Spike of All Trades

by Ariamaki

Chapter 41: Confrontation

When he went to check the Timescale error, his view was blocked by a set of other screens.

By using [Internal Alchemy] without the skill, your Mastery increases by 1%

By surviving [Mana Confusion] without any aid, your Mastery of [Internal Alchemy] increases by 1%


There were several copies of each notification, and all told his Mastery had leapt from 12% to 20% in the last minute. That was... surprisingly nice. Of course, it worried him that the text specified survived. Another thing on the list to ask Twilight about: Although the odds of getting lectured on magical safety procedures again were high? He probably deserved it. But he’d deserve it later, too! Right now he had to finish what he had started.

Underneath all of those windows, he found it again. "Would you like to spend an Unlocker?", it said. He didn't recognize the term, and there wasn't any such item in his inventory... No, wait. That wasn't entirely true. Checking his memory and his notes more thoroughly, he had gotten an unknown number of Unlockers as a reward the quest with Pinkie earlier. So they were keys for opening up... system features? He had no other way to use them in sight and it suited his current goal, so Spike hit the confirm option on the window.

The description on Dragon's Heart shifted underneath, the section on the cost splitting to say "MP: Varies" and "Duration: Variable". At the same time he felt the now-familiar channels of magic inside of him that represented the ability... change. They became more supple, more flexible, and he could instinctively tell how to throttle the flow now. It wouldn't apply to any other skills, but given how broadly useful and central Dragon's Heart had been so far? Spike wasn't complaining.

"Um. We can talk specifics later, but long story short I made a very dumb mistake and it worked."

"Like a true Crusader!"

"Heh. But seriously... We shouldn't have any trouble now. It's not quite as crazy as I was hoping, but if we stack everything I should be able to make this shot easily."

Scootaloo looked from Spike to the window and back again before huffing and crossing her forelimbs, her expression shifting along into a (kinda adorable) pout.
"Well then what are we waiting for?"

Spike nodded at that, as sagely as he could manage, and then started cracking open menus. The terrible bone-stretching muscle-flattening pain of sudden Dragon's Hoard growth kicked in again (they had even done some size-changing 'stretches' earlier but it was still rough going), sending him shooting up to an even greater height than his first change at the Boutique. His movement speed dropped sharply, but this wasn't the kind of throw that would benefit from a run-up... Not as much as the striking multiplier to his Strength and Vitality.

He burned out a quick test-blast of Dragon's Heart, throwing all of his mana away for one second of enhancement. The buff wasn't linear, or efficient... Far from both. You'd hope that turning a sixty second effect into one second would mean sixty times stronger, but the reality was closer to six. But combined with his new size, that still meant a comically large uptick in strength, and he could already lift Scootaloo and carry her around without size changes or buffs.

"Ready?"

She looked up at him with an expression that was hard to read, shifting her hooves.
"Rock and roll me, big guy."

Without giving their awful plan any further chances to get more awful (and right in time with his MP hitting the cap again), Spike hammered in the full-strength one-second max-charge Dragon's Heart. It sent his Strength from its base in the teens up into the triple digits, and then he flung his friend and fellow Crusader straight into the air with a primal roar. Scootaloo gave her own battlecry as she sailed through the air... Or maybe it was a scream of primal terror. Hard to tell at this distance.

At first it seemed like Scootaloo's scream had actually doppler'd into another register, but then he realized that was Rainbow Dash's shouting: Her hoarse voice was... pretty distinct. That went quiet shortly though, and whatever was happening up there, Spike couldn't hear a thing. It was a shame he hadn't picked up any more perception enhancements: The buff from lunch was still hanging on (and he crunched a few gems from his inventory to make sure of that), but otherwise he was relying on his same-as-yesterday plain ol' senses.

