Spike and Rarity are both looking at me with bewildered looks. I just had to use magic. I couldn't just think of something, I just had to go down the easy path, this will not end well. I shut off my magic and turn to the others; hopefully they will understand. Maybe I can somehow get Rarity to make some of that drink she made-

"Miles..." Rarity begins but stops when Spike puts a finger over her lips.

"What do you mean I wasn't supposed to see that? Are you planning something? Are you the one who drugged the girls?"

"What? No... I mean, I did do the drugging part, but that was an accident. Look, I didn't say anything at first because it never came up. When Storm saw me-"

"Storm knows!?" They both yell.

"Yeah, but we decided that we should keep it a secret-"

"Why would you want to do that?" Rarity asks.

"Well... we are friends. We figured that if Luna were to find out I could do magic; she would rotate him out for a unicorn. So we decided to keep it between the two of us." Spike crosses his arms and thinks to himself for a moment. I don't like that serious look on his face. He turns and walks out to the front room. Rarity and I look to one another before we follow him out. We find him at Twilight's podium writing something down.

"Spike darling... what are you doing?" Rarity asks cautiously.

"I'm writing a letter to the Princess-"

"What!? Please Spike don't!" I say as I run up to him and kneel before him. "Please, Storm is one of three friends I have, please don't write this letter."

"And why shouldn't I?" Spike says as he turns and leans on the podium.

"What have I done that would-"

"Are you kidding me?! Look around. You drugged Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight, nearly burn down our home, all because you’re too selfish to let go of one friend!"

"One of three, I think that should allow some selfishness-"

"Who’s the...*thud*" Rarity begins but falls over as she passes out.

"Look, let's put the girls to bed and continue this later." Spike nods with an irritated look and walks to Rarity's side. He's too small to pick her up, so I leave her there for a moment and carry Twilight upstairs. I lay her on her bed and head back down to find Spike sitting by Rarity, stroking her hair.

"She's not hurt... is she?" he asks innocently.

"No, she's fine. I believe the effects of the spell used are memory alteration, loss of restraint, and loss of consciousness. She should be back to her old self when she wakes up." I walk over and pick her up. Spike gives me a look before looking away as I carry her to Twilight's room. I lay her next to Twilight and head down to get Applejack, leaving Spike behind. I grab Applejack and go back up to see Spike walking down with a shivering Storm. "What happened to you?"

"C-c-c-ol-d-d sh-sh-o-ower," he stutters.

"So I take it I won't have to beat the crap out of you then." He tries to laugh but is shivering too much to do so. I walk up to him and put my hand on his forehead... feels fine to me.

"Why don't you get under some blankets and try to warm up some, I'll bring you some warm soup," Spike says. Storm nods and begins to walk downstairs, shivering the entire way down. I take Applejack and lay her in between the other two, with her head on the other side of the bed. I look down at them and sigh, this is my fault, but it's not like they were hurt or anything. At worst we learned some secrets, but where’s the harm in that?

I turn and walk back to the front and wait for Spike to come back. I take a seat and wait for a few minutes... and a few more... and after several more minutes pass I decide to go check on the two of them. I make the trip all the way to the door but stop when I hear them talking inside.

"... you trust him so easily? You barely know him." Spike asks.

"I-I k-know h-him-m enough t-t-to trust him." Storm stutters out.

"Do you? What if he's just tricking you to make you trust him? Look, I'm not going to fall for his tricks, I'm writing-"

"SPIKE!" I yell as I burst through the door, making him jump a little, and walk down to him. "We need to talk." He looks up to me but turns his back to me as he begins to write a letter. "What do you hope to accomplish by writing that letter?"

"It'll show everyone that you’re a liar and prove to them that we shouldn't trust you."

"You know what, fine! Write it. Let's see if anyone cares that you went behind their backs." He pauses for a moment and looks back to me.

"What? How am I the one going behind their backs? You’re the one who lied to them."

"No, I never said anything about my powers, it never came up before. You’re the one who skipped talking to them and went straight to Luna, who I think already knows... I mean I talked about it during the story I had to tell her, but I think she either didn't hear me, or chose not to listen."

"Y-you t-t-told Luna. You b-b-bucking idiot."

"Like I said, if they ever asked, I would tell them, but if they don't bring it up, why bother?"

"Because it's something we deserve to know," Spike says as he rolls up the letter and turns back to me, "we don't know you other than that you’re a soldier of some kind. That means you’re prone to violence. Ponyville already gets enough excitement, we don't need you adding to it. Plus, hiding the truth is just as bad as telling a lie."

"Spike, please. I'll do anything to prove to you that I'm not a threat, just please don't send that letter, please."

"Anything?" he asks while raising an eyebrow. I gulp at this. The little extortionist is going to take me to the bank, I just know it.

"What do you want?"

"You wouldn't happen to know who’s been visiting Rarity every now and again, would you?" Well... shit.

"I promised I wouldn't say..." He raises the letter and takes a deep breath. "Wait, wait, hold on. There's nothing else you want, nothing? I promised Rarity that I wouldn't say anything, please don't make me break my word." He thinks for a second before he exhales through his nostrils, leaving the letter unscathed.

"Alright, I won't make you break your promise, but you’re not off the hook yet."

"Fine, what do you have in mind?"

"Hmm... I first want to do a power check on you, we'll see after that." Power check... oh crap.

