~Rarity~

As the train pulled towards Ponyville, I was caught by surprise when it began slowing down long before it should have. The train’s conductor spoke up on the intercoms, sounding as surprised as I was.

“Attention passengers, the Ponyville train station appears to be in a state of severe destruction. We will need to let those of you getting off here leave without a stable surface. Apologies for the inconvenience.” We stopped only just outside of where the destruction lied, and I had a good view of it as I stepped out. It looked like a pair of very powerful monsters had fought here. There were also a few burn marks here and there, as well as a large amount of blood.

“OW, SON OF A BITCH! THAT STILL HURTS!” Summer’s vibrating voice screamed from near the train station. For a moment, I was scared the battle was still going on, but when I looked, all I saw was Summer squirming in her base form, with Sweetie Belle pointing a hoof at her with an offended look. As I trotted up to check out what was going on, I also saw Spec sitting in a pile of dust, and the girls all looking like they had just been crying. Sweetie Belle was also hugging Spec. Behind everypony, I saw a crowd beginning to form, and a rather large black blur darting off somewhere.

“What exactly is going on here?” I asked as I came up. Summer, in her typical fashion, was quick to answer in her own blunt way.

“Oh, nothing much. Just another Nightmare attack, followed by Soul kind of dying and having to turn into Spec in front of us all thus revealing a secret I’ve been trying to get her to drop since we met. Oh yeah, and I just killed for the first time in my life. Damn nightmare consumed so much, there was hardly anything left in that husk.”

“Very blunt Summer, you really don’t know what it means to be subtle, do you?” Said slightly grumpy and kind of embarrassed looking Spec. I was still hung up on the kill part.

“I’m sorry, you did what?!” I asked incredulously. The other girls were doing a fine impression of me as well… or was that a fish?

“I uh… Well, a lot humans like me… that is, those that play certain video games… we don’t exactly have a problem with killing things that don’t… well, We’d be willing to kill if there were no negative consequences, or at least ones we’d be able to handle. I killed the Nightmare because its host wasn’t anything sentient.” She turned to the girls then. “That’s why I said it made the mistake of using something I didn’t care for as a host.”

“So there was nothing left in there? What happened to the fragment?” Fluttershy asked.

“The fragment’s in me. I used a new ability I didn’t even know I could use, and copied powers and abilities I knew of… the last one being the ability it used to get as powerful as it was. I consumed it, like a virus. I learned thanks to that, that there were just so many minds mushed together it was nothing but a soup that Nightmare was drinking up. Whatever was in there, it was already practically dead, and not really worth saving.” Summer said.

“I’m… actually with Summer on this one.” Spec voiced her opinion. “When I looked at the soul of that thing, I was horrified. That Nightmare absorbed souls from several beings to use as power batteries, it didn’t bother to keep them separate, like Summer and Eclipse are, and the souls already tore each other’s identities apart. If Summer didn’t kill that thing, I would ask her to do it. I don’t condone killing, but this was the best choice, not for us, but for them.” She then pointed to the bloodstained ground. I was torn between sympathy and horror at this revelation. Looking at the blood stains, I almost missed Summer hesitantly looking about.

“...Gilda was in there.” She said. Rainbow was instantly looking at her.

“What?! B-but how do you know! You said everything was too mixed up!” Rainbow accused.

“Yeah… but I could feel that same hatred for Darks and Changelings I felt in Gilda as I fought. The hatred was preserved above all else. Everything else was just a big soup of suffering.” Summer said sadly.

“But… Gilda wouldn’t have let anything like that beat her! She’s too tough!” Dash denied, quickly falling into tears.

“Dash… what if she was the original host?” Summer pushed further.

“She probably was, and that made it even worse for her.” Spec said sadly.

“I know. But it’s best to accept what’s happened, because nothing can change the past…” Summer said. She seemed a bit hesitant at the end of that, like she suddenly thought of something that brought doubt to her statement. But then she shrugged it off, like it was really only a phantom feeling of being wrong. Knowing how I occasionally get that feeling myself, I let it go, and nopony else seemed to want to pursue the topic either. Instead, I decided to question something else brought up earlier.

“So… Soul was Spec all along?” I asked, turning to Spec.

