The Crown and The Sword

   Twilight woke up with a throbbing head, groaning out in pain. Her head slowly turned to the left to observe a small saucer with a cup of hot liquid. Her ears picked up some noise off to her right to see the dog from earlier sitting cross-legged with a small smile across his face.

"Hi there, took you long enough to wake." He said, didn't seem like he moved in ages.

   Twilight let out a high pitched shriek and backed away from him. The dog shut his eyes and grimaced until she quieted down. Once she was finally quiet, his eyes opened again to see a scrunched up ball of lavender, clothes, straightened navy mane, and wide purple eyes staring at him.

"What are you and how'd you do that?" She immediately asked him, not wanting to move closer.

"I'm no diamond dog." He responded plain as day.

"Well duh! I see that now!" Twilight yelled from across her room.

"Just take a breather, sip some tea and we can talk about this all civil like." The dog had motioned his hands as if he were flattening a bedspread as he spoke.

Twilight simply nodded and took the cup in her magic.

"...and that's how I got here." The dog finished explaining how he had arrived in Twilight's library earlier this afternoon

   It had been some hours, a good convincing of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and a little story of the dog. Applejack did insist that Rainbow and herself atleast checked Twilight's loft. The dog, consequently, hid under the bed and bent the light around him somehow to fool the cyan one that nothing was actually there.

"I still can't get over that you turned yourself invisible!" Twilight exclaimed cheerfully, as if she ignored the arrival story.

"I'm not from this realm, but that doesn't mean I can't use my own magic to protect myself. Anyway, I never got your name, what is it? If you don't mind me asking." The dog looked inquiringly at Twilight, a cup of tea in hand.

"What's yours? I don't want to be referring to you as 'Dog' the whole time you're here." Twilight loked a bit more calm from earlier. "You should teach me that invisibility trick sometime also."

"My real name isn't important as of yet. So you can call me Sword until I figure a new title out to fir in around here." The dog's face morphed into a serious look.

"Well,'Sword,' I'm Twilight Sparkle, I guess it's nice to meet you." She gave her name to him without the slightest negative thought.

"I have a slight question." Sword stated as he took a sip of tea.

"Hm?" Was all that heard from Twilight behind her cup.

"What's with the dragon? He seems a bit protective." Sword was now looking off

"You must have met Spike! I can see why he would be, I practically hatched him a while ago." Twilight explained to her guest.

"You hatched him?" Sword looked at the unicorn with confusion.

"I did, but I'm wondering what happened between you two earlier." Twilight sat back in her seat and crossed her legs.

"Well...." Sword started as he went through his memories to find the encounter.

Few Hours Earlier:

   Spike had just gotten back from tracking down Rainbow Dash, he was ready to relax until a noise from the kitchen caught his attention. At first thought, it must be Twilight making herself lunch. that was his initial idea until he actually reached the door of the kitchen. He couldn't believe his eyes along with a slight anger.

"Who in Tartarus are you?!" Spike nearly yelled at the top of his lungs at the dog.

"Shush! Don't you know that there's someone asleep upstairs?" The dog was calm, too calm.

Spike looked towards the stairs, then back to the dog. "What'd you do to her?"

"I may have had to protect myself from her, she'll be fine in a couple hours and after a nice cup of tea." The dog explained.

"What did you do?!" Spike stomped a foot on the floor, a squeak emerged from his sneaker.

"I knocked her out. Had to before she caused anymore unnecessary damage to my body." The dog explained more.

Spike didn't feel like his question was answered fully. "With what exactly?"

"Magic." The dog turned to take the teapot off the stove. "Now, if you don't mind, this tea should be getting to someone."

Spike didn't move from the door. "How do I know you didn't poison it?"

"You wanna taste test it drake?" The dog shook the teapot just a bit, shifting the liquid inside.

"The name's Spike, and yes, I would like to taste that 'tea'" Spike put some emphasis on tea.