"F-fine, how do you want to do this." My confidence falters for a second.

"Follow me." We go to the back of the room as Spike starts to set up one of the towers. He brings me a large metal helmet that is shaped like a dome and is covered in dozens of blinking lights. He instructs me to put it on, which I do, and he goes back to the machine. He pushes a large red button and the machine begins to print out a sheet of paper with a red line being scribbled on it. The line is fairly narrow and seems to aggravate Spike.

"What's up?" I ask curiously, though I have an idea of what’s going on.

"According to this you have the same energy reading as an earth pony, but that doesn't make sense."

"Maybe I should turn my magic on for the test." Called it.

"You can turn it on and off!?" Instead of answering I shake my arms to turn on my magic. I go to my lowest setting, only allowing the circles on my palms to appear. Instantly, the machine gets to work making large waves appear on the sheet.

"Wow, you’re almost as powerful as Twilight. Can you feed any more energy?"

"Well I-"

"And don't lie. I want nothing more than the honest truth." Fuck, I was afraid he would say that. With a heavy sigh I begin to bring up my power, making the lines on my arms appear. First up to my wrist...

"Six thousand?" Spike says...

... then up to my elbows...

"Eight thousand!"

… then just under my shoulder joint...

"Over nine thousand! How are you doing this?!"

I try to push it further, but my potestam annulums won't allow me so easily. After some forceful pushing, I get the lines to creep past my shoulder joints, burning my shirt as it goes.

KRA-BOOM

The machine explodes, sending hot shrapnel everywhere. I take a few hits across the chest as I fall back and black out.

---

I'm freezing my ass off over here. Bucking Spike is being a little punk while I'm over here dying of hypothermia. I don't think it's actually that bad, but I would love to have feeling in my wings again, and other lower places for that matter. I'll just bury myself in these toasty as buck blankets and wait for my nuts to drop again.

"Six thousand," Spike says in a surprised tone. Wow Miles, six thousand. That's pretty impressive. What's Celestia...? I think it was twelve thousand or something like that. Halfway ain’t that bad.

"Eight thousand!" Buck man. Eight thousand, you’re almost as powerful as Luna... I wonder how far those lines on his arms are for this much.

"Over nine thousand! How are you doing this!?" Nine thousand... whoa. He's already passed Princess Luna and is almost up to Celestia. I hope he can convince Spike to keep his mouth shut about this... I really don't want to leave.

KRA-BOOM

I sit up and look back to see that the machine has exploded. Miles is down, and has several holes in his chest that are pouring out a lot of blood.

"Miles!" I yell as I run over to him. He looks awake, but severely disoriented. I grab the bottom-most bed sheet and pull it off. I start to bite it and tear off long strips. After making several I turn back to Miles and try to wrap up his wounds.

"Ugh... what happened?" Spike says, as he stumbles toward us from the smoking husk of what was the tower. He seems to be uninjured, but a little confused.

"Spike, I need you to go get the first aid kit now!" I tighten one of the strips and begin working on the next one. Blood is still pouring out, forming a small pool underneath me. Spike shakes his head and finally takes a good look at Miles. He turns pale and freezes up. I don't think he's ever seen blood before.

"SPIKE!" I yell, getting his attention. "Get the bucking first aid kit RIGHT NOW!" He hesitates for a second before he runs off to get the first aid kit. I finish tying off his wounds and start to apply pressure to the rightmost one, it seems to be bleeding the most. "Come on you stupid dragon, where is that damn aid kit..." Miles starts to try to move, so I grab him and hold him in place.

"Storm... Dolum... wha... Topaz..."

"Shh, shh, I'm right here, don't talk right now. Just try and keep your strength up, alright Miles...?" I can feel tears rolling down my face as I keep begging him to be quiet. I can't lose him... I've lost too much already.

"Mmm... Luna... ahh... project har-har-harmonize..."

"P-please Miles, just stop fighting. Spike will get here soon enough and we'll fix this, just stop, please stop..."

"I've got it!" Spike yells as he runs down and brings me the first aid kit. The first thing I see are some vials filled with different colored liquids.

"Which one is the healing potion?"

"Uh...the red one... I think."

"You think!? We can't afford to make a mistake Spike, Miles could bleed out any second now, is it the red one?"

"I-I... uh... yes, it's the red one. He has to drink it." I take the red one and pull the cork out by biting it. I pull up to Miles and put the opening of the vial into his mouth. I pour the liquid into his mouth and rub his neck to try and help the liquid go down. Once I finish pouring all of the potion into him I throw away the vial and step back to check his wounds.

"Why isn't anything happening!?"

"I don't know... maybe pony potions don't work on humans..."

"AAAGGGHHHH!" Miles screams as the magical fires appear on his hands... and his feet... and one massive one on his back flares out. He begins to stand up and I can see into the massive portal on his back. An enormous spout of fire is pouring from a foot and a half wide portal, but from inside the white flames I can see what looks like a green shadow of a human. It's standing with its legs set apart and its arms hanging low by its side. I try to get a better look but it turns around. I look up into Miles’s eyes and back away. The dark lines have moved all over his body, even his face. His eyes have turned pure white as white archaic energy leaks from the sides.

"DEVERTO PULVIS," he says in a voice that seems to echo.

"I don't think that was a healing potion," Spike says to me.

Next Chapter: Chapter 31 Deverto Pulvis Estimated time remaining: 81 Hours, 40 Minutes