A Spike in the Side

A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fan Fiction

By Anthony Bova

Twilight Sparkle ran around her library, sorting through her alphabetical bookshelf hastily. The library was tidy as usual, with everything in her tree-style home looking astoundingly clean.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" panicked Twilight, running from one end of the room to the other. She continued to do this several times, galloping as fast as she could and suddenly coming to a stop, staring at the stairs where she heard approaching footsteps.

Down came a purple baby dragon with scales and pajamas on, rubbing his eyes and looking irritated and tired.

"Twilight, why are you up so late?" the tired pet dragon asked.

"Do you know what tomorrow is, Spike?" Twilight Sparkle asked sharply as she used her unicorn magic that she discovered as a filly to grab a ladder and bring it over to her to climb on.

"Um... Monday?" Spike asked, standing and watching his unicorn friend search a shelf, rushing and scurrying about multiple books.

"It's not just Monday! Tomorrow is Winter Wrap-Up!"

"So?" Spike asked, stopping Twilight in her tracks. Before Spike knew it, Twilight had jumped down to the ground and ran up close up to him.

"So? It's a disaster! Everypony in Ponyville is going to hate me!"

"Oh come on, Twilight, don't you think you're over reacting just a bit?"

"A bit?" Twilight started, closely making Spike back up as she moves closer to him. "A bit? Winter Wrap-Up is ruined because of me! I lost the schedule that will help us finish Winter Wrap-Up on time!" At this point, Spike was against the wall. He slowly moved down and around his friend and popped up to the side of Twilight.

"It's not that big of a deal..." Spike said, looking around the room in a curious manner.

"Yes, it is!" Twilight walked towards the center of her house and looked out the window that is above her door. "Mayor Mare made me the official All-Team organizer last year and if I can't find my schedule, all of Ponyville will hate me!" Twilight explained as her dragon friend ran towards a small spot in the room.

"Twilight!" Spike shouted, jumping up and down. Twilight Sparkle immediately turned around and happily looked towards Spike, hoping he found the schedule.

"Did you find it?" Twilight asked with newfound hope as soon as she finished turning around. Coming to her senses after but a moment, her smile quickly swapped into a frown and her eyes giving a dissatisfied look as she looked at Spike carrying a large container of ice cream. "Spike..."

"What?" Spike said, dipping his spoon into the ice cream and taking a spoon full in. Twilight only gave him a blank stare. "Oh, stop worrying. It's just one year and they've done it without you before."

"But they've always been late until I came to Ponyville last year!" Twilight defended herself. Spike put his arm around his friend and put an ice cream covered spoon in front of her face.

"Just relax and have some ice cream. I can see myself doing this for the entire night!" Spike suggested, waving it casually in front of her face. Suddenly, Twilight's face snapped to a great big smile.

"Spike! You're a genius!" Twilight cheered, quickly turning towards Spike. She jolted away, somewhat pushing Spike and making his spoon of ice cream fling into the air.

"I am? I mean, of course I am!" the baby dragon agreed before getting hit on the head with the spoon. Twilight quickly used her magical horn to grab a book from a nearby bookshelf and placed it on a book stand. Quickly flipping through the pages, she concentrated, looking for a specific spell. Unable to find it in the book she was looking in, she tossed the book aside.

“No…” she said, grabbing another book from the shelf. The more pages she flipped through in this book, the more she wanted to just scream that she would be late. Spike ran around behind her, also trying to grab random books to pile next to Twilight for her to look through. Spike had always been her assistant ever since she was accepted to Canterlot’s School for Gifted Unicorns as a filly. That day she learned how powerful her magic was thanks to all of her studying and hatched an egg like the professors wanted her to do. Inside was the baby dragon Spike, and ever since then their bond has grown into more of a brother-sister relationship, although Spike is still expected to help Twilight around with her studies.

Sifting through book after book and placing the books she already looked through in a neat and organized pile on the other side of her, she became more and more frustrated. Spike, having placed enough books to keep Twilight busy for a while, slyly ran out the door to go outside. When he left, he noticed the sun was rising.

“Twilight spent the entire night looking for that stupid schedule…” Spike muttered to himself, walking away from the house and noticing several Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns walking towards the direction of the Town Hall. Suddenly, Spike realized just how many ponies were counting on Twilight to help them. His eyes grew wide as the thought crossed his mind. “I can’t let Twilight take the blame for this!” Spike said, running towards the Town Hall.

Ponies everywhere were crowding around in front of the Town Hall, and Spike was trying to push his way through the crowd, saying, “Excuse me!” and “Coming through!” every few moments but knowing nopony could hear him. The ceremony was starting to take place.