After a solid minute, he decided to shrink back down and resume his previous form. The pain was a little easier to bear this time, but only barely. After a solid five minutes, he realized that maybe he should be worried that something went wrong. But he hadn't seen Dash leave the cloudhouse, so nopony was hurt, right? She'd have gone for help if so, or called for help if that was off the table. Right around the time he considered acting to figure out what was going on, then, with perfect timing, Dash poked her head out of the window. He couldn't make out her title from down here, but he could sure recognize that mane.

"Hey! You wanna come up?"

Spike looked at her, back down to the ground under his feet, back up to the clouds... A few times. Just for emphasis. Rather than get discouraged, Rainbow just hoofed something out the window that began plummeting towards him. He caught it, although it was close... It was kinda familiar.

"Remember those experiments Twilight did with her cloud-walky-thing spell?"

Oh! He... had actually forgotten. Which brought up a question about how his new Eidetic Memory worked with memories he made before becoming The Gamer, but besides that. Twilight had been trying to get a lot of her spells to behave in new forms, like the way that pegasi jarred lightning. She had made some fascinating (to her and the academic ponies who could understand the details, anyways) breakthroughs in regards to 'alchemizing' certain spells into creams and powders, although no drinkable potions yet.

What he held in his hand was one of the results: Cloudwalking in a jar. The process was way too work-intensive and costly right now to be worth using regularly, but she had given the final results of the first batch (after some safety testing) to Rainbow as a gift so she could bring visitors to her place without bugging a unicorn.

"Sure thing! Should I just slap it on and you'll come get me?"

She nodded, or at least made her mane do a lot of interesting motions... Close enough. Although he knew how to apply this one from when they had worked on it originally, he still double-checked the instructions. A modest amount applied to the head, the heart, and the central joint of each limb would make a sort of external six-point magical seal on the body, running the spell off of a pony's (or dragon's) own energy. Which had the benefit of the spell lasting its full duration even if Spike washed off the ointment itself.

Crude Cloudwalking Cream: Ability to partially interact with clouds as a Pegasus does, 4 hours

"Crude, huh? Probably because this was our test baaaatch!"

Before he could finish the sentence or the thought, Rainbow Dash had started her dive... and finished it. One long swoop took her out the window to the ground, functionally through Spike, and then back up into the window. She hadn't even come to a full stop when she let go, sending him tumbling across the (weirdly squishy) floor. He was already laughing by the time he got to his feet, getting a feel for the sensation of cloud between his claws.

"Dang, you got me pretty good there... Hey, is everything OK?"

That concern was directed at Scootaloo: Even though they had just pranked Dash pretty well and he had come careening through the air, her expression was dark and frustrated. She didn't even answer his question, just kicking her forehooves against the wall and glaring daggers at Rainbow Dash. The grown-up pegasus wasn't looking much happier actually, and Spike was beginning to feel awkward and out of place.

"Yeah. Everything is fine."

"Aw come on kiddo, I keep telling you not to be so sore-"

Scootaloo tensed up at that, dropping into a wide stance with her wings flaring a bit.
"Yeah? Really? Because you say that, but nopony could tell by watching! Or listening half the time!"

"Should I, uh, go? Because I can probably glide down on a piece of windowframe or something."

Both of the mares wheeled around and shot a "NO!" his way, so he just backed down and stayed quiet. This was reminding him of some of the more tense evenings back in Canterlot, usually when Twilight had put off another social event for the sake of her studies. Her parents had appreciated the drive to learn, but always tried to drill in that there was such a thing as balance... And it usually turned into this kind of argument, although maybe not so fast. Then again, Rainbow Dash.

"Look, Spike, I didn't want to drag you up here for this, but I'd have felt dumb leaving you down there on the ground-"

"If you didn't want to drag him into this then maybe you shouldn't have been spying on us!"

Um.

"Oh yeah? Then maybe a certain somepony shouldn't have been so late coming home. I'd have been real worried if I were your Mom."

"Right, and you're not!"

Yikes.

"OK, that's fair, but-"

"No! You don't get to talk about fair to me! Sure I'm supposed to be learning all this stuff from you, but how is it 'fair' when an adult keeps winning against a kid?"