“I… err… I would say that it’s actually the other way around, but it doesn’t really matter all that much.” She said, looking slightly away. I smiled a bit in sympathy.

“Oh, Don’t worry dear. But what name do you prefer?” I asked, a little confused about that matter.

“Which one I prefer? Well, depends on how I look like, so Spec while I’m like this.” She answered.

“Welp. I’m going to RED’s. Gotta talk about how I can use my new Weaponshifting ability in our matches.” Summer said, walking away.

“Oh! Summer, wait! Your brother wanted me to give something to you!” I said, getting the laptop out of my saddlebags. Summer froze in absolute shock when she saw it.

“Oh. My God… Is… Is that what I think it is?!” she asked, clearly not believing her eyes. She then darted forth at speeds that threw Rainbow out of her depression out of being utterly impressed, and yanked it out of my hooves. “Holy shit, it is! Please tell me it works…” she opened it, tapping at a few keys with her magic. Sweetie Belle stopped hugging Spec and both of them went to check it out.

“Fuck yes, it’s fucking connected!” She cheered obscenely. I frowned disapprovingly.

“Summer, language.” Spec said in response to what Summer said.

“I don’t care! I can read fanfictions again!” she cried happy tears as she hugged the laptop like a lost lover.

“Not if you shortcircuit it with your tears.” Spec said, poking the laptop. Summer’s gaze snapped to Spec in an instant.

“...You’re Ex-human.” she accused with a sense of finality.

“This again? Does it matter?” Spec responded with a bored expression.

“To me it does. Like I said, I might not like all humans, considering most are the greatest scumbags I know of, but I’d enjoy knowing any living here that I didn’t drag with me.” Summer agrued.

“Uhh… look. I’m not exactly hiding that I wasn’t always a pony, but I’m not spreading it around either. Can you please drop the human questions? Reminds me of things I would like to forget.” Spec responded.

“Alright, I understand.” Summer relented. “I know there’s worse shit on Earth than a bunch of internet trolls.”

“Hey, Spec? Where did your Cutie Mark go?” Sweetie Belle asked, causing Spec to sigh.

“Disrupted, until I properly recover.” Spec said. Upon seeing our confused looks she chose to elaborate. “Cutie Mark’s most accurate definition is a ‘symbol of one’s soul’. This ability of mine that allows me to come back puts a strain on my soul, causing a temporary disruptions. It mostly affects my ‘symbol’ and magic. When my soul and magic recover enough, my Cutie Mark will come back.”

“Oh, I see… but then what does that mean for foals like Sweetie Belle?” I asked, curious. It almost sounded like it meant she really could get her mark one day… but I had to be sure.

“Her soul isn’t damaged, so that’s not a problem, that would be her body. She is capable of going through process of getting a Mark, all intelligent creatures are actually capable of that, but it’s only ponies who naturally display them. And Sweetie’s mostly robotic body likely isn’t capable of that anymore.” Spec answered after thinking on it for a few moments.

“Oh… so does that mean I can get it, but it just won’t show?” Sweetie asked.

“Yeah, that’s exactly it. I’m sorry that I can’t read them from just looking at a soul. I’ll look for another way to show it, but I’m not even sure there is a way.” Spec said sadly, embracing Sweetie in a hug. Sweetie hugged back, happy at least that she still can get a cutie mark. The scene was cute enough that I almost forgot Spec was an adult in a child’s form.

“And that’s why I ship it.” Summer said with a face that clearly stated she adored it as much as the rest of us.

“Shut up.” Spec shot Summer a half hearted glare. Most of the others chuckled regardless of the fact that Summer was implying an adult in that relationship. Twilight and I however, frowned, myself repressing a gag… or was that from the smell?

“Girls, I don’t mean to break up a moment, but we shouldn’t linger here for any longer. Why, the scenery is awful and the smell is getting positively repulsive.” I said, politely gesturing to the bloodstains.

“Alright, I need to get all of my questions organised anyway. Spec, would you mind coming over to the library in… two days?” Twilight asked.

“Alright, I’ll be there.” Spec said. After that we quickly agreed that those who would want to ask their own questions, or just be there to watch, can come too. Summer also volunteered to show off her laptop during that.