“Fillies and gentlecolts!” a voice was heard over the crowd. “Today is the start of Winter Wrap-Up, a Ponyville tradition among its citizens! It brings me great pleasure to see all of you here for this moment and I am proud to be your Mayor!” It was then that Spike realized who was talking. That made him try and push his way through the crowd even harder, knowing he didn’t have much time left. “With me today is the All-Team Organizer who will help us finish wrapping up Winter on time! Please welcome, everypony, Twilight Sparkle!” the Mayor declared as the curtains opened, and the spot where Twilight would have been standing on the stage left bare. The crowd was surprised not to see anypony there, and nopony was more surprised to see that blank spot than the Mayor herself.

“Mayor Mare!” Spike said, finally breaking through the crowd and falling down in the front row of ponies.

“Spike? What is going on? Where’s Twilight?” Mayor Mare questioned, starting to feel a great deal of stress coming on. Running up to Spike were five other ponies. In order, there was Applejack, the Plant Team Captain. Rainbow Dash, the Weather Team Captain. Pinkie Pie, part of the Weather Team. Rarity, part of the Animal Team. Last was Fluttershy, also part of the Animal Team. Those five were Twilight Sparkle’s greatest friends that had been there for her the longest ever since her first day in Ponyville.

“Where’s Twi? Is she alright?” Applejack asked as Rainbow Dash picked Spike up off the ground.

“She can’t find her schedule for Winter Wrap-Up! She won’t come out of her house until she finds it!” Spike explained, dusting himself off.

“Well, we can’t just leave her there!” Rarity said, keeping her prim and proper attitude.

“And we can’t just delay Winter Wrap-Up either!” Applejack replied, knowing she can’t forsake her duties.

“Alright, listen up!” Rainbow Dash said, trying to gain some authority. She stood with her hooves planted firmly on the ground. “Applejack and I are team captains. We have to stay and try and get things going! The rest of you go get Twilight!” she explained with full attention being on her. Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all nodded and started to gallop off. Behind them, they could hear Mayor Mare getting ready to introduce the team captains. They all knew that if they hurried, there may still be enough time before Winter Wrap-Up begins. Galloping along, they ran in the direction of Twilight’s tree-shaped house, worried for their unicorn friend.

Coming along the tree house, Rarity walked up elegantly to the door.

“Twilight, dear? Are you there?” Rarity asked, knocking gently. There was no answer at the door. Fluttershy walked up next to Rarity and shyly knocked as Rarity moved over to the side.

“Um, Twilight, can we come inside? I mean, if that’s okay with you.” Fluttershy said softly. There was still no answer.

“Twilight!” came a yell from behind. Fluttershy and Rarity didn’t have long to look behind them to check who was yelling before Pinkie Pie crashed into the two and pushed the door open. As they tumbled and rolled, eventually they all came to a halt on the wooden floor of Twilight Sparkle’s home. As they looked up, their jaws dropped. There was a very small amount of books left on the shelves of Twilight’s library. Books were laying around the room, no longer in a near or organized pile. Piles of books were scattered around the floors, and Twilight was nowhere to be found.

“Twilight? Where are you?” Pinkie Pie asked, looking around quickly. “Oh no! The bookie monster ate Twilight!” she over-reacted.

“B-b-b-bookie monster?” Fluttershy asked, shaking and cowering.

“Oh Pinkie, don’t be absurd. There’s no such thing as a ‘bookie monster’… is there?” Rarity doubted herself, looking around for Twilight. As each now had finally convinced themselves of some imaginary creation that Pinkie Pie most likely just created off the top of her head, there was a shuffle in one of the big piles of books. All three of the ponies screamed and jumped into the air.

“BOOKIE MONSTER!” Pinkie Pie yelled, fleeing into a corner with the other two. Fluttershy had her eyes closed and all three of them were shaking nervously. Finally, out of the books poked out a horn, and then the shuffling books fell as a purple unicorn poked her head out of the pile. She looked exhausted and stared in a daze at the three cowering ponies.

“Ugh… girls?” the voice asked, rubbing her head.

“Twilight!” Pinkie Pie gasped, running towards Twilight and hugging her. “How did you get away from the bookie monster?” she asked.

“Bookie monster? There is no bookie monster, Pinkie…” Twilight Sparkle responded, being choked by her friend’s death hug.

“There isn’t?” Pinkie Pie asked, letting Twilight go. Rarity walked up to Twilight, smiling at her friend.

