Health Benefits

Twilight Sparkle was tired. This she wouldn't usually admit, but after an entire week of spending time in the hoity-toity Canterlot city, the newly-crowned Alicorn just wanted to fall onto her bed, hay, her couch, and drift off to sleep. As she approached the town square, she noticed a familiar building on the horizon.

This building, mind you, was more of a tree, but Twilight was too tired to correct her inner thoughts as she adjusted her saddlebags and continued to trot toward her destination. Rubbing her eyes with a hoof, the mare began to go through her evening routines, reflecting on the sunset that met her gaze as she stole a glance at the Unicorn mountain range to the west.

Giving a smile as the tree-house grew closer in the distance, she suddenly took notice of a multitude of lights emanating from inside, shining brightly throughout the mostly dark-covered town it resided in. Now giving a slight frown, the mare hmmed and began to trot a little faster. It was a few minutes before Spike's bedtime, but ever since a couple weeks back, he had begun to tuck himself in earlier, so as to allow himself to become less grouchy in the morning, as per Twilight's request.

Although he needed light to read his comic books, he would most definitely not be wasting candles and his own breath to illuminate the entire household. That wasn't like him. Quickening her pace, she arrived at the front door with a few droplets of sweat to show for her slight fatigue. Feeling for her magic, her eyes scanned the tree with a steely gaze as she searched for the key under the Welcome mat.

Finding it, she brought it out and levitated it front of her eyesight, sliding the keys around the ring that held them to search for the one that unlocked the front door. A few heartbeats, and some annoyance later, the mare clicked the key into place, turning it in the lock and opening the door without a hitch.

What met her eyes almost made her faint. The entire library was a mess, papers, books, and ink scattered everywhere, marring the carpet, the furniture, and, surprisingly, a large amount of the ceiling. Dropping her saddlebag to the floor, the mare succeeded in picking her jaw up from the ink-splattered carpet at her hooves. Stowing her frustration into the back of her mind as if she were procrastinating, Twilight shut her eyes and began to perform her "Non-Insanity Breath Exercises."

Slowly calming herself down, she opened her eyes again and looked around the library for what to clean up first. Though the ink may have been spilled hours ago, she thought that cleaning it up before it stained should be first. Shutting her eyes for the second time in concentration, she imagined her household devoid of ink, and slowly pushed that image into her horn's aura. Giving a low grunt, she felt her horn give off a magical essence, and as she opened her eyes, she smiled, seeing a completely ink-devoid library looking back at her.

Suddenly, realization kicked in. She facehoofed as she realized that she could have just cleaned up everything then and there, but made herself feel better by telling her conscience that cleaning the mess all up at once would have probably taken a little more out of her. Returning to her smile, she thought about waking her charge up to assist her, but quickly shooed it away, wanting him to rest instead of help her. Admittedly, he would have jumped at the chance to help her, but with his latest birthday, he needed to catch up on sleep.

Which reminded her what she was supposed to be doing right now herself, were it not for this darned mess. Believing it to be an unnoticed mistake of Spike's, she made a plan to talk to him in the morning about not sending letters to all of his friends at once. He had done that once before.

It wasn't pretty.

Preparing a basic levitation spell, the mare began to magick the various amounts of books and papers that lay scattered throughout the library, stacking them into piles to assort later. Extending her wings, she flapped up to the top of the bookshelves, enveloping the mess atop them in a violet aura as well and placing them on her coffee table.

Suddenly, without warning, she heard a tremendous crash resonate throughout the library, causing her to lose her concentration and drop the books she was currently levitating. As she did so, A Complete Guide To Wingboners found itself crash onto the hovering mare's head, sending her falling to the ground below.

The damage to her would have been devastating from that height, were it not for the large pile of books she had landed in. Unfortunately, it wasn't a pile of paperbacks. Sliding The Guinness Book Of Equestrian Records off her head with a swipe of her hoof, Twilight gave a deadpan look toward where the sound had come from.

Had Spike really been up and in the kitchen the entire time, and didn't even take a second to think about assisting her? Grumbling with a roll of her eyes, Twilight spread a walkway through her "rescuer's" contents, lightly stepping over and around them so as to not create dirty hoofmarks on their delicate covers.

Clearing her throat, she asked, "Spike, are you in here?"

Not hearing an answer, she proceeded into the kitchen, hearing the tell-tale sound of someone rummaging through her refrigerator like it was the last source of food in Equestria.

"Spike, what in the name of Celestia are you doing up?! And eating food, you know that you can't eat food after 7:00!" She barked, growing annoyed with his raccoon-like behavior. Sometimes, she honestly could not understand that dragon.

Finding the fridge, she noticed that the plastic white door was blocking her view of the drake, as well as the recently-added island in the middle of her kitchen. Giving a frustrated look that would make her Magic Kindergarten teachers frightful, she felt for the frying pan inside the sink that she presumed her charge had used today. Bringing it over to the island, she quickly banged it on the countertop, eliciting a surprised stutter from her late-night food-thief.

Wait. Stutter? Spike never stuttered, only when he was in serious trouble or around Rarity. And although him being up and eating at this time wasn't really accepted, she never considered it to be "serious trouble". Lightly placing the frying pan on the counter, she tilted her head and slowly walked around the island, approaching the refrigerator from the still-opened door's side.

Biting her lip in fear that she had accidentally hurt her assistant, she quickly stammered out, "S-S-Spike? Are you okay?"

As she neared the kitchen appliance with caution, she suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs when she noticed that the intruder wasn't her beloved charge, falling down onto her haunches in surprise. Shaking her head with vigor, she got to her hooves and shouted, "Rainbow Dash, what are you doing in my....in my..."

Rainbow Dash didn't look like her usual self. Her usual blue outline was replaced with a solid black, her magenta irises being replaced with a likewise void-less appearance. Peering out from behind the refrigerator door, she broke the silence with a voice that most definitely did not belong to her.

"O-oh, hey Twilight. I got really hungry, so I thought I'd come in through your window and find somethin' to snack on."

Twilight just stood there motionless, her eye twitching as she noticed the Rainbow Dash-shaped hole in her kitchen window.

"Do you have any sugar cubes? 'cuz I could really go for one right about now."