With all that out of the way, each of us went our own way, Fluttershy going with Rainbow to comfort her.

~Twilight~

It was a few days after the latest Nightmare attacked and it was revealed that Soul and Spec are actually one and the same. I bumped into Spec yesterday on the market and we set the time for today’s gathering to just after lunch, we informed the rest of our friends so they can make arrangements if they wanted to come. Thankfully, everypony invited came, and just in time too, which allowed me to get started. I had a lot of questions to ask.

“Hey Spike, could you bring us some drinks?” I asked Spike as the others arrived.

“Sure thing, Twi.” He said as he went off to prepare them. I turned back to Summer, knowing that out of my list of questions, one for her was one of the first.

“So, uh… Summer, what exactly was life like as a human? So many things have been popping up that I haven’t exactly gotten around to asking…” I asked a little awkwardly, not very sure if it was the right question to start with.

“Oh, it was kinda dull, and felt really restrictive, but that’s just about what’s expected of a teen’s life. Then again, I was just on the verge of being an adult in an economy where all but the lucky or pretentious ones hated their job. And as lucky as I was, it never meant a thing if I didn’t put effort into it. Which… I really didn’t. I was more obsessed with this little thing, and everything I could screw with on the internet.” She waved the laptop around a bit. Spike came in about then, and started distributing the drinks as I noted what Summer said about her society.

“So, you were addicted to the internet. I hope you don’t plan on doing that again in this world.” Spec said with a frown.

“Relax, I’ve got too much to love in this world. Maybe I can do a bit more writing like I used to in my world, but I won’t be on this thing constantly. I actually have a job now.” Summer assured, gesturing towards RED’s. I briefly glanced in the direction, but she was suddenly wearing several hats stacked on top of one another when I looked back.

“Oh my, how ghastly…” Rarity cringed. Summer blinked and looked up, as if just noticing the hats.

“Oh geeze… I swear, I have no idea how to turn that off. The guys back at the restaurant must be having a Hat Moment.” She said apologetically. “The best thing to do is just ignore it.”

“How does that even work?” Spec asked, eyeing the hats with suspicion.

“No one knows. Except maybe Discord, I’m gonna have to ask when he breaks free.” Summer muttered.

“Good luck with that, I don’t think he… oh no.” Spec started, but went quiet with some kind of realisation.

“What’s the matter?” Rainbow asked, seeming to have gotten over the fact that her old friend was truly gone now, if a bit shaky still.

“All this Nightmare business is creating a whole lot of negativity and destructive chaos. I don’t think it will take as long as it should have for Discord to escape.” Spec explained.

“So he’s gonna break out before the Gala then…” Summer said contemplatively. Thankfully her ridiculous hats were gone now.

“How soon though?” I asked worriedly. Knowing something that big wasn’t going to happen on schedule thoroughly unnerved me.

“Unmeasurable, it could be during the gala, day after, or month before.” Spec said, clearly not happy about it.

“That’s not gonna be a happy day. I better work more on my mental defenses then. I really don’t want him messing with my personality. I’m already unstable enough as is.” Summer said, clearly worried.

“Yeah, I noticed. You have a lot of work ahead of you.” Spec said matter of factly. Summer rolled her eyes.

“I won’t have to, much, but I should nonetheless. Eclipse is about half my defense in my mind. The other half is, usually against more normal enemies, my psychotic hidden nature.” she said, more to me and the girls than to Spec. I blinked in surprise.

“I’m sorry… what?” I asked to clarify.

“Here’s the blunt truth, or at least as I see it. I’m half psychotic. Video games and the internet have left me desensitized to many horrible subjects, such as death or rape. I can even make myself bleed without flinching, should I so chose to.” Summer said with a bit of a sigh.

“And that is your fatal weakness against Discord. He’s going to unleash that in the world if he get’s to you.” Spec said, eyes narrowed at Summer.

“If so, let’s all hope the worst thing he uses is the tentacles and eggs. Everything else is a lot worse.” Summer said. I blinked at the implications, and blushed madly, glancing at Sweetie Belle who thankfully didn’t quite understand… either that, or she’d just erased that line from her memory. Either way the blank look was a blessing to me, not to mention Rarity.

