This was supposed to be published yesterday morning, but the forum... excitement prevented me from posting it. I'm running a bit behind now for other reasons as well, so I'll likely redate this to yesterday in the future if I manage to get caught up.

See * for disclaimer

Secret of My Excess (December 10th 2011, 22 minutes)

Summary: Spikezilla!

Oh man, Twilight. You may like to read, but you have no respect for the books themselves, do you?

One of the books is on Medieval Equestria. Which means there was a distinct Medieval period, and it's not now. Which we kinda knew, but still. In our history the Medieval period is also known as the Middle Ages, currently set as running from 5th to 15th century. It was first called that at the end of the 15th century, but those historians has a slightly different time-frame in mind. That's something to note; exactly when the Medieval period really was varies depending on which historian you're reading at the time.

Fire Ruby. There is no actual gemstone called a fire ruby. However, fire rubies appear in a variety of RPGs, both tabletop and videogame. There is a fire opal in real life, and some topaz gets called 'fire topaz' but that's a brand name. Technically 'topaz' itself means fire in Greek, but it was applied to a different stone originally. This is one of those cases where things are more confusing then they should be. Any case, Spike talks about 'aging' the fire ruby, to get it ripe, and checks it's ripeness with a tuning fork. This is more ammunition on the idea that gemstones in this setting are not the same thing as gemstones in real life.

20 carats. That's approximately 4 grams depending on the exact system (it varied over time). That's actually pretty small relative to the size of gemstone we seem to be looking at. An actual ruby of 20 carats would be a good sized stone for a ring, less than half an inch on a side. If that stone is 20 carats, then either all the ponies are a *lot* smaller than I had been assuming based on other analysis, that ruby is going to float on water and is again not a gemstone as we understand it, or they have a completely different definition of carat than we do.

That wooden horse head sculpture is interesting. It's carved in a exaggerated semi-modern Cretian style, meant to evoke the classic 'Trojan Horse' myth more than replicate any actual sculpture styles from the period.

Wait, Twilight can teleport someone else? Against their will? Or can she only do that to Spike?

Nope, because suddenly Pinkie.

While everyone is connecting Spikes' growth with greed, I would more likely connect it to his hoard (or what he perceives as his hoard). The more he 'possesses' the bigger he gets.

Blending of King Kong and Godzilla here. I've wanted to put something into a fanfiction about this for awhile now, but I don't have a plot to hang around the scene; about some kind of battle against a tremendous evil, and a fully mature Godzilla-like Spike telling the princesses to stand aside and watch what a King can do.