“You had us all frightened sick, dear Twilight!” she said, relieved that Pinkie Pie was not correct on her assumption. “What are you doing, anyway? This place is simply a disaster!”

“I’ve been trying to find this spell to help me locate my schedule!” Twilight Sparkle explained. The gang stared at the corner where Fluttershy was, still shaking and eyes closed. “Uh, Fluttershy?” Twilight said, trying to get Fluttershy’s attention.

“Don’t eat me Mr. Bookie Monster! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!” Fluttershy jumped scared, and flapped her pegasus wings towards the door. Finally, Spike poked his head in the door. He had a concerned look on his face.

“Uh, guys?” Spike said before getting attacked by Fluttershy, who was flying with her eyes closed towards the door. Spike and Fluttershy fell to the ground, and Fluttershy looked unharmed. Spike sat up, dizzy and confused as to what just happened.

“Oh, Spike, I am so very sorry…” Fluttershy said, helping Spike up. Twilight and Rarity walked out of the house to Fluttershy and Spike. When Fluttershy saw Twilight, she became excited.

“Oh, Twilight, I was so afraid that you had been eaten!” Fluttershy said, hugging Twilight. Twilight’s expression turned blank.

“That was just Pinkie… well, being Pinkie.” Twilight explained. Spike stood up, trying to get everypony else’s attention.

“Guys?” Spike said, nopony listening to him.

“Why is your house a mess, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, still being soft as always.

“As I said, I’m looking for a certain book to find my schedule for Winter Wrap-Up.” Twilight explained. “I guess I must have fallen asleep.” she finished.

“Twilight!” Spike said once silence hit, taking the opportunity.

“What is it, Spike?” Twilight asked sincerely, now taking note of her impatient assistant.

“You’re late!” Spike explained. At that moment, the other ponies looked around, noticing pegasi in the sky clearing clouds, earth ponies plowing the field, and unicorns waking up animals. Twilight’s mouth dropped open and her expression was that of disappointment.

“L- late? I’m late?” Twilight asked, hanging her head low. “I’m late!” she hung her head low. “I let everypony down…”

“Twilight dear, it’s not too late. What spell were you looking for?” Rarity asked, putting a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.

“It’s a spell called ‘Forget-Me-Not’ and it helps you to look back on the recent past.” Twilight explained, still seeming upset.

“Found it!” Pinkie Pie yelled from inside the house. Twilight looked at Pinkie, who was in a random mound of books in the center of Twilight’s library. She was holding a book in her hooves, smiling happily. Twilight Sparkle ran over to Pinkie, stepping over multiple books on her way. Grabbing the book, Twilight looked at the page and saw the title of the page that said “Forget-Me-Not” in big bold letters on the top of the page.

“Pinkie? How did you find it?” Twilight asked, surprised and amazed at the same time.

“I just followed my Pinkie Sense!” Pinkie Pie explained. Twilight didn’t bother to question anything from there, as she typically doesn’t understand when Pinkie tries to explain her senses. Looking at the page on the book, she concentrated hard to read what the spell was. The more she read, the happier she became.

Spike walked up next to Twilight and read over her shoulder, "Forget-Me-Not, a spell that allows the caster to see into the past 24 hours..." Spike read out loud. Twilight read the page quickly and ran back to the center of her library, trying not to ruin any of the books she had to ran over. She closed her eyes and concentrated until her horn began to glow. The entire room flashed with a white light for a moment and when it finally dulled down, there was a cloud that appeared above Twilight's head.

In the cloud was Twilight setting down the clipboard with the schedule on it on the table in her library. As she walked away from the table, a sleepy Spike walked down the stairs walking lifeless and lumbering up to the table. His eyes appeared closed as he grabbed the clipboard and walked back upstairs and into the bedroom. At this point, Twilight ended the backflash and looked at Spike angrily.

"Spike...." she started, seemingly agitated and looking straight into a now worried baby dragon's eyes.

"Wait, I don't remember that at all!" Spike defended, backing up voluntarily now.

"Oh, really? Then let's just go upstairs and see exactly what happened." Twilight suggested, walking towards the stairs. As she walked up, Spike began to run towards her to follow her with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie following close behind. Twilight looked around the upper level of her house, where she noticed her bed, Spike’s pet-sized bed, and Twilight’s giant telescope that protruded out the window. Scouring the level of the house, Twilight looked under Spike’s bed to show a book, a couple of scrolls, and a clipboard. When Twilight saw the clipboard, she looked at Spike with a sharp, angry glare.

"Heh. Sorry, Twilight, I guess I was sleep walking." Spike apologized.

