Nick looked at the barrier with dread. Beyond this was his greatest foe he had ever faced. The spells in the book were simple enough to learn, especially with the stone optimizing his brain so he was able to remember and learn much faster than he would have before. His mental capacity was by no means perfect, though his I.Q. had at least doubled and he could learn at least twice as fast.

By now he had already learnt and mastered half the spells in the book, the last being the spell he needed to combat the threat beyond this threshold. He hesitated, was he ready to face this horror? Unfortunately the answer didn’t matter as soon the neighbors would notice.

“Come on, you have to do this sooner or later.” Zangetsu said as Nick was about to try again tomorrow.

“I know… but the smell is just so bad!” NIck groaned and prepared to enter.

“Look, all you need to do is ready the spell, cast it and quickly shut the door.” Zangetsu said.

“Alright…. Let’s do this.” Nick sighed. He prepared the spell and concentrated it into a small sphere. Once the spell was ready he held his breath and swung the door open. Even with him not breathing the smell still forced it’s way into his nostrils.

He tossed the spell into the rotting pod and made a mad dash for the nearest toilet.
He made it to the middle of the bathroom before he reenacted a scene from the exorcist and gave his restroom a new paint job.

“I ain’t cleaning that up.” Zangetsu said and noped out of the house.

“Traitor…” Nick groaned and casted another spell like he had used in his room. The small sphere pulled in all the biomass from his vomit and condensed it into a tiny and dense ball of flesh that Nick tossed into the trash. He had been studying hard on his days off so he could finally find some biomancy spells to clean up his room. The smell would linger for at least a month or two even with a mountain of air fresheners and an open window.

Nick trudged back to his room and held his breath, this time pinching his nose in order to keep from smelling the horrid stench again. In the center of the room was a bowling ball sized mass of flesh. He went to pick it up but it weighed a ton and he could barely lift it off the floor. He put it back on the floor and called back Zangetsu so he could read the next spell.

“Have fun cleaning up?” Zangetsu chuckled. Nick ignored him and read the next spell, it was a biomancy spell that would allow him to absorb external biomass and assimilate it into him. Any new DNA would be added to his and he would be able to replicate anything that he absorbed.

He had tried to grow wings with the abilities the stone had granted him, but it only allowed him to grow things his body had the genetic information for, so though he could form the bones and flesh for them, he was unable to grow feathers. The closest he got were demonic bat like wings.

“Well, call me Alex Mercer why don’t you.” Nick chuckled and absorbed the ball. e planned to absorb a few things. He wondered if it would worked with the frozen chicken in his refrigerator. He made his way down stairs and grabbed his car keys.

“Where we headed?” Zangetsu asked

“I’m going to go get a fish.” Nick said and locking the door behind him.

“Why?” Zangetsu asked about this random idea.

“Simple, I want gills.” Nick said as he started up the car.

“The poor fishy…” Zangetsu moped.

“Oh relax, i’m just going to get some at the super marked, and now that i think about it… it might be a good idea to get some crab to, some natural body armor would be sweet.” Nick chuckled.

“Just as long as you don’t absorb anything that’s already alive.” Zangetsu shivered.

“Don’t worry, unless I’m attacked by a giant lion or something, I won’t.” Nick reassured the Tulpa.

“Swim you moron swim!!!” Zangetsu shouted as Nick swam as fast as he could away from the massive set of teeth heading straight for him.

“Why are we here again?!” Nick thought to his friend.

“To collect some Red Tide DNA” zangetsu said as Nick dodged left when the massive shark chomped down where he was seconds prior.

“I thought megalodons were supposed to be extinct!” Nick thought to Zangetsu.

“Well evidently not jackass. Look out below!” Zangetsu shouted pointing below Nick. Nick just barely dodged out of the way as a second monstrosity was gunning at him from below.

“Oohh god damn it!!” Nick thought as a second megalodon started swimming next to the first.

