Magikarp: Cream of the Crop

Chapter 3: Magikarp the gay Magikarp...?

Twilight ran towards the crash site, sweat forming on her brow from the superb exercise that she had done just then, competing itself with the lack of activity due to the librarian's habit of staying cooped in all day. Her legs ached, but she pressed onward, and onward she prevailed.

She dodged past confused and startled ponies, jumped over wreckage due to the comet's crash, all with Spike struggling to follow behind her. Why she didn't just teleport there, nopony knew. Eventually she ran past the edge of town, approaching near Fluttershy's cottage which was near the crash site.

She found the location of the comet's landing near the edge of the Everfree, with trees destroyed everywhere near the area; many were burned or had all their bark stripped from the trunk because of the sheer amount of heat the comet created when it landed. She kept towards the center of where it seemed to have been created from, and there she found what she was looking for.

A crater, its depth seemed to be enormous as she stopped in her path in case she accidentally fell. Smoke poured out from the middle, but still she could get a good look at what was at the bottom. The source of the crash.

"... What the buck is that?" she asked herself, at lost of words to try and figure out what exactly the comet was.

Spike finally caught up to her, huffing and puffing in exhaustion due to his short legs having to do twice the work of Twilight to run after her. "What do you mean?" he panted, wiping off a good amount of sweat from his forehead.

"It looks like a... fish," she answered, pointing to the center of the crater. "But how can a fish create such a huge crash? And more importantly, how did it crash here in the first place?"

Spike stared deep into the crater, and was just as surprised as Twilight when he spotted what did indeed seem to be a type of red fish with white dorsal fins and yellow whiskers at the very bottom. "I think the better question would be how it's still alive?" Spike spoke up, noticing how the fish still moved down there.

Floundering around, a noise could be heard from the red fish. It sounded almost like "karp," for some reason.

"Can we keep it, Twilight? Can we, can we?" Spike begged, his voice sounding that of a filly or colt.

"Spike, that's potentially dangerous creature that somehow survived a crash from outer space!" Twilight explained to her assistant. "Of course we can! What kind of pony would I be if I didn't let my assistant have a pet? Plus, this gives me a chance to study it!"

Spike squealed in delight and raced down the crater, eventually reaching the bottom and picking up the mysterious red fish. Groaning from the heavy weight, he returned to Twilight and flung the fish onto the ground. Scratching his head as the fish just flailed on the ground, he said, "How exactly can it still breathe on land?"

"Magic. It would definitely explain how it survived that crash," Twilight answered, leaving so many questions in Spike's head. Twilight approached the creature closer, eager to study and inspect this anomaly more.

"Well, okay then. What shall we name it?" Spike asked, poking the fish with an ashen stick.

"Magikarp," the strange fish said, that word evidently the only one it could it could say. It repeated it several other times, hopping up and down on the ground.

"Let's name it Benedict!" Spike shot out. A little part of Magikarp's soul died just then.

"You sure?" Twilight asked, rubbing her chin in puzzlement. "It seems like a pretty strange name." If Magikarp could speak it'd agree with her.

"You... you don't like it?" Spiked asked, giving her a puppy dog like look "What about Dane?"

"Well..." the disappointment in his creativity was clear through her nagging tone of voice, "It's not bad, it's just not fitting for a fish."

"I know!" Spike yelled with glee. "How about Magikarp, you know, since he says Magikarp."

"Brilliant!" The purple mare exclaimed, rubbing the head of her dragon companion, his scales leaving an odd feeling on her hoof.

"Magikarp! Magikarp!" Magikarp said loudly, its prayers heard by the great Pokemon in the sky, Arceus.

"So, um, you know if its a boy or girl?" Spike asked, poking Magikarp again with a stick, the fish like creature ignoring it as it just went on floundering.

"There's only one way to find out," Twilight started, she picked up the creature, moving her hoof down to its tail. "There's... there's nothing there! Maybe it is gay! Just kidding!" she said.

Tugging at one of Magikarp's whiskers, Spike said, "How about we just say its a boy and not question further?"

"But Spike!" Twilight whined, "It's just going to pester me until we know for sure!"

"What about it surviving in space and crash landing to the ground and it still being able to live through that?" Spike asked, cocking an eyebrow at her. "Shouldn't that pester you more than trying to figure out what gender it is?"

Twilight's eye twitched, it flickered in a creepy fashion as if something inside her broke, perhaps a demon from her childhood being released from the thought of that very question. Whatever it was that caused her to twitch, she kept it barred inside of her, dooming it to never be revealed. "Not really," she answered.

"Sweet!" Spike replied, hefting Magikarp over his shoulder and running off. "Now let's go to Fluttershy's place! Maybe she can tell us what type of fish he is!"

"... why didn't I think of that?" Twilight asked herself, trotting behind her assistant.

And of course, Magikarp just spouted on about his own name. Well, at least this was better than the salesman... sort of.