Discord hated cleaning.
He hated the very verb. He hated the adjective as well, and really just hated the word. It tasted vile on his tongue, and set waves of displeasure upon him if he even thought about it. He hated executing the verb too, and almost never did it. A mess was just so... chaotic really. It's like a science experiment; when you leave too many uncontrolled variables lying around, something is bound to happen.
But of course, these 'somethings' were hardly ever something that Fluttershy approved of, such as the time he'd left out one of his experimental emotion potions lying about. After three certain fillies had gotten a hold of it, it didn't take long to figure out who it had come from.
It didn't help his case that the words "Property of Discord" were plainly written on it.
And it certainly didn't make Fluttershy any happier when he'd made the letters dance off the bottle and terrorize Angel--that demonic bunny he hated oh so much, even more than cleaning--and said that there was no such inscription there.
No, he'd gotten an hour long lecture from her instead, after being dragged back to her cottage by the ear.
He could have left if he'd wanted to. Heck, he could have done something, anything, easily to stop her from dragging him away. Pony teeth really hurt after all. But, as always, something about Fluttershy always made him comply, if partially. He'd left one imposing 'E' running around, which only jumped out to scare Angel when the pegasus wasn't looking. It really was quite funny, and he was proud of himself for coming up with something so ingenious.
But back to the topic of cleaning.
Fluttershy had been bothering him for weeks to clean out what he called his inter-dimensional pocket, a seeming invisible space that allowed him to randomly pull things out of nowhere. Not that he couldn't conjure most anything out of thin air, it was just some 'very important things' were stored there. Namely magical junk and a few dangerous items.
Fluttershy swore he was a hoarder.
But, after a pouty face or two, he gave in.
He still hated it though.
As he searched around through his mess, his eyes fell upon a small but elaborately decorated case.
"Hmm, I don't remember this being here... that odd pink pony must have been here again," he mumbled, "Well, this thing can go then," he was about to toss it over his shoulder where it would surely explode when he noticed something, "By all things Chaotic. This thing has quite the magical aura! I wonder what it does..." the thought of what it could do ran through his head, and a mischievous smile crept onto his face. His smile was soon replaced with a vigorous head shake that sent his head turning around like a spinning ball. "No!" he told himself sternly, once his head had stopped, though it was now on backwards, "I promised Fluttershy that I would be getting rid of some of my things, and I will. But that still doesn't satisfy my curiosity..." he scratched his head as he thought, and started to pace. When he turned his body, his head turned back to the right direction, "I got it! I'll send it to that silly purple princess. She just loves things like this,"
Satisfied with his decision, he wrapped the boxed with blue tissue paper with the snap of his fingers, wrote out a note, and sent both items away with a dramatic poof.
He then turned back to the horrendous mess, and sighed.
"I hate cleaning," he growled.
"I love cleaning!" a feminine voice beamed, "I'll get right to it!"
"Thank you, Twilight, for accepting the task of sorting through Starswirl's wing so... enthusiastically. We expect that it will be done very well,"
"Yes, Princess Luna. Some of my favorite topics come from his work, and making the area open to the public would be my pleasure. Some topics, of course, will be kept locked away like usual, and only ponies with the correct paperwork will be allowed to view them,"
"We think that the outcome will be very pleasing to Us, and Our sister as well. This will be a good opportunity to open up more knowledge to the education system,"
"I agree, Princess,"
"It would please Us to have you call Us by our name, Luna. You may stop using Our title, as your are now Our rank,"
"Of course, Luna. It's just that I see both you and... Celestia, as..."
"Older?"
"Maybe. You just have more power and respect than I do, so I still see you as my superiors. And I'm still kind of getting used to this whole Princess thing.."
"We know what you mean," the older Alicorn smiled warmly, "We were once in the same place as you are, both Celestia and We. We, I, am still getting used to 'this whole formality thing', as you would say," she chuckled.
"Yeah," she smiled back, "But you went through the same thing? What do you mean?"
"Well, I-" but the Alicorn was cut off as a cloud of white smoke appeared in the air, a soft pop sounding as it did so. When the smoke cleared, the two ponies saw something wrapped in blue tissue paper floating in the air, a note floating beside it. Luna took up the things in her magic, and scanned the note for a moment. "It is for you," she told Twilight, pushing the items her way.
Twilight took up the items in her own magic.
"Hmm, I wonder who it's from?" she wondered allowed before reading the note herself.
Dear Sparkle Butt,
I was cleaning out one of my storage areas, when I found this. I have no idea what it is, but if you haven't felt it already, there is some serious magic funk around it, if you know what I mean. In other words, what ever it is, it's pretty powerful.
I don't have time to figure out myself what it does myself, which I could have if I wanted to, but I'm still curious. So, I thought that maybe you'd wanna try and see what it can do, seeing as you're princess egghead and all.
So yeah, good luck and have fun.
Toodles.
-Discord
"Well that was... interesting.." she said as she turned her attention to the wrapped gift, "Not every day somepony get's something from the Lord of Chaos, huh?"