“Look down there!” Zangetsu shouted pointing at the wreckage of some sort of ship. He dashed towards the wreckage and zoomed into the first hole he could find. He waited for about an hour hoping that the monstrous sharks were gone.

“Zangetsu, are they gone yet?” Nick asked his tulpa. Zangetsu went outside to check.

“Sorry, they're still there circling the ship.” Zangetsu sighed.

“Well shit. Guess I’m going to have to kill them if they won’t leave me alone.” Nick thought. He thought of which spell he should use, and finally decided on using a lightning blast. The effect would be very effective in the water. He created a bubble around him so he wouldn’t be hit by the spell and began to cast the spell. Just as he released the spell he was blinded by a bright flash.

Twilight looked at the cover of the book with immense excitement. She had requested the library have a few more spell books for unicorns that wanted to learn advanced magic. The library had several spellbooks, but over half of the library was filled with books regarding earth pony culture, magic, biology, history and such. About a third was the same for pegasi, leaving very little for unicorn studies.

“Oh I can’t wait! I can actually have a familiar like starswirl the bearded!” She clapped her hands in glee.

“Why do you even want one anyway? It’s not like you don’t already have me and owlicious here to help you.” Spike said as he put unloaded some more books.

“I know spike, but a familiar is much more than that. When a unicorn gets a familiar, their magic can is linked to their familiar’s once a strong enough bond has been formed. It’s how starswirl became even stronger than an S-Class unicron.” The lavender mare said with a smile that would make Pinkie Pie proud.

“Who” Owlicious said from his perch above them.

“Starswirl the bearded.” Twilight answered her owl.

“Who.” He said again.

“Starswir- oh who yourself.” Twilight stopped herself from going into an infinite loop with him.

“Well if you ask me, you should be careful, who knows what you could end up summoning.” Spike said as he shelved some books.

“When have i never been careful?!” She asked spike.

“The time you almost got all of ponyville eaten by parasprites, winter wrap up, smarty pants-” spike was interrupted as his mouth was zipped shut by twilight.

“I get it, I’ve messed up a few times.” Twilight grumbled. “I promise, I won’t do anything hasty and I will be careful.” She reassured the drake and unzipped his mouth.

“Alright, but just let me know when you're casting it. I don’t want to be on the menu if some sort of monster thinks I look tasty.” Spike said.

“Not even if it was a unicorn filly named Sweetie Belle?” Twilight teased making Spike blush profusely.

“I told you to stop doing that!” Spike said bashfully.

“You know you like her, I think she might be getting ready to ask you out.” She teased him further making him storm out with a red face. She chuckled as she watched go. Any day now Sweetie Belle would be asking him out, her or one of the other crusaders at least. She was inexperienced in matters of the heart, but she knew a crush when she saw one, and sweetie had it bad for Spike.

She chuckled and looked back to the book in front of her. The spell wasn’t very complex surprisingly, it simply required a few rare ingredients. She could get most of them from Zecora, and she could likely get a phoenix feather from Princess Celestia. She went down to clear out some space in the basement and write the request for the feather for when spike came back.

Spike walked through the park with some of his blush still present on his face. Why did she have to tease him like that? It was embarrassing enough that he admittedly did find Sweetie Belle attractive. But why did she have to go and tease him? He knew she would never actually ask him out, he still hoped he would get lucky and rarity would ask him out, but with every passing year, that hope dies a little.

When he first laid eyes on her he was captivated by her beauty but despite his best efforts, she still has not noticed his feelings for her. He turned seventeen in a few months, and was hoping she would finally notice him now that he was almost an adult by pony standards.

He also dreaded the fact that he would also becoming a target for mares once they went into heat. He wouldn’t be able to hunker down in the basement as twilight would kick him out now that he was eligible and didn’t want to do something she would regret to him. He suddenly bumped into somepony as he was lost in thought.

“Hey Spike! Whatcha doin?” Sweetie Belle said looking up at him. She stood about two inches shorter than him from head to hoof.