   The dog simply complied with Spike and got another small cup. Spike was trying to glare daggers at the dog behind his back. He wanted to take the creature to the ground, but his current size said otherwise. The dog turned to Spike with the cup and knelt to hand it to him. Spike was hesitant in taking the cup from the dog.

Spike took a sip, the anger was suddenly overtaken with the taste of the tea he just drank. "Hey..." another sip he took, ".. this actually isn't bad. Possibly better than how I make it."

The dog only let out a smile and stood. "I try not to pride myself as a cook too often, but if you excuse me, your friend upstairs could use some of this."

   Spike nodded, stepping out of the dog's way, and taking another drink. He didn't trust that dog fully, but that could change if the dog could prove that he wasn't really trying to harm anypony.

Present Hour:

"That certainly sounds like Spike, though, if I were actually Rarity, things would've turned out differently." Twilight chuckled lightly.

"Rarity? Who might that be?" Sword asked, looking away from the cup he was holding.

"Another friend of mine that Spike just so apparently has a crush on." Twilight explained, Sword smile a little.

"Ah, young love." Sword leaned back into his seat. "I remember when I had one."

"And how old are you exactly?" Twilight inquired immediately after his comment.

"Probably just as old as you are, Twilight." Sword responded, a slight smile still present upon his features.

"That's impossible, you must be older than you say." Twilight was leaning forward, on the edge of her seat.

"Nope, no lies, I'm not older than anyone here. Well, maybe except for Spike." Sword relaxed himself even further.

"That's because Spike is younger than me." Twilight added.

"I can tell by his voice." Sword's smile disappeared and an eye brow raised.

"Is there something wrong?" Twilight asked, noticing the creature's face.

"Just a memory is all."  Sword simply responded, snapping out of his daze.

"What kind of memory?" Twilight asked, a yawn following her question.

"Sounds like someone should be getting their sleep, like a certain dragon." Sword raised his voice at the end, glancing over to the doorway.

   Twilight let out a small laugh as Spike was heard scrambling up the stairs to feign his slumber. Twilight got up, placed her cup on a desk across the room muttering something. Passing by Sword, she felt something grab her arm, with some inspection, she found it to be that of Sword's hand to have grabbed her arm.

"Do you, by chance, have any history books I could read? I'd love to get to know the history of this place." Sword asked with a smile.

   Twilight didn't say anything, but smiled back at him as her horn lit up in a magenta hue. Books flew off the shelves and landed like feathers on Sword's lap. There were atleast several different books, or volumes, as he put it. He wouldn't know for sure unless he cracked open one. Sword took the the cover of the first book and opened it. An Extensive History on Equestria: Volume 1. Yup, these books were put into volumes, Sword was going to be up all night.

   The morning was peaceful, almost. Both Twilight and Spike woke up to what sounded like a roar in the next room over. Both of them jumped out of their beds, but Spike was the first on scene. Twilight skidded to a halt behind him. What they found, though, was Sword sleeping. He was outstretched on his stomach, with arms at his sides. He let out a snort and twitched a little before shifting his head to face the two friends. Twilight noticed that the books he had asked for were all open, which raised a question in her mind.

"Was he trying to read all those at the same time?" Twilight whispered to Spike.

"How should I know? It's not like I kept an eye on him last night." Spike responded back with the same volume as Twilight.

Another snore emerged from Sword as he slept.

"That's one heck of a snore for a diamond dog." Spike whispered.

"He isn't a diamond dog, Spike." Twilight corrected the dragon.

Spike turned to face Twilight, with a confused look on his face. "Then what is he?"

"Even I don't know, Spike, but how about some breakfast?" She asked, not even realising she accidentally raised her voice above a whisper.

"That would be lovely." Came a ragged tone, causing the two to look at Sword. "Want me to cook?"

The two just stared at Sword before somepony broke the silence.

"If you don't mind, I'm pretty sure Spike could use a break from the kitchen for once." Came Twilight's voice.