Without giving Dash time to respond (which was saying quite a lot), Scootaloo wheeled around on her hooves and stomped off further into the house. Her idol held out a hoof and seemed like she wanted to stop her, but eventually just dropped it and flopped back onto the cloud-sculpted couch.

"...Sorry you had to see that, dude. Siddown? I'll explain if you want."

Comments

[Adjier]

Aw. Spike thinks Scoots is kinda adorable.

Curious about why Scoots and Rainbow are fighting though.

[Booster Spice]

Spikes magic handling has upgraded from Epicyclic to CV?

Spikes under Observation? Discord is going to be owed big time?

[xbox432]

I'm a bit confused about how things fell apart there at the end... but I'm just as eager to see how you'll spin things.

Thanks for the entertainment!

[Frazzle2Dazzle]

Ooh, familial drama! Now we’re getting into the juicy stuff!

[Cauchemar]

I'm waiting for the bad Spanish and the evil twin sisters.

[RP422]

It's almost like Spike yeeted Scootaloo into a different literary genre.

[The Danish Adonis]

I feel like you’re overusing italics a bit. I get that it’s supposed to emphasize certain things, bit it’s not really necessary most of the time. It just makes it feel like we’re reading an old timey marvel comic if you use it every other sentence. Proper phrasing is more than enough 90% of the time.

Otherwise a good chapter. Looking forward to the next one

[djthomp]

There were several copies of each notification, and all told his Mastery had leapt from 12% to 20% in the last minute. That was... surprisingly nice. Of course, it worried him that the text specified survived. Another thing on the list to ask Twilight about: Although the odds of getting lectured on magical safety procedures again were high? He probably deserved it. But he’d deserve it later, too! Right now he had to finish what he had started.

A highly deserved lecture, particularly given that survived note.

Okay, so we're spending the unlocker now.

The description on Dragon's Heart shifted underneath, the section on the cost splitting to say "MP: Varies" and "Duration: Variable". At the same time he felt the now-familiar channels of magic inside of him that represented the ability... change . They became more supple, more flexible, and he could instinctively tell how to throttle the flow now. It wouldn't apply to any other skills, but given how broadly useful and central Dragon's Heart had been so far? Spike wasn't complaining.

Interesting. Sounds like the unlockers might be for skill improvements and not new skills, which may in turn mean they're the only option for gaining those improvements since I think it's a new thing we haven't seen before.

She looked up at him with an expression that was hard to read, shifting her hooves. "Rock and roll me, big guy."

I don't think this story is rated for that, Scootaloo.

Crude Cloudwalking Cream: Ability to partially interact with clouds as a Pegasus does, 4 hours

Neat.

"Yeah. Everything is fine ."

Everything is not fine.

Oh wow, this was probably not an argument to be dragged up into if we had had forewarning and choice.

[Ariamaki]

10108182

Oh wow, this was probably not an argument to be dragged up into if we had had forewarning and choice.

This is also known as Most Arguments. :V

[Silentwoodfire]

10108076
Damnit! He didnt cry it out when he tossed her...

[shirotora]

Well, this is a great story. The only critique I can give is on the pacing. It tends to drag in places. I mean, we have 66k words and it's still the first day. Hell, a chapter and a half was dedicated to the CMC just beating on Spike. It does make it kinda hard to keep reading at times.

Still, despite that, I'm looking forward to more.

[Crimson Sol]

"Um. We can talk specifics later, but long story short I made a very dumb mistake and it worked."

"Like a true Crusader!"

Ah yes, Crusading; the ART of making very dumb mistakes, surviving the outcomes and learning to make better dumb mistakes next time.

[Black--Soul]

RD messing up is nothing new. Scootaloo being absolutly livid is... Spike might can help and get a skill or some exp out of it

[Black--Soul]

RD really needs a ego check against foals...

[Black--Soul]

I think i hear the Cloudhouse scream in horror with Scootaloo flying at it with double Rainboom speed

[Zubric]

Scootaloo mom ah yes the one that bever around ever. Lol