“Oh, ummm… I was just going for a walk through the park.” He said.

“Could I join you?” She asked hopefully.

“Sure I guess.” Spike said rubbing the back of his neck.

“So how have you been?” Sweetie asked as she walked next to him.

“I’ve been alright, you?” He asked her.

“Fine, ready to be seventeen?” She asked him.

“Yeah. Hey don’t you turn seventeen this year?” Spike asked her.

“Yep. next month in fact.” She said happily.

“Well, happy early birthday I guess.” He chucked.

“Yep, gonna getch ya this year for my first heat too.” She growled playfully making him blush until his face reminded her of Apple Bloom’s hair.

“Umm.. well it’s been nice talking with you, I think I should get back to the library to help Twilight with the new shipment of books we got today.” He said hastily and made his way home.

“I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave.” She giggled. Spike picked up his pace and made it home within a couple of minutes. He walked in to find Twilight getting ready to leave.

“Have fun?” She smirked seeing his blush.

“I don’t want to talk about it. Where you goin?” Spike asked looking at her backpack.

“I’m headed to Zecora's to pick up some ingredients. There's a letter on the counter in the kitchen for Princess Celestia if you could send it for me please.” She informed him.

“Sure thing, anything else?” He asked hoping he could get out of reshelving.

“Yes, I have the everything labeled, I just need you to shelve the new books, the one I’m using is on the counter so leave that one there.” She said and made her way to Zecora’s hut.

Celestia slumped at her desk as she stamped the final request of the day with a denied seal. She was glad that she finally had some help with all the paperwork she had to deal with. Luna had to be reeducated on so many things,but thankfully it didn’t take too long, only a couple of years.

She was about to get up from her desk to go to lunch when a scroll appeared in front of her. She read the letter from her faithful student and was surprised at what she was reading. Seems her student is taking her studies to the next level. She smiled in pride as she looked over to her old friend and familiar philomina.

“Philomina, would you mind sparing a feather for Twilight? Seems she is going to summon her own familiar.” She asked softly earning a happy squawk from the fiery bird. She plucked one of her molting pinion feathers and handed it to Celestia who took it in her magic and sent it off.

“I wonder what her familiar will be like. Hopefuly it will be a stallion, that mare needs to get laid.” She chuckled at the thought of her student summoning a handsome stallion that had been in the shower. The look on her face would be priceless!

“Alright, I think we’re all set.” Twilight clapped happily as she checked over her work. The spell circle was perfectly round, the potion mixed properly, and she had memorized the spell.

“Do I really need to be here?” Spike asked from the doorway.

“Yes, if something goes wrong i need you to send that letter to Celestia immediately.” Twilight said.

“Fine, but if you end up some dude jacking off it’s your problem.” Spike said as he sat on the first step.

“I highly doubt that will happen.” Twilight deadpanned. She began to cast the spell. First she lit the candles on the circle, then infused the circle itself with her magic. She levitated the feather she received from the Princess out of the potion it had been soaking in and infused it with her magic.

Once she had poured a sufficient amount into the feather she levitated it into the center of the circle. She began casting the spell, and the fire on the candles expanded and started being drawn to the feather. Once the feather was deep within a ball of purple fire, the spell was complete. Once the spell fully activated the feather exploded in a brilliant flash of light. Twilight was excited when the spell activated, but that excitement turned to excruciating pain as some form of energy zapped her sending her flying into the wall.

“Twilight!” Spike shouted and ran or to her. She was unconscious but to his relief, she was still breathing. He sent the letter to celestia and was about to go write a letter asking for help when he heard a groan behind him. He turned to see what is was when he spotted some sort of creature, it appeared to be half fish, and half hairless monkey. It looked around and seemed to panic when it spotted them. Was this Twilight’s familiar?

