Episode 3 ; Spike , World of Horses . (Timeline) , 2 years after Titan Academy opened. Mere hours after Spike came to this Dimension and Kid Loki De-aged himself.
Spike sat in his new room. It was even bigger then his chambers at the castle. When he first opened the door he was greeted by a large sitting area. There was a couch, and lots of comfy chairs, facing a large flat screen TV, with a round coffee table in the middle of the sitting area. There were about a dozen empty bookshelves, along the back wall, on either side of a sliding glass door. Further to the left, of the long room, was a sleeping area with a huge bed. The bed had two rows of drawers, built into the box frame, and a numbers of cubbies as the headboard. The shelves above that.
Even with all this stuff, the room was far too big for it to look crowded. In fact it looked almost empty, in comparison. Still he didn't know what to do in this room.
Superman got him a bunch of comic books but he couldn't read them. They were written in some bizarre language. It was disappointing as Tartarus, to learn just because they spoke the same language, didn't mean they had the same alphabet. Their letters were all weird looking symbols.
Ponies wrote in a bunch of looping squiggles, that all connected throughout the sentence. It was that way, because ponies had to write, while holding the quil in their mouth.
Too bad, as it would have been cool to read the adventures of a humanoid Super Stallion.
"You're seriously telling me you come from a land of horses," The green skinned girl squealed with delight. Her name was M'gann. Starfire asked her to help Spike unpack, so the 20 something year old woman could comfort Conner.
"No," Spike answered her question well looking down at the comic book he couldn't read. Before putting it on one of the bookshelves on the wall. "They're ponies," he corrected.
"Aren't ponies just horses?" M'gann blinked. She had studied all of Earth's animals in depth, before coming here. She could have sworn, ponies were just younger horses.
"They are about as different from horses as Humans are from Apes," Spike shrugged. He did spend a month at a time, trapped in a School, during other inter dimensional visits. It was impossible not to learn a few things about humans (like what a TV was).
"Oh!" M'Gann grinned as it clicked, "So they evolved from horses," she giggled, "That's amazing. A whole universe were intelligent lifeforms evolved from Equines. Darwin would have a field day."
"Who?" Spike blinked as he shoved his underwear into a drawer of his bed. He didn't really understand the purpose to such things, but Superman insisted they were important. He doubted he'd actually wear them though. Seemed like unnecessary layers. He was used to walking around naked, but he got from the other human dimension, thet that was considered taboo. Didn't make much sense but whatever. It couldn't hurt him to wear something everyday. Better then polishing his scales, every morning, after his shower.
"Darwin," M'Gann explained. "He was a human who lived a long time ago, laid down the groundwork to their modern understanding of evolution. If you're going to stay on this planet, you should learn it's history."
"I won't be here that long," Spike shrugged.
"Still human culture is just amazing," M'Gann gushed, "I've been obsessed with their television programs ever since I was a little girl back, on Mars."
"Is that a country?" Spike absentmindedly asked, "The last human dimension I went to didn't have a global government for the species. Really weird, considering Equestria did that a thousand years ago, when we were still in medieval times. Even now, Humans have such amazing technology, but their still so violent to each other."
"Well," M'Gann felt she should address the culture clash, before answering the question. "Humans don't have a united world, but they do have the United Nations. That's where countries try to talk out their problems, and set ground rules."
"Well that's something at least," Spike shrugged.
"And as for Mars, that's actually a completely different planet. We have a united government there to,"
"Humans colonized other worlds here!? I know they were talking about it in Canterlot High, but they were decades away from trying it."
M'Gann just groaned, "No Spike, humans haven't colonized a different planet. I'm not human. I just moved down here when my parents died, to be with my uncle J'onn, he's the Martian Manhunter in the Justice League,"
"... you're... an alien?" Spike awed before eying her suspiciously, "You don't look like an alien."
"Humans don't have green skin," She smiled.
"They don't?" Spike blinked, "They did in the other dimension, I went to. Well some did. Like Ponies, they could be any color in the rainbow. Some are even Rainbow colored."
M'Gann giggled, "Sorry Spike here most humans are kind of variations on brown or peach colors."
"Sounds boring," Spike scrunched up his nose, "How do you tell any of them apart?"
"Facial features, voice, height. All Martians look almost exactly alike, as we're an asexual species. We tell each other apart by telepathy. All minds have a different feel to them so-"
"Asexual?" Spike blinked, he didn't even know what sex was. How does she expect him to know what Asexual meant?
"That means they only have one parent. Martians couple for emotional connections not physical."
"Physical?" Spike tilted his head.
Oh gods! This child was trapping her into having 'The Talk'. Martians weren't even built that way! They shouldn't have to explain what sex was to children, "You're mommy can explain that when you get back."
