Ch. 3: The Gem
It had been five days, twenty-two hours, thirty-eight minutes, and seventeen seconds since Spike had gone missing.
It had also been six days, eight hours, twenty-two minutes, and around eight seconds since Twilight had last gotten some decent sleep.
While half of Ponyville was in a near frenzy trying to find the young dragon before something unsavory did, the other half remained relatively unbothered by his disappearance, either not knowing him well enough to worry, or their opinion of him having soured after the Growth incident.
Twilight had searched everywhere, and she meant Everywhere, nearby, being so thorough that she spent almost nine of the most recent of those hours exploring almost every square inch of Sweet Apple Acres, with the help of an equally frazzled Applejack, before nearly collapsing from exhaustion.
Spike was nowhere to be found, and Twilight was falling apart.
Why did she say that?! She knew how he responded to others being angry with him, and it wasn’t well, she was supposed to be the older sister, she was supposed to help, not do whatever that mess was. And how he was lost, possibly hurt, and she couldn’t do anything about it because her stupid locating spells couldn’t find him, and now her friends were on her back, telling her that she “needed sleep” and that, “not sleeping for six days isn’t healthy”, and that she “looked like she was losing her mind”.
Pinkie even said that it was worse than the Lesson Zero incident. Of course it was, Spike was missing! That’s like if your whole house got up and ran away!
Honestly it might as well have left with him. She hadn’t been back to Golden Oaks since learning that he had gone missing. Finding him was too important. She hadn’t even written to Celestia about helping to fix Ponyville.
Oh she’d forgotten to write Celestia.
She backtracked, walking through town looking like she’d walked through a tornado on the way there. Her mane was a mess, unkempt and sticking out in whatever direction, and her eyes made her look positively shell shocked, wide eyed, but with her pupils having shrunk so small most would assume she was having trouble even perceiving light at that point. The townsfolk stared at her as she passed, most having some expression of sympathy.
She was so tired, but she couldn’t stop looking.
She pulled her head off the pillow, disoriented. She didn’t remember falling asleep, much less even making it back to the Golden Oaks. The lights were off, and judging by the fact that the curtains weren’t drawn and the room was still dark, it was the middle of the middle of the night. Did she even write the letter? If so, it was probably incomprehensible, and she would have to send a clarifying letter before Spike spit up a response from a very confused Celestia. She looked down at her desk, before realizing that it was both too far away and too dark to see what was likely half written and illegible on her desk. She jumped down from her little alcove area to take a closer look.
Nothing. Nothing at all. Maybe she’d been so tired that she’d gone to bed on autopilot? No, that didn’t make sense, she knew she had a task to do, she probably would’ve tried to do that first, even if it turned out ridiculous.
She sighed, and decided to just head downstairs, get some food, and recuperate. She had to think about where she hadn’t looked already.
When she went downstairs, she was greeted by her friends, all in various sleeping positions, having attempted to get comfortable wherever they could. Except one Rainbow Dash, who, despite her penchant for naps, was still up. Rainbow caught sight of her before she made it down the last step, and greeted her.
“Oh, you’re awake. We thought you would’ve slept until morning at least.” Twilight shook her head.
“What are you all doing here, what happened?” Twilight inquired.
“Well, you came in here, half asleep and not making sense. I dragged you up to bed, and you passed out. The rest of us were gonna talk to you about where to look, so we decided to stay here until you woke up. We were trying to make plans ourselves, and then the rest decided to ‘rest their eyes’ and here we are three hours later.” Rainbow recounted. “Now, I’m sitting here, bored, and I don’t want to wake the others up. So, we got two options. We go out now, try to look for Spike some more and hopefully get back before the others wake up, or you go back to sleep because you probably need it, and I go out to look myself, because I can’t sleep either way.”
“How long have I been out?” Rainbow Dash’s face twisted up in displeasure.
“Ugh, math.”
“Just give me the numbers, I’ll do the math.”
“Okay, you got back in at eleven, were half asleep mumbling for thirty minutes, I put you to sleep, you woke up for like ten minutes still crazy talking, and then you went back to sleep until now, it’s two in the morning.”
“Okay so that’s… twelve hours and twenty minutes. I think I’m good to go back out.”
“Are you sure? You didn’t sleep for like five days. Logic says if you need eight hours a day, and you didn’t sleep for five, you’d need forty hours of sleep.” Twilight rolled her eyes.
“I’m not sleeping for two days straight, Rainbow Dash, I’m fine. I just gotta write this letter to Princess Celestia, and then I’ll be ready.” Rainbow shook her head.
