Spike the Knight

by vadram

Chapter 76 A few pieces of the puzzle

A few pieces of the puzzle

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The journey to Zecora’s place of residence was nothing more than a short jog for Spike in his current form. He did not think of stopping until he reached his destination, but when he was within earshot of the hut, Imamu’s voice called out to him.

“STOP.”

“What?” Spike asked as he slit to a halt. He tripped over some tree roots as he did so, falling face first into a brush.

“What did I tell you about changing when Zecora or me are not around?”

“It’s fine. I am calm and everything is alright.”

“Uh, listen kid, and listen well, because I am going to warn you about this only once. It does not take a lot for you to go rampaging beast and try to kill everything.”

“But I can easily change back.”

“Kid, you are not listening to me. What you are doing is not natural. Have you not read the book?”

“What book?” Spike asked.

“What book do you think I mean? Imamu asked, annoyed. “‘The Dragon Encyclopedia, of course.”

“Oh, that book. No, I haven’t. When I tried to touch it I got burned by it.”

“Then what happened to the book?”

“I think Zecora gave it to Apple Bloom.”

“And did she read it?”

“I don’t know. Last time we met, things kind of ended up with us running all over the forest milking manticores, making ursas cry, and resurrecting a zebra if I recall correctly.”

“Good point. Look kid... I might have came on a little strong... Now change back to your usual self and don’t change back unless Zecora tells you to.”

“But...”

“No buts. Consider it part of your training.”

“How can me not staying in that form be part of my training?”

“Umm... the most important part of magic is knowing when not to use it...”

“You just made that up, didn’t you?”

“It doesn’t matter. Now change back and go to Zecora already.”

“Fine...” Spike paused and braced himself.

“Go,” he said out loud, recalling what he felt when he first uttered those words.

The change hurt, but not as much as it did the first time; it was a whole of lot less than the pain he felt a few days ago when he kept changing back and forth. After the pain passed, Spike thought about why this time it hurt less and discovered another small piece of the puzzle that was his newfound power.

Whether the cave was real or not, there he found the first pieces; he learned how to grow and how to change back. Afterwards, Zecora told him that it was his greed that caused his transformation while sacrifice, an act of pure selflessness, caused him to revert to his current, normal form. Zecora also warned him that rage or more greed could cause him to grow into a full dragon, although, for some reason, that did not happen when Kirabo was ready to kill Zecora.

The ever increasing pain he felt the day he kept changing back and forth made him think that the more he changed, the more pain he would feel. However, this was contradicted by the fact that when he changed now, it did not hurt as badly, so he guessed that the pain he felt was more closely linked to the frequency of transformations than to the number of them.

The day he spent in his grown-up form under the observation of Imamu pointed that it was much easier for him to maintain the transformation than to cause it or reverse it.

The way he felt when he ran from Imamu’s cave all the way to Ponyville, the way he stood when perched on the simian’s shoulder, it all pointed to him that it was more comfortable to be a quadruped than as a biped. However, the fact that he did not find it uncomfortable to walk on two legs as well as the presence of opposable thumbs at his arms showed that he was equally adapted to the lifestyle of a quadruped as he was to that of a biped.

His quadruped “form”, he thought, was obviously built for speed and agility, and seemed to fare the best in wide opened spaces; he could easily imagine traveling long distances and carrying a big load on his back, much like a pony did. While his biped “form” seemed more adapt for smaller, enclosed environments as well as for object manipulation, he could only imagine how easy housework or other tasks that required dexterity would be with his new body.

His rationalization was sound, although the words and his thought process was a little more crude and technical, more along the lines of "when I stand on all fours I look a lot more like a pony, and I seem to run faster, and I also have an easier time turning, so I guess that it will be easier for me to run faster for a longer time when I am running on all fours than when I am running on two.

After having these revelations about himself, his powers, and his new body, Spike, in his old body, walked the rest of the way to Zecora’s hut. He passed a small patches of blue flowers, being careful not to touch any of them, and reached the clearing in front of the hollowed-out tree that served as the zebra’s home.

The wind had started to pick up, and from a hole in the canopy, Spike could see that several dark storm clouds started spiraling above.

“Huh... odd,” he thought, but paid it no further attention and chalked it up to the unnatural Everfree weather.

He was a couple of feet from the hut when the blast of a bolt of lightning that struck the ground in front of him knocked him firmly on his backside.

Spike felt the sudden heat of the lightning bolt slowly dissipating, but his vision was still blurry from the bright flash of light. Curiously enough, there was no accompanying thunder, so his hearing was fine.

Spike could hear the footsteps of a creature drawing ever closer, despite still blinded he prepared for a fight, but before he could reach the “wants” part of “Spike wants”, he felt a sharp pain in his gut, which knocked the wind out of him and broke his concentration. It was as if some massive creature just stomped on him.

“Don’t. You. Dare,” a familiar voice told him.

“Kirabo?” Spike asked as the force stopped pressing onto his stomach.

He turned to the side and started coughing, a couple drops of blood making their way into his mouth.

Comments

[Deadman123]

What a dicky move. :/