“Wait, I think I’m missing something here. All I heard there was ⧫♏■⧫♋♍●♏⬧ and ♏♑♑⬧.” Sweetie Belle said, confused. I was confused too, when her voice only came out in strange beeps, possibly one for each letter of some strange font for all I know. Spec reeled her head away from Sweetie in shock.

“Oh cool, she’s Gaster-censored. Don’t worry, Sweetie. If everything goes well against Discord, you’ll never have to find out. And trust me, you do not want to find out.” Summer happily commented.

“What the?! Where did that come from?” Spec asked Summer. Summer thought it through for a moment, seemingly conversing with Eclipse.

“Eclipse seems to think it might have been the Nightmare that possessed her. She thinks some of the fragments still have some bits of my memories or something, and they’re drawing inspiration from them to create new forms for their hosts… like Sweetie Belle’s animatronic, and Gilda’s Necromorph.” Summer explained.

“Right, right, I figured as much. But why that exact beeping?” Spec asked, pointing at Sweetie Belle.

“Oh, because that’s how you speak Wingding. Duh.” Summer said with a silly grin. Pinkie joined the grin, but for a different reason.

“OOH! I WANNA LEARN HOW TO SPEAK WINGDING!” She excitedly shouted. Summer giggled a bit, before giving a serious answer.

“Alright, in more likelihood, she’s got some sort of censoring thing installed, something I bet Tinker scrapped together from Nightamatronic’s old code and tested before implementing. Now no matter what we say, if it’s something Sweetie Belle shouldn’t hear, it’ll bleep it out Gaster style.” Spec tilted her head to one side and half closed her right eye in confusion.

“Who is Gaster.” She asked. Summer stared for a second before giggling.

“How could you not know who he is? You make a pretty good impression of him right there. Curious, with a creepy looking eye.” she said, almost jokingly with a large amount of giggling. When she calmed down, she continued. “But I guess it makes sense you wouldn’t know. You must have left Earth before Undertale came out. Here, let me show you.” She said, before once more opening her laptop. She was quiet as she began pushing a number of buttons, and I as well as the rest of the girls, with Spike, Sweetie Belle and Spec, gathered behind her in a surprisingly stable pile to watch what was happening on screen. On the screen, she showed a few images, a few that struck me as wise, and a few that sent a shiver of fear down my spine with how… insane the skeleton she showed us looked. His face’s similarity to Spec’s confused pose earlier was visibly unnerving her.

“I think I have inspiration for my next Nightmare Night costume.” Spec nervously added. Summer chuckled.

“Well, then lemme show you some inspiration for new attacks.” She said with a cocky smirk, as she typed “yet darker glitchtale” into a bar at the top. The cinematic she showed afterwards… was simply mind blowing. There were no other words to describe what we saw.

“I… I’m not sure how to feel about that.” Spec said with a shaky voice. Her magic lazily sputtered into action, creating a small, pebble sized orb of magic, which then shot off a few magic blasts at the ground, kicking up dust. “He he… I’m not exactly comfortable with knowing that.” The orb was then surrounded by a very hazy projection of a hand. Summer inspected it for a moment with an impressed look.

“Not bad, for how much magic you have. Maybe at full power, you can mimic Full Power Gaster.” Summer suggested, pointing her cursor over another… cinematic link below titled “Your Best Friend”, which seemed to be another Glitchtale title.

“I’m not sure I want to.” Spec nervously muttered, dismissing the orb. Summer chuckled.

“Hey, the dude’s pretty nice, when you get to know him… when he isn’t scattered across the Void like the Nightmare Fragments are across Equestria. He’s desperate to exist again, and that’s the only thing really pushing him to go against morals.” Summer explained. Spec for some reason jumped back in shock after hearing the word “Void”.

“S-Summer, that wasn’t funny. Why are you even m-mentioning the Void?” Spec asked, looking slightly disturbed. Summer frowned in worry.

“Um… because one of Gaster’s experiments pretty much erased everything in his own timeline except him. And he couldn’t really handle being stuck there, so he got scattered across the Void. What, do you mean to tell me that’s what you used to get here? The Void?” Summer asked.