“No need. We finished most of the repairs today. Only thing still banged up is the big footprints in the ground, and they'll take a few hours at most.” Great, so yelling at Spike was even more unnecessary than it already was. It had taken four days to clean up. Her sadness must’ve shown on her face, because Rainbow Dash was by her side in a couple of seconds to console her.
“Hey, I get what you’re probably thinking. Princess Celestia won’t care that you didn’t write her, she’ll probably be happy that we cleaned up on our-”
“No, that’s not it at all. I yelled at Spike over a mess that didn’t even take as long as I thought it would to clean up, even without Celestia. I know he hates when people are upset with him, we had this same problem only three months ago! I really messed up Dash.” Twilight felt absolutely crushed, and either the Elements were projecting her emotions to her friends, or they had excellent timing, because both Applejack and Fluttershy woke up pretty immediately.
“Hoo, I didn't mean to fall asleep like that. What time is it?” Applejack pulled her hat back up on her head, and stood up. Fluttershy rubbed at her eyes, before peering out of one of the Golden Oaks’ windows.
“Late. Really late.”
“It’s two in the morning. Twi woke up a while ago, she’s feeling pretty crummy about Spike.”
“Aww.” Applejack had a comforting presence, and she was usually the best at getting Twilight out of a funk. “We’ll find him, Sugar Cube. Even if we have to search the whole of Equestria.” Fluttershy nodded.
“I’d even look in the Everfree Forest if we had to!” Rainbow Dash spurred her on.
“Well, the Everfree is really scary, but I could probably help…” Fluttershy was quiet, but trying to be supportive nonetheless. Twilight smiled, even if it was still tinged with sadness. She knew she could count on her friends.
The four of them set to work, ruling out places they’d already checked, and marking places they could take a second look at, or places they hadn’t been. Eventually, Pinkie and Rarity were up to join them, and the six set off in pairs to look for the missing dragon.
Kipkirui had found that Spike had one absolutely major personality trait.
He was helpful to a fault. It was nearly insane.
Unless he was sleeping or eating, the dragon was always willing to help if you asked, be it trimming the leaves of the plants in the Green Room, cleaning dishes, or just reorganizing the bookshelves, he was always willing to help if you asked for it, and he seemed to lack much else to do, other than sit and watch the Pictolith. Kipkirui was used to working by himself, so he usually forgot to ask for help, and that wasn’t good for Spike, who got bored relatively easily if he wasn’t working, and bounced between things very quickly.
So, he decided to do something about it.
“Spike, are you awake?”
“Getting there.”
“Well, we’re heading out today, so you should probably get up and have some breakfast before we gotta go.” Spike opened one of his eyes at Kipkirui, who was already dressed. He was wearing a shorter coat today, but with one of those weird neck ruffle things, and an unwrinkled dress shirt. He looked downright fancy, like he was going to a party, not just ‘out’. Then again, Spike grew up around Ponies, and clothing for them was pretty formal or work only to begin with. For all he knew, this was just a satyr thing. Or maybe just a Kipkirui thing. Spike thought he was a good person, and he was a great roommate, but he did come off as… what’s the word Twilight called Pinkie? Eccentric? Yeah, that.
“Alright. Give me a minute. Before I get out of this bed, do I need to dress up, because if so I might need five more minutes.” Kipkirui shrugged.
“If you want. I’m mostly dressed up because I felt like it.”
“You saying mostly makes me think there’s another reason.”
“We’re going into a Satyr town, and I gotta go to a magic shop. Those guys are pretty much just a bunch of elitists, and if you don’t dress up they look at you stupid.” Spike groaned.
“What do you have in my size in terms of fancy?”
“Check the dresser. I stocked up. Food isn’t done yet, so no rush, I was just warning you.” Spike yawned a thanks, and Kipkirui, bless him, had the kindness to close the door. Once he knew the door was closed, Spike practically rolled out of bed, and briefly laid on the floor, before stretching and standing up.
“Blue, five.” The lights were just dimmer than normal, but bright enough to get his eyes to start working properly. He walked over to the dresser, and pulled open the bottom drawer.
“Hey, we match!” Spike had deliberately picked out the jacket most similar to Kipkirui’s, from the cuffed sleeves with gold lines, to the faux gold buttons and white trim on the bottom. However, where Kipkirui’s was a bright red, Spike’s was a dull teal color that better complemented his scales.The one thing he was having trouble with was the stupid neck ruffle.
“Yeah, I thought it would look nice. Quick question, what do I do with this stupid neck ruffle thing?”
“It’s called a Jabot. It’s worn on the collar of a dress shirt, like a tie.” Spike silently ‘oh’ed, and folded up his collar to put the Jabot where it belonged. Much better. “Very distinguished.” Spike puffed up a little at the compliment.