Spike's eyes widened when the creature began to change. It’s tail split into legs that ended in feet like his, but lacked any claws. As it stood up it looked around and darted out of the basement. Spike turned when he heard Twilight groan.

“Uugh….. What happened?” She asked.

“Twilight! Are you ok?” Spike asked his surrogate sister.

“Yeah I'm fine, but what happened? Did the spell work?” Twilight asked looking around.

“It sort of did, something came out of the portal, but whatever it was it ran out of the basement. I don’t know what it is or where it is.” Spike said as Twilight’s face went pale.

“Did you send the letter to the princess?” Twilight asked as she got up and ran up stairs with spike close behind her.

“I did, what are you doing?” Spike asked as twilight was frantically looking through the library.

“Trying to find my familiar!” she said as she ran into the kitchen hoping to find the creature.

“Uhh, Twilight? I don’t think it’s here anymore.” Spike said as he looked at the front door that appeared to be wide open and heard screaming.

“What!?” Twilight shouted and ran outside. She ran following the screaming, and found a group of guards surrounding something. And it was tall, at least two meters in height, if not more. It was even taller than Celestia. The guard was barking orders at the creature, but it just seemed to ignore him.

Having had enough of this the guard ordered for the others to take it alive if possible, but kill it if it proved too dangerous. The first guard lunged for it, but was batted away by the creature's tail. The rest rushed it, but were pushed back by some sort of force wave. The creature was about to run when suddenly a spear pierced it’s leg. It went down as the other guards tackled it. Just as it seemed like it was about to fight back, one of the guards back handed it knocking it out.

“Take it to the barracks, and put a magic suppressing ring on it.” the guard said as the creature was shackled and carried away.

“Wait! That’s my familiar!” Twilight said running up to the creature, but was blocked by a guard that slapped a shackle onto her wrist and a magic suppressing ring on her horn.

“Than you're the one responsible for this. You're coming with me.” the Guard said and escorted her to the barracks.

Nick groaned as he finally woke up. He felt a piercing pain in his leg and his head was pounding. He tried to move but found that he couldn’t get very far. He looked up to see that his tail, hands and feet were shackled to a wall crucifix style, leaving him only able to turn his head about. He tried to channel some magic through his hands, but for some reason he couldn’t. He tried through his tail, but the magic didn’t want to activate.

“Zangetsu, what’s going on!?” Nick asked panicked.

“Finally you're awake. Those creatures knocked you out, and apparently the shackles are made of some sort of metal that blocks magic, so you won’t be able to channel magic through any part of you their touching.” Zangetsu said.

“What about my head and torso?” Nick asked.

“They should be fine, can you concentrate enough to activate the stone in your ribs?” Zangetsu asked.

“I think.” Nick said and concentrated. He felt the magic stone responding to him and used their ability to grow a second set of arms. As he grew the new set he retracted the old absorbing their biomass. He repeated this process with his legs and tail.

“Why do you have that again?” Zangetsu asked as he watched Nick regrow the Mew like tail.

“What? Mew is awesome. Plus I can store more stone with it.” Nick said as he finished the tail. “Take a quick look outside, who we need to be careful.” He said to which Zangetsu nodded and checked out the barracks.

“There are at least twelve guards outside, and there’s one taller than the rest talking with the purple one from before and the guard that knocked you out. How do you wanna play this?” Zangetsu asked.

“Well, guns blazing is right out, we have no idea what they are capable of. I think I can condense myself into a large bird small enough to fit through the bars in that window.” Nick said pointing at the window above his cell.

“Can you condense the stone enough as well?” Zangetsu asked making Nick stop.

“Damn, I'd only be able to condense it tough to have half of it protruding out of me.” Nick cursed.

”Why not just transmute a hole in the wall? There is nothing on the other side except maybe a guard or two.” Zangetsu suggested.

“We’re trying to be stealthy here, and we’re running out of time.” Nick reminded him.

“Then make a tunnel? You could escape underground.” Zangetsu suggested.