"Sleep walking? I'd say it's more like 'sleep stealing' to me!" Twilight said, grabbing her clipboard. “You need to get these scrolls to Princess Celestia and return the book from where you got it as soon as possible!”

“Alright, alright…” Spike surrendered, grabbing the scrolls and book. Twilight let out a smile as she watched her dragon companion walk down the stairs. Happy with her checklist, Twilight looked at her friends.

“Girls, we need to get back to Mayor Mare!” she said, feeling slightly accomplished and a lot relieved.

“Right!” the three said in unison, nodding their heads. Galloping down the stairs, the group ran passed Spike, who was cleaning up the mess of books. Twilight stopped before she left the house, turning around to look at spike.

“Spike?” Twilight asked, smiling.

“Yeah, Twilight?”

“Thanks.” she beamed and followed her friends to the city hall. On their way, they passed by ponies still plowing the snow and pegasi still kicking the clouds. Amethyst Star, the captain of the Animal Team, passed by the group with bunnies on her back. Running past the bunnies scared them into running away from Amethyst Star, causing Fluttershy to break off from the group to go help her animal friends.

“Come back, little bunnies!” Fluttershy yelled to them as she followed their path.

Continuing towards the Town Hall, Pinkie Pie caught view of some of the ice-skating Earth ponies falling down trying to break the ice. Feeling determined, Pinkie also broke from the group, hopping towards the frozen lake. Finally, as the gang passed by a picnic table, Rarity noticed some other ponies having difficulties making nests for the birds. Appalled by their poor construction, Rarity ran off towards the picnic table to supervise and lead the group in forming proper nests.

Now it was only Twilight, who was quickly approaching the Town Hall. She jumped up on the stage and up to Mayor Mare, who was still standing on the stage, watching the other ponies as much as she could while still feeling stressed out.

“Mayor Mare!” Twilight called out, running out of breath.

“Twilight Sparkle!” Mayor Mare replied, feeling hopeful once more. Twilight kept the schedule levitating using her magic, and showed the Mayor.

“I’m so sorry I’m late. I couldn’t find my schedule.”

“That’s not important anymore. Go out there and make sure we wrap up Winter on time!” Mayor Mare said, pointing in the direction of Rainbow Dash, who was floating nearby, telling a small group of pegasi where to go to clear the clouds. Going up to the floating pegasus, Rainbow Dash turned her attention to Twilight.

“Where have you been?” Rainbow Dash said, folding her two front hooves.

“Don’t worry. I’m here now!” Twilight said, trying to avoid having to explain the entire situation all over again. “How are the clouds coming along?”

“Well if somepony would hurry up and get their flank in gear, we might be on schedule!” Rainbow Dash’s stare bolted in the direction of Thunder Lane, a lazy pegasus who was moving at a slow pace.

“What seems to be the problem?”

“Thunder Lane! He keeps complaining about it being too cold!”

“Maybe I can help...” Twilight said, calling Thunder Lane down. It took him a moment, but soon he landed on the ground, shivering with chattering teeth.

“What is it, Twilight?” Thunder Lane questioned. Twilight used her magic to grab a warm vest from the nearby bin and put it on Thunder Lane. It took him but a second before he stopped shaking. “Thanks Twilight!” he said, bolting off to the clouds, moving at an efficient speed.

“It’s about time Thunder Lane got moving.” Rainbow Dash said, feeling pumped up by watching her fellow pegasi clearing the clouds from the sky. “Now let’s do this!” she yelled, bolting into the sky with her legendary speed. Twilight smiled, walking on top of a small hill that overlooked the ice lake that Pinkie Pie was at. Pinkie was skating, a great big smile on her face. The other ponies she was with followed her lead, and it didn’t take too long for the frozen lake to break apart. Twilight checked off “Weather Team” on her schedule, happily trotting along to Rarity at the picnic table.

“No! You’re getting it all wrong!” Rarity said, looking at one of the other ponies at the table who were fiddling nervously at what seemed to be a bunch of twigs in a pile. “Here, let me show you.” she said as she mended the pile of sticks into a beautiful looking nest for the birds.

“Rarity, how are the nests coming along?” Twilight asked, walking up to Rarity. Rarity turned her attention slightly away from the nest, slightly tilting her head to talk to Twilight and focus on the birds nest at once.

“Splendid! I admit at first it was a disaster but now…” Rarity started, lifting up a completed nest. “Now they’re just adorable!” she gloated.

