In Spike We Trust

In Spike We Trust

• Cornflak

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“Halt, citizen! State your business.” the guard at the front gate looks straight ahead and doesn’t even give me a glance.

“Um, it’s me...Spike? Celestia wants to see me.” I prepare for the worst and get ready to make a run for the train. The guard finally looks down and sees that I’m telling the truth.

“Right. Sorry about that, sir. Just precaution during this time.” and he nods his head as a way of telling the other guards to open the gate.

The castle hallways seem like a prison. I guess I don’t feel welcome here after what I did. At any moment, that royal guard is gonna call me from behind and come rushing at me. Celestia’s probably setting up a trap for me. Am I really that much of a threat to Equestria? Am I just as bad as Discord? All I want is Rarity to like me. Discord doesn’t want anypony to like him.

Yeah, that makes me feel better. I’m nothing like the spirit of chaos. I’m just the only one around here that can do what it takes to get what I want.

“Is that it?” I hear the mouse squeak once we get to a large pair of blood-red doors.

“Yeah. Just keep your mouth shut.” I say as I move to knock on the wood, but the door swings open and smashes my snout. I stumble back and grab my nose with both claws to try and stop the throbbing pain somehow. I look up to see the idiot who rushed out of the room, and it’s the princess.

“Oh, Spike. My apologies, I didn’t see you down there. Are you alright?” her motherly nature makes everything alright in a split-second. I almost forget why I was even afraid of coming to meet with her.

“Celestia! Princess Celestia! Remember me!?” and then Featherweight reminds me.

“Hm. Ah, of course. You were quite the photographer at my party, weren’t you?” she smiles and steps aside, “Please, come in. We were just discussing the current matters at hand.”

Featherweight and I follow the princess into her throne room, but it’s not even close to what I expected. It looks like they added a huge round table in the middle of the hall. There’s a bunch of important looking ponies seated around the table. There’s probably at least twenty of them, chatting and leaning across the table to point hooves at each other. Their voices keep echoing in a big place like this, but it starts to die down a little when they see Celestia returning. That’s when I hear music coming from an old phonograph in the corner. There’s just the sound of a piano. I guess they use it to try and stay calm.

“Everypony, I’m sure you all know Spike.” the princess lays a soft hoof on my shoulder and looks down at me. I give a nervous smile and wave at all of the ponies that are staring at me. They don’t say anything, and then they turn back to what they were doing before I walked in.

“Those guys are mean.” Featherweight squeaks from behind us. I can feel the fire welling up in my throat and I almost turn around to unleash it all on the little pipsqueak. But then Celestia just laughs.

“Don’t mind them. They’re just awfully grumpy about this mess we’re in.” she guides us to the table and sits in the biggest chair available. On her left is Princess Luna. On her right are two empty chairs, “Here, I’ve saved a spot for both of you.”

I wanna ask her how she knew that Featherweight would be coming with me, but I decide to save that for later. I take my seat at the round table and so does the little photographer. Luckily, I haven’t seen him touch his camera so far. This would be the worst time to start snapping photos.

“Construct new Elements!? Implausible!”

I don’t recognize a lot of the ponies here.

“Throw aside this constant inquiry at once!”

But they’re quick to speak.

“How does one...create new Elements of Harmony?”

All of us look back and forth like we’re watching a tennis match.

“You don’t!”

“Celestia, what do you think?”

The princess sighs and shifts her weight.

“In my lifetime, I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of such a procedure. But why don’t we let our science division look into it? It may be possible.”

The whole room erupts in confusion.

“Now, now!” Princess Luna uses her loud voice to make everyone be quiet, “If my sister sees an opportunity, let’s not squander our time with petty bickering!”

“Why are we trying to make new Elements!?” says a grumpy mare, “If we do that, then somepony will surely steal those as well!”

“She’s right! We need to focus on identifying the traitor in our midst!”

“We can all assume that the crime at hand was committed during the festivities.”

“No doubt.”

“Mhm.”

“Yes, I suppose.”

“List the names again.”

“Once again, these names represent the ones that were allegedly not present for the wishing of Princess Celestia’s birthday; more specifically, nearing the end of the party in which we all sang to the princess.”

The stallion catches his breath and keeps reading from a piece of paper on the table.

“Queen Chrysalis and Discord, of course. Prince Blueblood, Rarity, Soarin, Spike, Spitfire, Big Macintosh, other various members of the Apple Family, Mayor Mare, Princess Cadence, Prince Shining Armor, Cheerilee, Fancy Pants...”

He keeps going on and on until my eyelids start to feel heavy. I can’t fall asleep right now. It would look really bad.

“This all seems very silly.” I recognize that pony. It’s Princess Cadence, “You can’t expect everypony in Equestria to be at a birthday party.”

She must’ve been asked to come here from the Crystal Empire. Next to her is Shining Armor. I didn’t realize so many royal ponies were getting mixed up in this.

“Well, what do you suggest the course of action should be?” says a random pony.

Shining Armor stands up, “First, we should double the security on the castle grounds. This never would have happened if we had more guards on watch.”

“Yes.”

“Indeed.”

“Very true.”

Shining Armor looks to his wife and says, “You’ll need to go back and tend to things at home.”

“You mean...” Cadence starts to speak softly, “...the Crystal Heart?”

“I’m afraid so.” and then he looks to Princess Celestia, “Could we use the royal chariot for this occasion?”

“Just a second, Prince.” a very old stallion tries to stand on all fours, “Why are you sending Mrs. Cadence away so quickly? Hmm?”

“I agree.” another one chimes in, “Maybe you would like to tell us something?”

“I just told you.” Shining Armor is already looking pretty pissed, “Princess Cadence needs to return home and protect the Crystal Heart. Have any of you stopped to think that this whole thing might be bigger than all of us?”

The whole room shuts up after that. The only sound is the piano in the corner.

“Shining Armor.” Princess Luna rises, “Do you truly believe that the culprit could be planning an attack on a large scale?”

“I don’t know. I just believe that we should be ready for anything.” he looks over at Cadence and tries to force a smile.

Finally, Celestia stands up too and says, “Everypony. While I appreciate all of your efforts, I think that will be all for today.”

There’s another uproar of protest. All of the ponies start slinging spit while they scream and shout at the princess. A lot of the things they’re saying sound like this:

“You can’t be serious!?”

“You’re not taking this seriously!”

“I missed my lunch to come here!”

“Do you not see the treason under your nose!?”

“We will surely burn for this!”

I start to wonder if Featherweight should be hearing all of this. A lot of heavy words are being thrown around. Even Luna can’t silence everypony with her voice. But eventually, one of the grumpy ponies leaves the room, and even more pissy ponies follow him out the door until it’s just me, Featherweight, and all of the royal ponies. At this point, we’re all standing away from the round table and just trying to recover from the scene.

“I’m sorry, sister.” Luna looks down, “I wish they had been more understanding.”

“Ponies will be ponies, little sister.” Celestia just smiles and shrugs it off.

“But...they could have chosen more suitable words to express their...distaste.”

“Really, it’s fine.” Celestia laughs this time, “You know as well as I do that there will always be somepony who refuses to compromise.”

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Princess Cadence speaks up this time.

“Now, don’t worry about me. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before. But your spouse was right today. You’re needed at the Crystal Empire.”

Cadence smiles and looks to Shining Armor, “Yes, you’re right. He always has a plan.”

The two share a moment of silence...

...but then the stallion cuts it short, “Should I leave by her side?”

Princess Celestia’s expression darkens a little, “Not just yet. You were also right about the guards. I’ll need you to evaluate the castle’s state of security, especially during parties.” she says that last bit with a smirk.

“Yes, ma’am.” Shining Armor says this before bowing his head. After that, all of the royal ponies leave except Celestia.

“Spike, I’m sorry you had to see that. I thought we would be finished before you arrived.”

“Oh, it’s cool.” I wave a claw at her, “But who were they? I’ve never seen em’ before.”

She starts walking towards her throne, “Colleagues and associates. They like to believe that they have some power over Equestria. Truthfully, I like to see them tussle. Don’t you?” the princess laughs and sits at her throne.

“Heh, yeah.” I don’t know what else to say.

“Mr. Featherweight?” she calls down.

The little guy scrambles around to stand up straight and throw his hoof to his forehead in a salute. Celestia covers her mouth with a hoof and giggles.

“At ease, young sir.” she humors him with a grin and continues, “Now, Featherweight, I’m afraid I need to speak with Spike in private.”

“Oh, cool!” he jumps and does a flip with the help of his tiny wings, “Is this like some kind of top secret mission?”

“Hm. Yes, you might say that.” she tilts her head a little.

Featherweight just floats there, gawking at the princess like he’s waiting for more info.

“That means get outta here!” I say a bit louder than I mean to while I point at the doors. His head drops to the floor and he slowly flutters out of the room. I’m surprised that he remembers to shut the door behind him.

Celestia breaks the silence by chuckling.

“Spike, try not to be so hard on him.”

I try not to roll my eyes, “Yes, ma’am.”

"He really enjoys your company. You know that, do you not?"

I sigh, "...yeah."

The princess clears her throat and her voice becomes more stern, “So, what do you think about today’s hot topic?”

I have to shrug.

“I dunno. I mean, it seems really bad and all, but I don’t have any ideas or anything.”

There’s an awkward silence after that. Celestia’s just smiling and watching me. I can feel my face turning red.

“Spike, I never thought that you would take the Elements of Harmony.”

I bite my tongue. She says it like she's impressed.

She laughs again, “It’s alright. I know you must have a valid reason for such a brave act. I would like to know what inspired you.”

Time stops for a second.

Is this when I finally spill the beans?

Can I really make this right by telling her everything?

Can she help me?

I don’t know for sure, but I have to try. I take in a deep breath and then I let it out quietly. I take one step towards the princess, and then I loosen my jaw.

“Celestia...it’s all because of Discord-”

CRASH!

FLASH!

I can’t see anything.

I can’t hear anything. Okay, wait...I hear a ringing noise. I think maybe I heard glass shattering. I have to blink a few times. Something knocked me back. It was flying. It had wings. I heard his voice. No, wait. Scratch that. More than one voice. I can taste blood.

I open my eyes.

I see Featherweight standing over me.

I guess I must be on my back.

“Mr. Spike!”

I think that’s the little guy talking...

...I can’t tell.

It’s really fuzzy.

“Mr. Spike, are you ok!?”

I sit up and push Featherweight away so I can see what’s going on.

I wish I hadn’t.

She’s right over there.

Her wings are broken.

She’s not moving.

Her eyes are open.

Her mangled legs aren’t even twitching.

Her chest isn’t heaving.

Her crown is gone.

There’s a trail of dark red that leads to the broken windows.

I can feel the autumn air blowing in.

And it smells nice.

“Hey!!”

I look to my left and see two royal guards standing at the open doors.

“What did you-?”

They can’t even find the words.

Their eyes say everything.

They say murder.

They say prison.

Life sentence.

Death penalty.

Execution.