The Fall of Equestria

"Twilight have you seen my gems!?" Spike yells, frantically going through drawers and pulling books from their shelves.

"Spike! What are you doing!?" Twilight asks agitated.

"You don't understand Twilight, my Emeralds are ripe! And if I can't find them, then I can't eat them! And if I can't eat them then I won't be satisfied! And if I'm not satisfied then-" Twilight cuts Spike off by putting a hoof over his mouth and giggles. "What? What's so funny?"  Spike asks scratching his head with his claws.

"That's what all the fuss is about?" She asks using her magic to put the books back in their proper place, on the shelves. "Spike I told you yesterday that I put your emeralds in my lock box." She uses her magic again, this time a small wooden box comes from Twilight's room, she places it in Spike's claws. He eagerly opens it and to his delight lie three of the shiniest green emeralds you could ever lay eyes on, the gleam of the emeralds shining off of his own green eyes.

"Oh, hee hee. Thanks Twilight." Spike says embarrassed looking down at his feet.

"Oh Spike." Twilight giggles again.

Spike raises the box to his mouth ready to let the emeralds fall in, but the box floats over to Twilight leaving Spike's claws. "Um Twilight...I was just about to eat those." Twilight shakes her head.

"Not just yet Spike." She uses her magic to place it on her table in the center of the room. Twilight uses her magic again this time coming from her room was a rolled up piece of parchment, she lays it in Spike's claws. Spike unrolls it with a mildly angry grunt, written on the parchment is a grocery list.

"Well Spike I'll leave you to it then, see you when you come back."

"Yeah...see you." Spike grumbles walking out the door.

                                                                                           ***

Spike was in the market area in Ponyville, all around you could hear the taking of bargain prices and other conversations in the market. Spike weaved his way around the ponies determined to find the first item on the list so he could be one step closer to eating his emeralds.

"Ok first thing...um-" He scans the parchment in a bored fashion. "Carrots." He spits the word out like a bad piece of food. But he goes to the carrot stand anyway to his right, Carrot-top already awaiting her customer. The carrots are placed neatly in a perfect line on a wooden table covered with a long orange table cloth matching the color of the carrots. Spike picks one up bending it gently to make sure its just right. It doesn't bend much to his delight, so he takes a plastic bag from the stand and puts a few carrots in it.

"Just picked them yesterday, I've got to say best carrots I've grown yet." Carrot-top says beaming with pride.

"I don't doubt you, you always grow the best carrots Carrot-top!" Spike says smiling holding the carrots in his right claw.

She nods Spike's compliment confirming her pride. "OK Spike how many carrots do you have there?" She asks.

"Five carrots." Spike tells her.

"Alright. Then that comes out to be six bits." Carrot-top tells Spike her hoof stretched out to him awaiting for the gold coins to fall into her hoof. Spike keeps the bag in his right claw while unfolding the parchment further in his left claw knowing that Twilight always keeps the money in the last fold of the parchment, another weird quirk of hers. He counts six bits from the parchment and puts the money on Carrot-tops hoof. He starts to walk away until he hears Carrot-top shout.

"Have a good afternoon Spike!"

"You too!" Spike replies walking back into the cluster of ponies going to other stands. He reads the parchment again this time the list reads apples. Automatically Spike knows where to go to, again weaving around the ponies eventually finding the apple stand of course being run by Applejack.

"Hey Spike!" Applejack calls happily over to Spike motioning with her hoof for him to come closer. He goes up to Applejack.

"Hey AJ! Boy these apples sure look good." Spike tells Applejack licking his lips at the apples.

"Well of course they are Spike, these are high quality Sweet Apple Acres apples." She shows the apples behind her motioning with her orange hoof.

"Then I'll take two golden delicious and three granny smiths." Spike tells her.

"Alrighty then we got those comin' right up!" Applejack tells Spike, turning behind her and grabbing the apples putting them in a small tan sack.

"Say AJ heard any cool stories lately?" Spike asks eager for a good story to ease his boredom.

Applejack doesn't respond at first instead only putting the sack in Spikes right claw already holding his carrots, looking at him blankly.

"Um Applejack are you alright?" Spike asks. Applejack shakes her head getting her back into reality and looks down at Spike.

"Yeah...yeah A'm fine but Spike you mind keepin' a secret Spike?" She asks. Spike looks up at her, at first confused why was she acting so weird, after he asked a simple question? But Spike of course curious makes a motion of zipping his lips shut. Applejack looks around almost paranoid and breathes in.

"Look Spike Twilight recently got a letter from Celestia-" Celestia? Why didn't the letter go through him first? "And apparently my cousins down in Appleoosa have been stirrin' up trouble down there, callin' Celestia a tyrant and we don't know why. And the letter was only directed toward me, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity." What about Rainbow Dash? Spike wonders putting a claw to his chin. "That's all I can say Spike, and you can't tell anypony what I just told you."

"But...but what about Twilight?" Spike asks.

"No especially not Twilight Spike."

"But-"

"No Spike."

"O...OK." Spike mutters.

"Spike just head on home, and take the apples free of charge." She smiles at Spike.

"Thanks AJ." Spike says a bit pathetically.

"No problem partner." Applejack tells Spike.

Spike walks solemnly back into the crowd of ponies. Why didn't Celestia want Spike...or Rainbow Dash to now about this? Why could she trust everypony else but him or Rainbow? The thoughts spin like a tornado in Spike making him nauseous. But he pushes the thoughts away instead looking at the next thing on the parchment.