“They look great, Rarity! Keep it up.” Twilight said, making marks on her schedule and running along to go find the Animal Team. It didn’t take Twilight too long to see Fluttershy walking back into town with bunnies and all sorts of little creatures following her towards the food dishes that were prepared for them.

“Oh, hi Twilight.” Fluttershy said, grinning and looking at her animal friends.

“It looks like you have everything under control, Fluttershy.” Twilight observed, looking at the small squirrels popping out of her mane.

“Oh yes, it really wasn’t hard at all.” Twilight smiled at Fluttershy as she checked off the Animal Team on her checklist. Fluttershy walked away, eager to get the hungry furry creatures to their food dishes.

Continuing on her journey over to the Plant Team, Twilight was hit by a random snowball followed by giggling nearby. Looking around, Twilight noticed three little fillies running around in red capes, chuckling snowballs at each other and playing in the snow. Twilight, now taking her attention off of the fillies at play, noticed the sun starting to go down. Winter Wrap-Up was almost over and Twilight’s eyes widened, now knowing their time was almost up. She galloped quickly towards the fields of snow and noticed that the fields were still partially covered in snow. She looked around the fields quickly, bolting her eyes back and forth across the land until she focused in on tractors that were moving slowly and the plant team still planting seeds every chance they got as they followed slowly behind the tractors at a safe distance.

Applejack was trying to coordinate everypony to get the job done, shouting to the seed planters as she planted more herself. Twilight could see that Applejack had noticed the sun as well as she told the tractor-pullers to pick up the pace. Twilight had faith in her friend as she smiled and checked off “Plant Team” on her schedule.

“That’s all of them.” Twilight said to herself as she walked back towards the Town Hall. As she made her way to the town hall, passing by all of the different team members who were doing the final touches on their jobs, Twilight saw Spike standing by Mayor Mare at the stand, both watching the sun go down.

“So? Did we make it?” Spike asked, looking eagerly at the Mayor. The Mayor didn’t respond at first, her attention still focused on the sun until Twilight ran up to her. Hearing the steps of the All-Team Organizer, Mayor Mare turned around without a moment’s hesitation.

“Twilight! Have the teams checked in?” the Mayor asked.

“All teams look like they’ll finish on time.” Twilight reported, looking back at her schedule. “The Plant Team looks like they’ve fallen behind a bit, but they still should finish on time.”

“Excellent!” Mayor Mare said, pointing up at the sky. Spike and Twilight looked up to see not a single cloud remaining in the sky. Pegasus ponies were all beginning to come back down to the ground, and ponies everywhere were starting to gather back up at the town hall. Looking over at the approaching crowd, Twilight saw friendly faces at every turn. Applejack, who was sweating, had a smile on her face. A face of satisfaction. It was that look that made Twilight know that they finished on time.

“Gather around, fillies and gentlecolts!” Mayor Mare said, gathering the attention of the approaching crowd. Spike grabbed the schedule from Twilight to give her magic a rest and looked it over multiple times, nodding his head every time. “Winter Wrap-Up has come to an end.”

“How’d we do?” Applejack called from the crowd of unicorns, pegasi, and Earth ponies. The crowd waiting in anticipation for the answer from the Mayor.

“Thanks to the timely arrival of our All-Team Organizer, Twilight Sparkle, I declare that Winter Wrap-Up has been completed…” Mayor Mare started, giving a dramatic break in finishing her sentence. “…on time!” she finished, concentrating on the reaction everypony had when she delivered the news. A huge cheer was let out from the crowd, and Twilight’s friends rushed to her side to congratulate her.

“Yah did it Twi!” Applejack said with a big grin on her face.

“We couldn’t have done it without you!” Rarity continued. All of Twilight’s friends were complimenting her performance.

“Thank you everypony, but I couldn’t have done it without all of you. If it wasn’t for my friends, I may never have found my schedule and we may not have finished on time.” Twilight said, staring at all of the smiles on her friend’s faces. “Thank you all.”

The crowd eventually died down as night began to fall. Everypony had gone home, including Twilight and her friends, who all parted ways as they left the brief celebration. Back at Twilight’s house, she looked at Spike, who was putting the final book back in its proper spot on the shelf.

“Take a letter, Spike.” Twilight said to her assistant.

“With pleasure!” Spike replied, taking out a pen and blank scroll. Twilight cleared her throat to begin to deliver her usual report on friendship to Princess Celestia.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Losing something so important to everypony can be a bad thing, but owning up to your mistakes and accepting responsibility and help from your friends can make a big difference. What more could a pony ask for than to have friends by their side through every situation good or bad, even if the bad ones are caused by a sleepy dragon.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle