Spike of All Trades

by Ariamaki

Chapter 76: Respiration & Reassurance

When his alarm went off in the morning, Spike wasn't surprised to find that he had curled up into the bed at some point and fallen asleep. He was even less surprised to realize that the Unihorn, the steel charm from his first batch of quest rewards, was gone from his Inventory. And of course the most foregone conclusion of the entire lot... Was the message that awaited him.

By taking the first step into risk and chance, you have learned how to [Respire]!

[Respire] (Active) Lv 1 EXP: 0.0% MP: 50+
Equestrian life is meant to keep their magic inside of the body for the most part, only extending it outwards as part of a closed loop. This is the way that Earth Ponies commune with the land, the way that Pegasi touch the clouds, the way that Unicorns extend their auras to 'do' magic. Even dragons using their fire breath form a cycle with the world that allows them to recover remnants of expelled power. Few if any ever learn this, the breathless breath, to truly expel magic.

Using this skill allows for the exhalation of raw magic into the atmosphere.
Respire is immune to, and unaffected by, any method of cost reduction.
The amount of mana spent is the amount of magic expelled, at a 1-1 ratio.
The limitations on speed and scale are lifted as Respire levels.

Spike took a deep breath... and then let go, sending his concentration through throat and cheek and jowl, through tongue and teeth and into the air beyond. The hazy wave that came out with his exhalation wasn't green. It wasn't purple either, or any of the colors of natural fire. It was a misty silver-white, like steam hung in the air. A second box appeared as soon as the aura began to drift and dissipate, so he seized the moment to stabilize the 'cloud' with Stagnet before reading the new message.

A new Command has been added to Stagnet: Fugare, to send forth and project.

"...OK. I can work with that. So if I just..."

He reached out with a claw and began to shape the vapor, using broad sweeping motions and trying to recall the times he'd seen the Weather Team at work. It took several minutes to get moving in the right direction, and he had a lot of setbacks: Sometimes the recoil from one motion would disturb another section and undo his previous work, and other times his hesitation would lead to rebounding and dissipation. Eventually Spike found success copying Fluttershy’s condensation demonstration from the other day. With that in mind he managed to bring the entire pall into one clean sphere, around half its previous size.

Checking his system clock showed that it was still plenty early, and he was likely awake before even Twilight or Pinkie: Which was saying a lot, given that today was The Big Day. That meant he could afford to spend a little more time experimenting before he had to go help get things ready. Setting up a (very ratty, ready-to-be-replaced) pillow to catch the impact, he focused his will onto the cloud-sphere and gave it some marching orders.

"Fugare!"

Stagnet let loose with a sudden audible snap, and the suspended magic rocketed forward all at once. To his Dragon's Mind, he could see that Stagnet's mana was being consumed as fuel to send the mass flying... Which probably meant if he tried this on a freshly-stabilized cloud it would go even faster, or at least further.

Before he could finish thinking about that, the missile struck its target: Cover and stuffing alike were blasted into shreds and scattered, fluff and fabric floating down. Thankfully the damage wasn't higher, (something he rarely thought outside of monster-taming games) or he might have messed up his bed as well.

"Nice! Alright, let's give this another shot but go for something harder. I remember how Arcane was shaping her bullets towards the end of the session yesterday, kind of like..."

A long inhale and a quick puff brought out another clump of power, which got frozen with Stagnet to make it simpler for Spike to shape... Wait. No, scratch that, restart it. He scattered that attempt into shreds and let them dissipate. The third time, he brought the cloud out and started working on it directly: Why sculpt it as a solid with Stagnet when pegasus ponies can obviously craft clouds without that kind of crutch?

Now that he wasn't relying on the training wheels, the cloud was constantly fading and saturating into the air around him: He had to work faster and more precisely. But raw mana turned out to be tricky stuff, warping and twisting from even the slightest motion. Honestly it sorta felt like it responded to his claws before he even moved... in the first place...

"...No way. Wait wait wait, OK. I think-

He looked down at himself and laughed.
“Well, I think that I think."

Spike waved his claw at the vapor from a good two or three feet away, not even making an effort to shape it directly... But in his mind, he visualized the changes he desired. Up until it dissolved into the atmosphere of the room, this was definitely still his mana. So just like a unicorn's penumbral aura...

Through intuitive comprehension of the nature of magic, a skill to shape free-floating mana, [External Mana Control] has been created!

[External Mana Control] (Active and Passive) Lv 1 EXP: 0.00% Stamina: Varies
The mind's eye can see many things, including Imago: Your desired future image of the world. By imprinting the willpower and the shape of this desire onto raw magical energy, you can give it shape and move it purely through willworking. This is a key aspect of the mechanism of 'horn magic', as performed by unicorns, changelings, and certain species of dragon.

Allows for the mental control of the user's mana outside of the body.
Distance, precision, speed, flexibility, and number of control points all rise with levels.
Extreme specialization in any of these aspects can produce dedicated subskills.
The practice of EMC without a magic-controlling organ or bodily system is very taxing.