“Y-yeah, I didn’t have the luxury of instant transportation, or any sort of guide. I pretty much spent some time in there, flying towards Equestria at full speed, even though if you know how Void works you would know that your speed doesn’t matter at all.” Spec admitted, nervously sweating. At that Summer sighed.

“Well, the good news is you were lucky enough to get an Equestria that wasn’t already destroyed or fucked up to some degree. You said you just targeted Equestria? I take it you didn’t bother specifying what kind of Equestria. You could have just as easily gotten a Displaced Equestria, where your power is next to nothing compared to some of the guys running around out there.” Summer said, almost scoldingly.

“Hey! I didn’t have the option of actually choosing, “Equestria” was the best I could do, and I could have just as easily left and go to the next one if I got a bad one. At least my stunt didn’t endanger the entire world.” Spec retorted.

“Alright, I’ll give you that… but what if you’d pissed off a Displac-er? Those guys have the power to send and TRAP you in tartarus, or even worse.” I was starting to get a little lost, and I knew I wasn’t alone.

“Well, I’ll give YOU that, but really, why would that piss them off, it’s not like they have the exclusive right to send people off to Equestria.” Spec said, confusing us even more.

“Hey, you never know… You could piss off the Merchant by just accidentally ramming him wherever you’re going.” Summer argued back.

“Uh… what the buck are you guys talking about?” Rainbow finally spoke up. It was about time someone stepped in.

“Oh, just talking about the multiverse.” Summer dismissed.

“And how I theoretically could have gotten in trouble with my pretty much uncontrollable Void dive.” Spec added.

“Everypony’s runnin’ the risk of gettin’ in trouble, ain’t they?” Applejack mused.

“It would seem so. Oh I do so hope we don’t begin to emulate them.” Rarity dramatically taunted. Summer’s smirk put me off though.

“Oh, trust me… everyone is going to at one point. But unlike me, it won’t end apocalyptically. Only catastrophically.” Summer promised ominously.

“Ah don’t like the sound o’ that…” AJ muttered. “Ah s’pose ya won’t just up and tell us though to avoid it?” she asked.

“Nope. You girls still need to learn the lessons, even if I’ve already seen it thanks to the internet.” Summer replied. Spec shook her head.

“While logic would dictate to just tell you to avoid any problems, there are things that need to be experienced for them to have meaning.” Spec said with a sigh at the end. I nodded in understanding.

“Oh, except for you, Fluttershy. I’ve already helped you avoid that by putting the right brand of confidence in you.” Summer suddenly said to a beaming Fluttershy.

“Thank you, Summer.” Fluttershy said. Rainbow stared for a few seconds once again in disbelief.

“It’s still unbelievable…” she muttered.

“I know, I don’t believe it either.” Spec chimed in. Summer chuckled, but otherwise didn’t comment. I suppose she wanted to keep the matter of how she did that a secret.

“Okay girls, as interesting as that all is we’re getting a little too off topic.” I said, and once again had attention of everyone in the room. I took a second to put away my notes on everything that was said and prepared new paper to take more.

“Spec, I’m rather curious about how your resurrection… thingy works.” I said, turning to her.

“Well, that is both incredibly complex and at the same time easy to explain. I don’t think I could ever explain the detailed workings and mechanics of it, but simplified concepts are rather easy to grasp.” She said, looking to me for the cue to continue. I nodded for her to go ahead. “It’s probably because of how I got to Equestria. Much like Summer and her siblings, I was a bare soul without a body, unlike them I got caught between two massive power sources. I entered during last year’s Summer Sun Celebration, precisely on the magical tether between Celestia and the Sun. The combined magic coming at me from both sides was enough to create a fully functional body from scratch, but there are some differences from what is normal.” She explained.

“Normal being…?” Summer waved her hoof in a “go on” gesture.

“My body requires constant cycling of magic to remain stable, when that is cut off, bonds between its particles degenerate, breaking it down into that dust-like substance. That process however isn’t only one way, as this dust can be recharged and molded into another form, as long as it doesn’t break down completely.” Spec continued on with her explanation.

“Huh… Kinda reminds me of that old Soul Reaver game on the first Playstation… in a way. Except it’s magic, not souls.” Summer muttered.