"No indeed," Luna responded, eyeing the gift, "Shall we see what it is, then?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," she said absentmindedly, as she was also running through the possibilities on what it could be. Excitement began to settle in as she tore the wrapping off to reveal what it was, "Oh come on!" she exclaimed as she saw what it was, "A sunglasses case? Seriously?"
"I do not know what a sunglasses case is, but I do know that it radiates power. Did Lord Discord not mention that in his letter?"
"He did, didn't he?" she reached out to feel the presence of the magic, and was overwhelmed, "Ok, so that wasn't expected. But what can you expect from Discord? He probably sent this as a prank. Magic sunglasses case my a-"
"He didn't make this," Luna stated.
"What?"
"Lord Discord did not make this. The only traces of his power are from him sending it here. I know that you are not used to sensing magic levels and auras, but certainly you can tell that he did not make this,"
"I... hadn't even thought of checking.." she admitted sheepishly, "I just assumed..."
"Do not always assume the worst of others, Twilight Sparkle. Even if the said pony, or in this case dracanequos, has done bad things in the past, doesn't mean they will always do those bad things," the Night Princess said steadily, "You of all ponies should know that,"
"I.. Sorry, Luna," she shook her head, "I guess I'm also still getting used to Discord's reform,"
"You are forgiven. Just keep that in mind; it may serve you well in the future," her serious face then turned to a smile, "Now why don't you open it?"
"What?"
"The case; does it not open?"
"Oh. Oh yeah, it should," She'd completely forgotten about the case, "Maybe there will be a pair of magical sunglasses," she joked to herself. She used her magic to open the box and both alicorns peered inside. "Whoa,"
"These are not sunglasses," and Luna was correct. Inside they found what seemed to be carefully made tiny figurines of ponies.
"There are so many of them," Twilight managed to say as she studied them, "And so realistic too. The artist must have used some form of magic to make something like this with so much detail. Would that explain..?"
"No," answered Luna, "They sheer use of magic to create this figures, no matter how many there are, does not explain the magical signature. It... feels familiar. A type of magic that I cannot place my hoof on,"
"So Discord really did find something," Twilight said thoughtfully, "And while I don't exactly appreciate the tone of his note, or the fact that he called me Sparkle Butt, I am really happy that he sent this to me," she paused a moment, "But this project will come second to the one you've already given me, Luna. Starswirl's Wing will be ready in no time!"
"Yes, and about Starswirl," Luna tried to begin, but the newly crowned Princess had already transported away, ever so eager to complete her tasks.
Spike loved only four things in the world; Twilight, sleeping, eating, and Rarity.
But sleeping and eating were his favorites at times. Like the times that when Twilight wanted him to stay up, but he couldn't, or when he tried to make a beautiful cake for Rarity but ate all the gems before he got to decorating it.
Ok, so maybe they didn't win out as his top favorites, but he liked to think so. Otherwise, he would assume that he did not have a choice when it cam to situations like these, and think he had a serious control issues. Which he probably does. But he denies this, and believes that it is his choice to ruin things when he's trying to do something for these two ponies he loves the most, and gets made at himself for it.
He'd often thought to himself, Which is better? Knowing you have an issue, or being angry at yourself?
He always went with being angry. When you are angry at yourself, it is easy to forget why you are angry, and then you cease being angry all together. It's the easy way out. But of course, little Spike didn't know that. He thought he was doing the right thing. If he was convinced he had issues, and needed help to get over his problems, he knew that Twilight would either take it upon herself to 'cure' him, or find him some weird therapist. Both would take valuable time out of her schedule, one that always seemed to be packed lately.
So he thought that maybe, when the new alicorn hype thing smoothed out, he might ask for help. It would be like breaking a habit he hoped, but his imagination made him fear the worst. He'd probably get sent to some science lab where they'd monitor him 24/7 and scare him and keep him away from Twilight. He didn't want to be away from Twilight. She was both his mom and big sister. He wouldn't leave her, not for anything.
It wasn't too long until Twilight popped in with her magic, and she found a sad baby dragon crying in his sleep. He loved to sleep. But he loved Twilight more, and so his dream had turned into a nightmare, one in where she'd left him at some creepy day care for foals. He kept shouting "I'm not a foal! I'm not a foal!" but no one would listen to him.
Twilight, not caring about the myth not to wake up a pony, or dragon, having a nightmare, laid down beside him and nudged him away.
"Spike, are you ok? It looked like you were having a bad dre-"
"TWILIGHT!" he yelled with glee, "I-I'd thought you'd left me..."
"Now Spike, why would I do that?" she chuckled soothingly as she stroked his scales, "I'm right here; I never left you. I was only gone for about a half an hour or so to talk to Princess Luna,"
"I.. I know..." he murmured, hugging the alicorn, "It's just that, in my dream.."
"Forget everything in your dream; it wont happen. I'll never leave you, silly. You're my little brother!"
"...LBBBF?"