“Is there any chance that we could pick up a few books?”
“That’s the plan. A few other things too. I need pumpkin seeds.” Spike tilted his head.
“Why pumpkin seeds?”
“Pie.” Spike nodded, and got started on the simple breakfast. Mostly just a fruit platter, but there was a special treat today. Kipkirui had been out yesterday, and he wouldn’t tell Spike why, until now. “Remember how I wouldn’t tell you what I got while I was out yesterday.” Spike nodded. “Well, here you go. I had to deal with the Diamond Dogs to get this, and they hate making fair deals, so I hope you appreciate this.”
With that, he placed a sack on the table, and pushed it towards Spike, who quirked an eyebrow, before picking it up, and grabbing the contents out. His eyes went wide at the familiar scratch of gem against his claws, and he pulled out a whole topaz, cut like a star.
Wait a minute, he talked to Diamond Dogs to get this, meaning that it wasn’t cut. It had to have been formed like this, which meant…
“This is a Swirling Topaz… Named after Starswirl the Bearded because of their natural star shape! They’re not just great magical focuses, they’re supposed to taste incredible!”
“Yeah, it took me enchanting about 50 common crystals with the gem light spell for them to give me it. I hope you enjoy it.” Spike licked his lips, staring at his reflections in the glittering faces of the orange stone. He raised one of the points to his mouth, and bit down.
He was nearly in tears.
It was exactly how he thought it would be.
Now, he wouldn’t describe gems as having flavors per say. Granted, many gems were made of common chemical structures that might be found in foods, but it’s still a rock. There isn’t flavor there. But there is energy. And the energy is what Dragons think tastes good. The energy was deep, like floating over the ocean, or standing in a hot air balloon looking over the edge and seeing the ground miles below you, that feeling of being so far above. But there was a twist to it, an edge, something like the satisfaction of completing a task you know you understand well, and knowing you did it well. There was also a certain freshness to it, like the feeling of an empty schedule after days of hard work.
The entire gem had the energy that he’d feel after helping Twilight prep for a massive exam or project, and hearing that she passed with flying colors, and that they could take a break to just be. That feeling, those memories, tinged the flavor with melancholy, and the flavor was just as sweet and happy, as it was sad and nostalgic.
“So?” Kipkirui inquired. Spike swallowed the bit of the gem, and he wanted to save the rest for a time when he really needed that pick me up, but he was, if nothing else, relatively hungry at all times, and Kipkirui had intentionally created a smaller portion because he got Spike this, and it was certainly worth eating the rest right now, not just because it was incredible, but because it was gift.
Sometimes giving and taking were somewhat interchangeable, and though either one can lead to terrible outcomes, in moderation, most things would be fair game.
“It's incredible. Like a candy from when you were younger that you have a ton of good memories with, and you’re trying it for the first time in years.”
“Wow. All that from a gem?”
“Hmm, creatures that can’t eat them don’t get it, but gems don’t have tastes, they have feelings. That’s what you get when something spends years underground affected by the feelings of the creatures around it, they take in those feelings. That’s how you get special like these, or fire rubies, or act-tongue amethysts.”
“Act-tongue?”
“A-c-h-t-u-n-g. I can’t always pronounce it without falling over it, so just say Act-tongue instead.”
“Achtung. Ak-toong. Isn’t that Pferman?”
“Yeah, it means look out. Some Pferman pony named them after using one to mix some potions and learning that it’s basically super energy. He stayed awake for ten days.” Kipkirui’s eyes widened.
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” Spike bit off another point of the star. “Should we get going? I can eat on the way.”
“Nah, we got around twenty minutes before the magic shop opens, and for the first ten minutes there’s only one employee, so it’s really just window shopping. Eat your gem, We’ll head out in like ten minutes. I half expected you to stay in bed a little later, so that’s why I told you so early.”
Spike swallowed the bite of gem he was eating.
Today would be interesting, and probably really cool, if seeing a completely new Satyr town was any reason for it to be.
Twilight and Applejack walked along the forest, coming to a stop in front of a massive tree.
“Have you tried yer location spell recently?” Twilight shook her head.
“I’ll try.” She closed her eyes, and felt the familiar spark of magic envelop her horn, and she focused on the one magic signature so thoroughly ingrained in her mind that she couldn’t forget it if she tried. She gasped, and her eyes flew open in shock.
A return pulse.
She took off at a run.
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Ok, so far so good. Keep it coming.
Why those two?
The what?
What does that mean?
Why is it working now?
Keep it up, you're doing excellent.
That can only end well.