“Never played that.” Spec commented. Summer gestured to her laptop.

“Got it on here, if ya ever want to.” she offered. “But, onto the next topic. What’s with the gender thing?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. The first time I got to this form, and the first time I actually resurrected myself, was when I was testing what all I can do with changing my form. I managed to turn myself into a pegasus, and I mean fully, no temporary wings or anything. Then when it came to changing back i wanted to try adding back horn without getting rid of the wings. It all backfired, spell destabilised and my body caved in on itself into a pile of dust, when i dig myself out of it I’m a filly. Ever since then my body seems to default itself into this form when I resurrect.” Spec said.

“I think I might be able to explain that.” I interjected. “Some tests have revealed that most females tend to recover their magic faster than males, even if they are twins. In turn though, the males are capable of putting a lot more power into their spells. Your body defaulting to that could just be a natural inclination to restore as much power as possible as quickly as possible.” I suggested, writing that in my notes.

“As good explanation as any, doesn’t bother me at all to tell the truth.” Spec shrugged. Summer chuckled.

“I’d been wondering why all the local feeding changelings were female… Guess that answers that. The more you know~” she idly sang. Applejack smiled a bit at Spec.

“Well, ah for one respect that you can accept somethin’ like that. Most ponies would freak out ‘n make some big dumb mistake tryin to change back. ‘Specially mah brother.” She said with a giggle. I joined her in giggling.

“If my brother went through something like that, he would lose his mind!” I said, barely containing myself at the thought of it. The thought of my brother as a mare though was amazingly easy to see.

“Interesting mental pictures.” Spec said, suppressing a chuckle.

“How about some actual pictures?” Summer said, with her laptop hovering near me. Curious, I turned it around and looked… and laughed, hard. A moment later, I heard AJ laughing as hard as I was. After we’d calmed down, I heard Rarity clear her throat.

“As amusing as it was to see that, let us move on, shall we? Spec, with this resurrection ability of yours, doesn’t this mean you’re immortal, like the princesses?” Rarity asked. Spec reacted almost immediately, looking at the ground in front of her with a somber look.

“It does. Even if I don’t use it, the way my body is doesn’t allow it to naturally age.” She said in a low, almost sad tone. Summer saddened too.

“Damn, what a mood killer…” Then like whiplash, she grinned again. “On the bright side, you’re super cuddly like this!” As if to prove Summer’s point, Sweetie Belle zipped forth, hugging Spec like a plushie. She might have been hugging too tight though, if Spec’s slightly panicked expression and slow shift of colour of her face from grey to blue was anything to go by. Spec’s way of calling for help was a bit unexpected though. Her horn started flashing in sequence, each flash accompanied by a familiar beeping noise and projecting a symbol above her head.

“●♏⧫ ♑□???? ♓ ♍♋■????⧫ ♌❒♏♋⧫♒♏” I couldn’t read it, or understand, but it wasn’t like I needed to. Summer went to Sweetie and tapped her.

“Hey, let go. You’re really loving her to actual death.” Summer said with a little grin. Sweetie gasped and let go, swiftly jumping to apologize and ask if Spec was okay, though she stopped to glare at Summer for the ‘loving’ comment. Spec, for her part, was gasping for breath for a few seconds before shaking her head and canceling whatever spell she used.

“I’m fine, really, nothing wrong. Just watch the hug power next time Sweetie, will you?” Spec said after catching her breath.

“Uhm… I have a question.” Spike got our attention and made his presence known. Before he could ask though, Summer jumped in fright.

“Holy shit, when did you get there?!” She asked. “Oh wait… Sorry Spike. I didn’t notice you…”

“You aren’t the only one...” He muttered under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear.

“Don’t worry, Spike. You’re still my number one assistant for a reason.” I said, giving him a nuzzle. Spike smiled and hugged back, before turning back to Spec.

“Anyway, Spec? How’d you change again if you were a pegasus?” He asked.

“I still could use magic while I was like that, but it was incredibly unwieldy. I found out I can channel magic through my entire body instead of the horn and use it that way, but it’s really not something for complex casting. I can also do it the other way around, that is flying as a unicorn by creating temporary wings, but they can’t handle very high stress.” Spec said.