“That might be our best option.” Nick said and was about to make the tunnel when the door opened and in walked the guard, the purple horse women, and the new one that Zangetsu mentioned.

“Size the creature!” The guard said causing several guards to rush into the room.

“So much for stealth.” Nick said and bust a hole through the wall. The guards charged through after him. He looked back to see the large horse women flying after him with several of the other guards. He looked ahead of him to see the purple mare in front of him with a frown holding her arms out.

“Stop!” She said, but he wasn’t about to listen after being stabbed with a spear. He continued to charge and picked up speed causing the mare to lose her nerve and go from stern to scared. He jumped over her and spun. He grabbed her with one arm while transmuting some biomass on his fingers into metal and shaped it into sharp claws.

“Nobody move!” Nick shouted grabbing her throat careful not to cut her, but keeping his fingers at the ready in case any of them tried anything. The guards and large mare landed a few meters away.

“Let her go!” The large mare commanded causing him to tighten his grip just a bit drawing some blood showing he wasn’t playing around.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I just want to go. If any of you follow the girl dies, are we clear?” Nick said earning an angry expression from the large mare.

“Just calm down and let her go, I’m sure we can settle this peacefully.” The large mare said making calming gestures.

“I’m fairly certain that peaceful went out the window when when shit for brains over there stabbed me, knocked me out and chained me to a wall in a cell.” Nick said.

“Please, you don’t have to do this. Please let me go..” The purple mare whimpered with tears streaming down her face.

“Sorry, but you're the only thing standing between me and monster tits over there.” Nick said causing the larger mare to blush and growls at him.

“Let her go now and I promise we can talk things ov-” the larger mare started but was interrupted.

“Can it! Now I’m going into the forest over there. If any of you follow then she dies.” Nick said. The large mare tried to think of a way to win without him killing his hostage. She watched helplessly as Nick carried the purple mare away towards the forest. The last thing that she saw before they disappeared into the darkness was the purple mare looking at her pleadingly.

Twilight sniffled as she was carried deeper into the forest. This had gone from bad to horrible so quickly that she had trouble really finding where it all went wrong. The creature that was supposed to be her best friend, but turned out to be some sort of monster. Twilight was scared at was going to happen. Was he going to kill her? Rape her? Both? She dreaded either answer but couldn’t help but think of what he might do to her. The creature suddenly stopped.

“Alright, this should be far enough.” The creature finally said causing her to start crying again.

“Please don’t hurt me.” Twilight whimpered.

“Ugh, get lost will ya?” He said releasing her.

“W-what?” Twilight asked as she looked at him.

“Later.” The creature said jumping into the nearest tree and was gone before she could register that she was free. Did he really just let her go? The better question was why was she still standing there? She started running back to ponyville and arrived in little over an hour. She ran to the library and when she walked into the room she was tackled by a pink blur. Twilight hugged her friend as she cried into her shoulder.

“Twilight!” she heard her friends shout and unison and join in on the hug.

“Twilight are you alright!?” Rainbow Dash asked her friend looking at the claw marks on her neck angrily.

“I’m fine, where’s the princess?” Twilight reassured her friend.

“I’m right here, oh my goodness are you alright Twilight.” Celestia said hugging Twilight after her friends had let her go.

“Yes, but I was so scared.” Twilight said crying into Celestia's chest.

“He didn’t hurt you did he?” Celestia asked barely holding in her rage for the beast that had put Twilight through all of this.

“No, after we got deep enough to the forest he let me go and ran off.” Twilight said finally calming down.

“Where is the varmit. Ah’ll tear it ah new one for this!” Applejack said.

“I don’t know, wherever he is, he’s long gone, the only place i can think of is the old castle, but that’s too close to be considered safe from us.” Twilight said.

“Wherever he is we will find him. He is too dangerous to just let him be.” Celestia said and made for the door. “And Twilight, stay safe ok?” Celestia said and teleported back to Canterlot.