"Spike, I was just reading a book on foal-rearing and I realized, I never established object permanence with you!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed, standing over the baby dragon in his bed as he tried to focus on reading his comic book.
"Yeah but I'm fine, I know all about whatever it is you just said," he replied, not lifting his eyes from the latest Power Ponies issue.
"I must insist Spike," Twilight said, using her magic to levitate away his comic, "We have to play this…um, 'Peek-a-Boo,' so that you'll be able to know that something is behind something else!" He stared angrily at her, but arguing at this point would be fruitless.
Twilight began by putting her hooves in front of her face and asking, "Where am I," in a sing-song voice. "Here I am," she jubilantly cried, taking her hooves away. She repeated the action several times.
Spike merely stared at her and blinked dully, a sneer forming at the corners of his mouth. I grow increasingly impatient with this infatuation she has for infantilization, he alliterated to himself. It's one thing to keep treating me like a baby but now she's crossing the line, interrupting Spike Time!
"Hey, can you do me a favor and stop that for like, forever?" He quipped sarcastically. "How would you like it if I treated you like that, and acted like you didn't know something still existed just cuz something else moved in front of it?"
Twilight gasped, "Spike that's a great idea! I bet there's a spell around here somewhere that can do just that!"
"A what to do what now?"
"A spell to remove my sense of object permanence! Then, you can play 'Peek-a-Boo' with me and help me re-learn it! Oh, this is such a genius idea, thank you so much for inspiring me!" She grinned and manicly began scanning books and tossing them left and right, quickly littering the library with piles of books that Spike would have to re-shelve later.
He put his hand to his face and grumbled lowly, but there was no stopping her now. She was on a mission at this point, and he knew he couldn't dissuade her—no matter how many times he told her it was a dumb idea.
"Aha, here it is," she beamed with satisfaction, quickly reading and re-reading the spell to properly understand its casting. Setting the book down she started powering up her magic and mouthing the incantation.
"Uh, what am I even supposed to do once you've cast this on yourself," Spike began, "Twilight? Twilight!" Spike tried to get her attention, but luckily she remained undistracted and the spell completed successfully as the light from her horn filled the room.
Spike lowered his arm from his eyes and looked at Twilight. She merely stood there blinking, cautiously looking around the room. "Uh, Twilight, are you okay?" Spike asked, slowly approaching her.
"This feels…strange. Hmm, but I don't know that it went off properly. I need you to test me," she said, looking down at Spike.
"Just how am I supposed to do that exactly?"
"Easy," she smiled, "I explained before, just play 'Peek-a-Boo' with me the way we were doing before, and I should be able to determine rapidly whether the spell worked or not."
Spike hesitantly brought his claws up and held them parallel to his face. Slowly, sweat beading on his forehead, he brough them closer and closer together until finally his hands and arms completely covered his face. He cringed, expecting the worst.
Twilight looked around the room, her eyes wide with shock. "Spike? Spike! Spike, where'd you go, you were just here," she yelled, and as he took his hands away from his face she laughed, "There you are! Oh my, this spell really did work, I couldn't find you at all and you were right there in front of my face the whole time!"
Wow, how can she find this exciting? This is utterly beneath us both, he thought to himself, but brought his arms together to cover his face once again.
"Spike! Where'd you go?" She asked, and was rewarded when he brought his arms away from his face once again, revealing his deadpan expression. "There you are, ha ha!" She grinned and rushed over to her desk to start writing her observations.
But upon reaching her desk, she found pages, and no quill. The quill of course, was right in front of her, underneath the unfurled scroll. It would never occur to her now to simply look under that scroll and see the quill right there where she last put it. "Spike!" She yelled out, "Spike! Where's my quill?" Turning back to look at her dragon friend, he was gone.
He was still there, but now there was a comic book in front of his face, having resumed reading up on the Power Ponies and their latest adventure.
"SPIKE! WHERE ARE YOU?" Twilight yelled out, looking frantically all over the room.
Spike lowered the comic and stared at her, a chilling terror rising up from the pit of his stomach, its icy talons clutching at his heart. He was accustomed to having Twilight ask him to get her things that were right in front of her face, but now she was going to ask him to get her every little thing that was very literally right in front of her face. Oh Celestia, I've created a monster, he thought as he felt his very sanity begin to slip away. How am I ever going to get any reading done?!
"There you are, now please help me find my quill so I can write down this new experience," she said excitedly, and he hopped up to run over and pull the quill out from underneath the scroll. Then, he ran straight out of the library, ignoring her pleas for him to wait.
"Oh man, I gotta get some help. Where is everypony?" He looked around, the streets completely empty today where normally you would find quite the bustling community. He ran across Hayseed Turniptruck and briefly considered asking him for help, before rushing down to Sugarcube Corner.
"Pinkie!" He shouted as he burst through the door, politely closing it behind him afterwards.
"Ooh Spike, what's up buddy? Can I help you with anything?" Pinkie Pie bubbled happily.
"Pinkie, there's something seriously wrong with Twilight," he got out between ragged breaths.
"Oh no, what's wrong with her?" She asked, her face full of concern for her best friend.
"You'll—you'll see..." he trailed off, catching his breath before continuing. "Listen, you just gotta come over to the library and help me, and quickly," he pleaded.
"Sorry Spike, but I promised the Cakes that I'd look after the twins today, so I really can't leave on short notice, not even for a teeny tiny minute, not even to help Twilight even though I'd really like to. Sorry!" She smiled sadly at the short sidekick.
Suddenly, Spike was struck by a surprisingly scintillating solution. There's no reason that she can't watch Twilight along with the Cake twins now is there? The corners of his mouth turned up as he realized how absolutely brilliant he was for coming up with such a foal-proof plan.
"Pinkie, what I meant was that uh, you just need to see her," he started, smiling all the while, "I assure you once you watch her strange behavior, you'll know exactly what to do." With that, he ran out the door once more, leaving a slightly-more-confused-than-usual Pinkie standing at the counter.
Upon returning to the library, Spike could already hear Twilight yelling for him. Steeling himself, he strode through the door, and of course there was Twilight, still standing right at her desk. "Spike, where did you go?" She asked exasperatedly.
"I uh, had to go over to Sugarcube Corner, but I have a really fun surprise in store for you there!" Sorry Twilight, but I just can't deal with...whatever this is. I hope that when the spell wears off that you'll at least have learned something. But if I had to spend hours or days helping you re-learn object permanence, I'd... he shuddered at the thought, already picturing her yelling for him every time he broke his line of sight of her.
Together, the two set off for Sugarcube Corner, and the second they walked through that door Pinkie already knew she cast a spell that reverted her object permanence to that of a foal's. Pinkie sense.
And so, for the rest of the day, Pinkie Pie played 'Peek-a-Boo' with Pumpkin, Pound, and Twilight Sparkle, and by the end of the evening when she was putting the Cake twins to bed and the Cake parents were returning from their day trip, Twilight was feeling significantly more herself.
"Pinkie, you don't have to keep hiding yourself behind your hooves, I know you're there," Twilight said smugly, the spell effects finally wearing off. Then again, she still wasn't quite sure where that teddy bear went when Pinkie put it behind a pillow.