At that, Rainbow, Fluttershy and I got very interested. “Oh! Does that mean a regular pegasus can use something simple like levitation?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think so… well, at least not naturally. I was only able to turn into a pegasus because I already had small amount of latent flight magic, the transformation just brought this magic into the front while pushing my unicorn magic into the background. Not even the strongest magical chimerism in a pony would give enough for direct levitation.” Spec explained, not quite looking at any of us.

“Oh, I see. I suppose it makes sense. I probably should have reminded myself that the strongest recorded cases of chimerism, Commander Hurricane, Clover the Clever, and Chancellor Puddinghead-”

“Snrk….” Summer snorted.

“-were some of the very few known strong cases.” I ignored Summer.

“Actually, that gets me curious, do any of you girls have a case of chimerism?” Summer asked, suddenly no longer needing to resist the urge to laugh.

“I don’t know actually. There should be a few tests to find out though…” I said, grabbing a book from the Magic section. I looked through it until I found the page I needed. “Aha! I already have several parts for a machine that could work. I just need to assemble them!” I said triumphantly as I started heading for the library basement. As I left, I heard the others following me, Applejack speaking up to ask her own question.

“So, was ah jus’ imagining things, or are you actually the pony that saved Summer’s life when we fought Nightmare Moon?” she asked.

“So you noticed. Yeah, that was me, I was secretly following you just in case some unexpected danger appeared. I didn’t want you to know at first, but I figured that with all those Nightmares around, hiding power is just going to go against you.” Spec answered after a few seconds of silence.

“And what about the Alicorn thing?” Rainbow asked. I caught Summer giving her a pointedly interested look as I began gathering the parts in my lab.

“I’m not one, however it may look. What you saw was more along the lines of Nightmare transformation. I have locked away vast majority of my own power, because I can’t remain in control of it for a long time, it’s enough to physically change me when I let it all out. I almost released it during the last Nightmare incident, you would all see it if it didn’t force me to stop.” Was Spec’s answer. Summer sighed.

“The nightmares are getting smarter. They must have copied some of my past combat experiences before it all broke.” She said in warning.

“Why compare yourself to a Nightmare, Spec?” I asked as I fit yet another part and calibrated it.

“Because… I’m more similar to her in terms of nature of my existence then to an actual pony. When I stood up against Nightmare Moon back at the castle, she asked me if I wanted to take her victory for myself. That’s because she thought I’m another being like her and that I wanted to take Luna from her and just possess her myself. I found out quite early that I don’t actually require a body to continue living, I’m not sure if that would even classify me as alive in the first place…” Spec said, trailing off at the and.

“That’s very interesting... ” I muttered as I clicked the last part into place. “Alright, it’s done. Who wants to test first?” I announced.

“Ah’m up for it. How’s it work, Twi?” AJ asked.

“Just sit down in the chair and let me calibrate it.” I said, stepping back. She nodded and climbed into the chair. From there, I started working on it, and ran it. Eventually, the results printed, and I picked it up.

“Looks like you don’t have any chimerism, Applejack. Your magic is a hundred percent Earth Pony.” I said. She smiled in pride, something I knew Summer appreciated, if her goofy expression was anything to go by.

“I’m next!” Rainbow said, flying forth into the chair. She bounced in the seat eagerly as I ran the machine again. This time, the results surprised me.

“This is interesting… Evidently, Rainbow has a small amount of passive Unicorn magic that helps with her speed, somehow.” I announced. Rainbow smirked.

“Heh… Well, I guess that might explain how easily I can fly.” Rainbow gloated a little. “Then again, that just means I’m even more awesome.” I rolled my eyes as Rarity stepped up next, getting into the chair without a word. I ran the machine again, and the results… confused me to say the least.

“Wait, this can’t be right… The data’s corrupted.” I mutter, confused.

“Corrupted? Did Rarity break it?” Summer asked.

“No it’s… It’s saying there’s something there, but the letters are all…” I trailed off, trying to make sense of what I saw.

“No point questioning what has no answers. Let’s just move on, alright?” Summer suggested.

“Agreed, let’s not waste time here, darling.” Rarity agreed. Pinkie was quick to take Rarity’s place.