"Haha, sure. And I'm your- um, let's not call me that. I'm your SBBF,"
"Why not B-"
"Because it kind of sounds like something I don't what you saying around other ponies," she tried to say. Spike was still a child, in dragon and pony years, and she knew that he probably knew what BS meant. She just didn't feel comfortable with having her little Spike calling her a name that started with those two letters. It could insinuate all kinds of things, like that she didn't really care for him at all!
"Oh," he simply answered. He knew not to press beyond that, as Twilight's reasons were usually silly, or long, or complicated... or something he just didn't understand yet. Either way, he was just happy that his Twilight was there for him. "Hey, you said that you were with Princess Luna? What were you doing so early in the morning?" he emphasized early by following the sentence with a yawn.
"She wanted to know if I wanted to work on a project for her," she smiled and stood up, "I'm going to lead a project that will open Starswirl the Bearded's Wing to the public!"
"Wow, that's pretty cool," he got up with a stretch, "That's like, a super big thing for you, right?"
"Yes!" she squealed, "Yes, yes it is! Starswirl is like, one of the coolest magicians to have ever lived!"
"And now you sound like Rainbow Dash," the purple dragon giggled, "Yeah, I know; you've told me a bajillion times before!"
"Spike, that isn't a number," she reminded him, "But yes, I suppose that I have told you something similar to that a tad too many times.." at that, they both burst out laughing. "But seriously, I'm super excited for this,"
"Of course, of course," he waved his claws in the air, "Ok, so what do you want for breakfast? Pancakes or oatmeal?"
"Hmmm, oatmeal sounds good actually. I'll get some fruit and orange juice out for us, alright?"
"Sure," he shrugged, and went off to go make the oatmeal. As Twilight gathered some apples to slice them, Spike would shoot her a few questions like, "Strawberry or mango?" or "How thick you want it?" She'd give him quick answers, and soon the breakfast was all ready.
"Oh! I almost forgot," she said after a drink of OJ, "I also received another project,"
"Two? From Luna?"
"No, actually, it's from Discord," she sighed, "Now before you say anything, it's actually pretty interesting,"
"Pfft, interesting alright," he snorted, "What is it?"
"Well, at first glance it appears to be a simple sunglasses case. But then, if you open it, well, look," as she'd been talking she'd gone over to her saddle bags to take out the artifact. She levitated it over to Spike and motioned for him to open it.
"Whoa," he said as he viewed the tiny ponies, "Hey, did you know they're all unicorns?"
"No, I didn't notice that," she answered, a new sense of curiosity settling in, "I wonder why.."
"Maybe they were only good at making unicorns?"
"Maybe, but not likely," she thought for a moment, "If I could only find out how old this is, that would help me so much!"
"Well, just make a list of reasons you think they'd all be unicorns,"
"That's not a bad idea, actually," a smile spread across her face, "That's a really good idea!" She shuffled around for some paper and a pen. "Ok, first: They were only good at making unicorns,"
"Or they just liked unicorns,"
"like unicorns," she wrote down his words, "Wait. Spike! That's it!"
"What?"
"Maybe they just liked unicorns!" she rushed about the room, searching for something, "Remember the story of Hearth's Warming Eve?"
"Uh, yeah.."
"Well, pony races really were separated into three tribes, and for a long time too. Maybe that's when this is from!"
"But wouldn't mean it's super old?" the dragon scratched his head with a single claw, "And wasn't the Age of Great separation like, super long?"
"Ah, so you do listen to what I tell you," Twilight teased, "And yes, five thousand two hundred and three years to be exact. But that narrows it down at least, in assuming that it's BRS,"
"It can't be that new, Twilight. It HAS to be BRS, or else Luna would have known what it was," Spike reasoned.
"You really do pay attention to your lessons,"
"Of course! I'm not stupid, you know," he grumbled.
"Sorry, it's just that most colts your age don't really care for topics like this. I'm just proud of you,"
"Oh. Um, thanks," he blushed.
"Ok, so it's a fact that it has to be BRS. That will have to be our given for the problem..."
"And our first guess is that it's from the Age of Great Separation," Spike added, "So you should research about that,"
"Yes, I'll do that," she agreed, "Thanks Spike, you've really helped,"
"No prob, Twilight," he beamed, and chugged the rest of his juice.
"Maybe I'll go down to the library and- oh wait! The library!" she facehooved, "I can't work on this full time until I get some work on the Starswirl Wing done. In fact, I need to get over there soon to meet the team that will be assisting me,"
"Oooo, can I come?"
"Sure! And if you want, you could do some research on artifacts from the Age of Great Separation while I work,"
"That actually doesn't sound too bad," he said sheepishly, "It sounds kinda..."
"Fun?"
"Yeah," he blushed.
"Ok then; let's go!"
And with that, spike grabbed his bag and put the artifact inside it, along with some writing materials, and left with an eager Twilight to the Royal Library of Canterlot.
Author's Note
Twilight's Prologue is essentially separate from this chapter because A) I wanted a little pre-look into Twilight's thoughts after EQG B) It's in a different perspective, one I am only good at for writing short, and (hopefully) meaningful things C) I wanted a prologue.
So, while there are technically "two chapters" out right now, they're basically the same. Sort of.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. BRS means Before Royal Sisters
