens we will be able to extract it from her. Since Rarity is just a Unicorn and not a powerful one at that the Darkness doesn’t have much power. However the side effect of the spell will be that she will be unable to wake up until The Darkness is extracted.”

Twilight looked over to Applejack who simply nodded. She looked back to the Alicorn princess. “Do what you have to do, but let me handle Spike.” Luna just nodded and shot to where Spike, Rarity, and Sweetie Belle were. Twilight and Applejack soon followed.

“She deserves to be punished!” Twilight heard Rarity shriek. Her eyes widened. She didn’t recognize Rarity anymore. Her coat took on a dark grey, her mane was frizzled, and her eyes were shrunk to pin pricks.

A beam of magic shot from Rarity’s horn and struck Sweetie Belle in the side. Sweetie Belle gave a pain filled cry. Spike let out an earth shattering roar as he charged towards Rarity with his claws and razor sharp teeth blared. Rarity let out a shrill crackle and dodged Spike, but the ends of his teeth caught her mane. Spike swung his head snapping Rarity’s head to the side with a sickening crack. Rarity cried out in pain. She fell to the ground with her neck bent at an unnatural angle.

He was about to go for her throat when Rarity snapped back up and used a spell to crack her neck back in place. “Thought you could take me down that easily?” she crackled. “Think again you pitiful rat!” she ran towards him, but Spike caught her easily. Snapping his jaws down on her withers Spike swung her around and let her go soaring through the air into a building.

“Sweetie Belle!” Twilight cried running to the young mare’s side. She lay on her side too weak to lift her head up. She ran her eyes over the young mare checking for any flesh wounds. That was where she noticed something. Her coat gave off a slight shimmer. “A protection and shield spell. I can’t help, but to feel proud of myself.”

A small faint smile came on Sweetie Belle’s face. It quickly faded as another one of Rarity’s deranged crackles met their ears. “What will happen to—” she was cut off when they heard a loud painful cry come from Rarity.

They both looked up to see Luna and Celestia encasing Rarity in a thick bubble that filled with a dark red gas. The gas grew thicker until Rarity gave a pitiful cry and slumped down to the bottom of the bubble. The bubble then popped and an unconscious Rarity fell to the ground. Spike roared and charged towards the Princesses. Without thinking Twilight shot a spell flying towards Spike. The spell hit the back of his head and sent him tumbling to the ground. When the dust cleared she saw him on his side snoring lightly. She took a sigh of relief.

The princesses flew to her side. “We will send repair crews to Ponyville at once,” Celestia said levitating an unconscious Rarity beside her. She looked towards Spike snoring on the ground. “Will he remember any of this?”

“Probably not, I hit him with a memory altering spell as well. He will just think some monster attacked the town,” Twilight said supporting a recently healed and bandaged Sweetie Belle. She was surprisingly dealing with all the pain well. She was quite durable.

“Good,” Celestia said. “Rarity will be returned once we extract all of The Darkness from her,” with that the Princesses vanished out of thin air.

A few days had passed since the accident and Ponyville was already almost completed with all the repairs. Sweetie Belle was due to be released from the hospital that morning when Spike finally woke up. Hearing his loud groaning stretch Twilight trotted off towards his room. Appearing in the doorway she looked around the room noticing it had been cleaned since the last time she had been in there. The large plush mattress took up most of the room with plush pillows and a thick quilt. The quilt had been a gift from Granny Smith on Spike’s thirteenth birthday. Ever since then he had slept with it. Posters of authors, superponies, dragons sided with ponies, and illustrations from books hung on his wall. Even though he’d never admit it he was just as big a book nerd as Twilight was; however he was more interested in fiction books than Twilight herself was.

She saw Spike laying on his side under the quilt looking out the window. “What’s wrong?” she was in tune to Spike’s emotions so it wasn’t hard for her to pick up how he was feeling. When he didn’t answer she walked over to his bed and sat on the side. “I know something is wrong.”

“Your Memory Modification spell didn’t work. I know what really happened,” Spike said with no emotion in his voice. “I wish it had though.”

Looking down at Spike she knew he wasn’t telling her the full story. “What’s really wrong?”

Spike sighed and got up to sit on the side of the bed with her. “Am I a danger to everypony?” he looked at her searching for an answer. “That was the second time I attacked Rarity. Sure I did less damage this time, but if you hadn’t stopped me I could have killed her.”

“You are not a danger, Spike,” Twilight said softly.

“Then what am I?” he said his voice rising. “I’m not a Dragon and I’m not a Pony, which that much is obvious. I am Pony raised and consider myself more of a Pony than I do anything else. It’s clear I am not a Pony. What am I?” he looked demandingly towards Twilight.

Twilight didn’t know what to say, Spike had always been family to her from the beginning. “You are my family…my son. I’ve never thought of you as anything else. Mom and dad have accepted you, Shining Armor has accepted you, and even the while Crystal Empire has accepted you.”

Spike gazed at her and then laid his head on her shoulder. “I hope this journey across Equestria will answer that for me,” he said softly.
“I’m sure it will,” she nuzzled the top of his head.

“Buck!” Spike said with a grin when he walked into Sweetie Belle’s hospital room. The hybrid Griffin looked back at him with an equally wide grin. “What in Equestria are you doing here?” he said giving a hug to the Griffin. He saw Twilight’s confused looked. “This is Buck Feathers. We met him at the market and since then he’s became a friend to us.”

“A Griffin and a Pony?” Twilight said softly studying Buck.

“Watch out she’ll study you like a new specimen,” Spike laughed watching Twilight look him over.

“Well when a Griffin loves a Pony…” Buck trailed off laughing when Twilight scrunched her face up.

“I know how it works, but I didn’t think those two species could produce viable offspring,” she said coming into the room. “Hybridization works with some species like Dragons and Ponies, but it takes a lot of tries to produce viable offspring. A Sphinx and a Griffin can have viable offspring together, but that’s only because they share similar DNA strands and genetics. A Merpony and a Pony can have offspring together, but only if water is present. However a Griffin and a Pony?” Twilight kept talking and looking Buck over like he was a new bug she had never seen before.

Spike smirked and rolled his eyes as he walked over to Sweetie Belle’s bed. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling right as rain,” Sweetie said. “The nurses here really know what they are doing.”

“No lasting effects?” he said looking at her like she might break.

“Well they said I might have to use the toilet more now because of the medicine I’ll be on for a few weeks. Oh! I almost forgot look at this!” she said turning her head to show her messy mane. At first Spike didn’t see anything, but then he saw small lines of yellow in her mane. “Another side effect from the treatment they used. I’ve always wanted to dye my mane, but I never got around to it.”

Spike sighed. “I’m just happy you’re alright,” he said nuzzling her.

Sweetie smiled and looked up at him. Their eyes connected and her heart skipped a beat. Then before she knew it Spike was kissing her. It lasted only a brief moment before she became aware of the eyes on them. She drew away with a bright blush creeping across her cheeks. “S-sorry.”

Twilight grinned. “Don’t be, Spike needed that kiss.”

“Twilight!” he hissed his own cheeks heating up.

“What? I’m only telling the truth,” she laughed dodging his glare.

“Is she normally like this?” Buck asked Spike.

“Yes,” Twilight gave him a look. “What it’s only the truth,” Spike said grinning at Twilight.

“I might be smaller than you, but I can still take you down,” she came towards him and he dodged her and ran out of the room with her following behind him.

“You have to excuse them,” Sweetie said with a sigh. “They might be oddballs, but they are worth knowing.”

Comments

[Eonflare]

Confusing. Was that supposed to be flashback?