“My turn!” she said as she started the machine for me somehow. However, instead of a sheet of paper, the machine spat out a flurry of cats wearing strawberry frosted pop tarts and flying out with rainbow trails, all of them meowing a very catchy song. Summer stared, jaw dropped wider than any of us, but was the first to recover… with uproarious laughter.

“Oh my fucking god, that was amazing! Do it again!” she cheered. Fluttershy squeed, showing her approval as well.

“Well, that’s Chaos Magic at work if I ever saw it.” Spec said after she recovered. I still just stared at Pinkie, feeling my eye twitch. But Spec was right, that was probably chaos magic, which meant the laws of reality didn’t apply. So it was best not to question it.

“Hey wait, this thing didn’t work like that in the show when you had your greatest freakout ever. How come it’s working here?” Summer asked in confusion.

“The machine was likely configured differently. I’ve configured it to read magic here, when normally it’s made to read brain activity. I only reconfigured it this way because of the subject of magic chimerism.” I replied.

“Oooooh…. Yeah, that makes sense.” Summer accepted. “Hey Flutters, you’re up.”

“Okay.” she said, tenderly climbing into the seat. I once again ran it, and waited for the results. When they came out, I saw it was a little longer than the others, not counting Rarity’s corrupted one. Picking it up, I read through it.

“Another error, but with different symbols...These scans are confusing.” I muttered. Summer raised her eyebrow.

“Let me see them.” She requested. I handed both of the corrupted ones to her, hoping she would be able to decipher one of them at least. She blinked at Rarity’s.

“Oh wow, this one’s written in Dragon language. I can’t read it, but I can lend you my laptop to help translate it.” Summer said. She then turned to the other one and squinted at it. “I don’t recognise… Oh. OH! Wow, Shy’s special. No wonder she was always so afraid of things.”

“What? What does it say?” I asked excitedly.

“This is written in changeling dialect. Almost gave up on it, but Bonbon came and translated it through the Hive Mind. Shy’s got an Unmasked Changeling signature, and it’s the Yellow type. Fear. Explains why she prefers the company of her loving animal friends.” Summer said with a satisfied sigh.

“That really does explain a lot. Both how she can talk with animals so easily, and why she was so jumpy before. She probably passively hoarded fear, but because she isn’t an actual changeling, she never got rid of it.” Spec theorised.

“Interesting… Well then, Spec, would you mind letting it scan you too?” I asked.

“Ok, but the results now, and when I fully recover will probably be a bit different.” She said as she climbed up the seat. I started it again, and waited for the results. What I saw was just about what somepony would expect of a natural dark filly, with Unicorn dominance, with a small bit of Dark, and Pegasus on the side.

“Not very impressive, but that’s to be expected of in that form, right? Okay, now it’s my turn.” I climbed onto the chair, and Summer took the liberty of starting the machine for me. When the results came, I watched in anticipation as it printed… and kept printing. I was astounded there was just so much of it. When it finished, I took it and looked over it, though I was disappointed that so much of it was corrupted in many various ways. The only thing that was clear was the Unicorn magic, but that was a given. Summer looked at it over my shoulder.

“Holy shit, Twilight. That’s a lot of shit. With that much chimerism, you might as well be like… the Alicorn of Magic or something.” she said, putting a weird, knowing inflection on that.

“Summer...” Spec growled at her. “Can I gave a look too?” She then asked in a normal tone. I passed it to her as Summer giggled at Spec. She looked at it for a few moments before speaking. “Well, this just makes sense as far as I know. Every single pony has trace amounts of foreign magic, most cases are so faint it’s completely undetectable, it’s called chimerism only when it can be detected. With Twilight’s unnaturally high magic potential, it only makes sense that these trace signatures are pushed into the detectable range.” She said, giving it back.

“I guess I’ll just have to figure out what they are on my own.” I said, excited at the prospect of discovery.

“Well, thanks for this, Twilight. Maybe we can meet up again some other time when Spec’s back to being Soul. Ought to be real interesting.” Summer said before leaving. One by one, the rest of the girls thanked me for the experience, and left. Now alone, I mulled over my scans, trying to figure out if maybe there was any kind of pattern among it. I had a lot of work to do...