Spike should have been content with just that much: He'd spent an entire precious night of time asleep, making no progress with his skills or quests... Not to mention much of a precious day being sulky and getting down on himself without a good reason. But there was still something bothering him. This was all good progress, but he still had that itch in the back of his mind: It reminded him of the Dragon's Den forming from all of its components the other day. Except there was also an itch in his gut, as if...

"Oh."

He didn't really have to use Omphaloskepsis to check what was going on. It was clear enough in his head: Either things worked, or they didn't. Spike still wasn't powerful enough to handle the Unihorn as a whole, so it was sitting in his stomach. It might have catalyzed these changes, but that wasn’t its whole purpose. So now it was biding its time and waiting for the moment. He didn't plan on making it wait very long: There was already a plan forming, he just had to iron out the details, ideally between now and dinnertime. Speaking of dinnertime?

"I can deal with that later. I feel a lot better now, and I've got a goal to shoot for. So in the meantime? Let's throw a party."

- - - - - - - -

Twilight was her usual self. Well, usual on the day of any major event: Spike couldn't even set one foot out of the bedroom without catching the flare of a dozen spells in the air. Telekinetic auras floated books and quills from place to place, and if it had been anypony else they wouldn't even be able to notice the difference from the start to the finish. But Spike had grown up with Twilight, helped her run this place for years... And he knew when she was distracting herself with minutiae instead of actually doing things.

"Twilight."

His (word-yet-made) teleported upstairs in the blink of an eye, the moment he spoke: It was a bit worse than he initially thought.
"Oh! Good morning Spike! I didn't want to disturb you in case you were doing something important so I've just been working on the shelving and considering our filing system and did you know-"

"Twilight."

She deflated at his tone, stepping back and shrinking down a little. The mania in her mane and eyes faded. After a moment she nodded: They’d had this conversation more than once before, and at this point it had become a little bit rote for both of them. Twilight grinned (unsteadily) as she replied.
"Right. Right. They're our friends. I shouldn't be worried about what they're going to think: That reflects poorly on me more than them, right?"

Spike shrugged and held his claws up in the air, miming the arms of a scale.
"I mean on the one hoof this whole thing is a real big deal, and you've been worrying about it for a year if not longer! That’s a lot to deal with. On the other hoof tho... You've risked your life with the girls multiple times. If anypony can be trusted to have your back when you make a big decision like this it's gotta be them, right?"

Twilight finished calming down and reached over to pull him into a hug. He gladly leaned on her shoulder and smiled, unseen but clearly understood.
"Thanks Spike. I think I just... Honestly I just needed a little outlet like that, and some perspective. Although I do think we could actually use some organizing before they-"

"Nuh-uh. Lunch. First we eat, then we clean."

"It's a lot closer to breakfast time."

He smirked as they pulled back from their hug: If there was one thing Shining Armor had taught him (other than how to hide his comics and how to tackle an epic RPG campaign) it was how to keep Twilight from having a large-scale freakout, and how to manage things afterwards.
.
"No, I mean you're not going to do any organizing until after lunch. We're going to have breakfast, and then we're going to relax for a couple hours. Just unwind with a few books and take it easy. THEN lunch, and then we can worry about things. It would be a real big shame if you ran yourself ragged before the girls even get here tonight, right?"

"...Right."

With that crisis averted, Spike held out a claw for Twilight to take as they trotted to the kitchen: He admittedly had a lot of nerves left to still on his own side, albeit for different reasons. They'd get through it together, same as always.

Author's Note:

SOAT will possibly be taking time off for the weirdly-timed Christmas and New Years Fridays of the next two weeks, lack of any actual parties aside. I'll keep you all posted in the case that nothing gets... posted, but on the off-chance that this is the last 'Spikefic' upload of 2020? Thank you all for being here, and I hope to continue serving a story that I personally enjoy creating, for everyone else to find their own joy in.

Regardless: A preemptive (and cautionary) set of Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, and other wintery well-wishes to everybody out there.

Comments

[ArcherStern]

A merry Christmas to you, Author.

Just want to say we are all still here.

[Booster Spice]

Using the unihornown metal to turn breath magic into projection magic? That can so quickly turn to harvest and consumption, mining, extraction?

Only certain species of Dragons? Ember and Smolder would be in that range due to dual external horns, Spike either gets the external spinal array, or essentially ends up an inside out horn, his stomach and breath forming a body sized at least casting and projection surface?

Would this be a way of bypassing the need to specificlally extract energy from gaseous atmosphere, leading to unaffected by water and deep magma, with high level being mana to breath in vaccuum etc?

In two hours of rest, what sorts of information could accidentally lead to all sorts of new lines of thought? Split between aincient lost tomes and new theories that are of split following of why and why notthey cant work, with detailed explanations both ways?

[DarkDMan]

Happy Holidays, to you, and us!

[Jaro45]

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you as well! May your spirits be well kept (through much whisky) and your days be joyful.

[Black--Soul]

Great chapter. Hope he didnt suffer indigestion

[dzamie]

This is a cool development!

[Echo Night]

10589239
the last one sounds like a Tavern name

[Kadigan]

Well, it's finally The Big Day... Been waiting for it for a while, now. ;-]

[Black--Soul]

If Spike bottel up his Mana breathing, did he create Mana potions?