Spike pouted, "Celestia says I don't have to worry about that for another hundred years and it's like the one thing my bookworm sister refuses to tell me."
M'Gann yelped, "Well I'm not going to tell you either! So stop asking!"
The little boy pouted.
The door suddenly opened and M'Gann couldn't help sighing with relief, "Oh thank the maker."
A green boy grinned, "Pretty much the usual reaction when I enter a room," the boy hopped on over. He was only a couple years older then Spike but at least he knew what sex was.
"Oh stop it Gar," M'Gann rolled her eyes and sighed with exacerbation. She looked at the younger boy and explained, "This is Garfield."
"The papers call me," He suddenly turned into a kangaroo and did a pose, "Beast Boy," he jumped up and quickly changed into a bird before flying over and landing on M'Gann's shoulder as a squirrel.
Spike awed, "Wow you're almost as good at that as a Changling,"
"Almost!" Squirrel Gar looked insulted, even though he didn't know what a Changeling was.
"Well when they shape-shift they aren't still green," Spike grinned as the older boy huffed. "Are you a Martian to?"
Before Beast Boy could answer M'Gann explained, "No but he gets his powers from us. My uncle gave him a blood transfusion when he was 7 and it altered his body."
"Yep," Gar smiled, "Now I'm green with pointy ears and sharp teeth. At least I'm not dead.
"I used to live in the middle of no where, with my mom. The Justice League ended up battling a giant monster there, and I got hurt in the cross fire. This was before the league had their teleporters, so they couldn't get me to a hospital. Manhunter turned his blood type to match mine, and gave me a transfusion.
"Saved my life and gave me superpowers. Not as many as Martians have, I just got their shape shifting, and even then I can only turn into animals, and they're all green to," the boy shrugged. "Still pretty awesome."
"I bet," Spike smiled. "All I can do is breath fire... and turn into a giant dragon but that's new... well I guess not but I've never been able to control that."
M'Gann smiled as she laid a gentle not-hoof on his shoulder. "Starfire will teach you control," she patted him. "Now come on, we're done here. Let me show you around."
Spike blushed as his stomach loudly growled. M'Gann unfortunately heard it and giggled, "Let's stop for lunch," before directing them to the kitchen.
There was a young teenage girl sitting in there, reading from a floating book as she ate, just like Twilight did. Spike instantly felt comfortable with her just for that fact.
The little dragon pranced over and sat in front of her, wearing a goofy smile.
The teen's eyes slowly wandered away from her book to the green haired little boy.
"Are you an alien to?" Spike grinned, referring to her gray skin.
M'Gann face palmed, "Spike, it is rude to ask questions like that."
Raven, however, chose to answer. She spoke in a bored tone, "No, I'm part demon."
Spike blinked, "What kind of demon?"
Raven blinked, a bit surprised by the question.
"Well you got your Yokai," Spike began listing, "Those guys are more chaotic then evil, so they would be the best option. But then you got things like fiends which go around eating peoples souls. And of course Devils, that a lot of people mistake for demons.
"The human bible talks about them. Those guys just love corrupting souls and conquering planets. They're basically cosmic diseases."
Well M'Gann groaned, at Spike's careless words. However, the grey girl gave a rare smile. "You know a lot about interdimensional being."
"My big sister, she taught me about all kinds of magical creatures," Spike proudly declared. "She's a real egghead, but some of her lessons were actually pretty cool."
Raven put her book down, "You're a dragon, right?"
Spike gaped, "How can you tell? I don't even have scales right now!"
Raven smiled, "My mother taught me a bit about magical creatures to. She wanted to make sure I didn't make the same mistakes she did." her voice got low, clearly trying to scare the child, "She joined a cult when she was younger and they used her as the offering to a Devil Lord."
Spike, however, awed. A simple "Wow," from the boy caused her to full out smile.
Raven leaned back in her chair, "After mom learned of this school for freaks she thought it be a good place for me to learn control over my dark magic."
Spike whistled.
Raven continued to smile, "So what's your story?"
"I'm from an alternate dimension, where the primary intelligent lifeforms evolved from horses."
Raven looked over at M'Gann, who nodded. Then she looked back at the dragon boy. "That sounds like hell."
"Ponies often break into song and constantly save the world through 'Friendship Speeches'," Spike grinned.
"Definitely hell," Insisted Raven.
Spike snickered, "Solar Spike." he extended his not-claw. The teen stared at him curiously. so Spike insisted, "Yes that is my real name. Not my fault humans use gibberish for their names."
The teen chuckled and finally took the little hand. "Rachel Roth, but my friends call me Raven."