The cards of Equestriaby LGHeartChaptersChapter 1T: how did get to this?Chapter 2T: The Night of MagicChapter 3S: Frustration and ResolutenessChapter 4S: Pinkie sense FAILS?!Chapter 5T: His Determination and My ResolveChapter 1T: how did get to this?Running through the destroyed town was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Buildings were burning, braking down, and partially collapsed on themselves. Fire, lightning, storms, and horrible burst of magic flew across the sky. While the sky it self was sickly green, and horrifying nightmarish images of many creatures, pegasai, and all manners of freaky abortions. As I ran through the streets ducking and diving to avoid random blasts of magic and other assorted items. “TWILIGHT!” Stopping dead in my tracks I turn to see Applejack. She had look of seriousness on her face that made her seem much older than she actually was. “This is all yer fault Twi!” Biting my lip in agitation, I knew she was partly right. I had caused the destruction of Ponyville, and not only that, I hurt almost everyone who ever cared about me. My parents, my brother, Princess Cellestia, Princess Luna, Cadence, and even my best friends. “Ya need ta set this right Twi!” Applejack yelled at me, “and you know what has ta be done in order to set it right!” I felt my right ear twitch as, and before I knew what I was doing I ran at Applejack and tackled her just in time to avoid burning ball of fire just miss my ear. The ball of fire hit a near by house, I barely had enough time to put up a barrier to avoid the the blast before I felt the slight sting of a blade against my skin. Thankfully my body reacted before I could and my telekinetic magic flung the blade away just as the shield was complete enough to block the explosion. The shield fell and I backed away from Applejack, the noticeable feeling of blood dripping down the side of my coat made it clear what AJ's intentions were. She was out for my life, just like so many ponies were now. It hurt me so much, not just because of the physical wound, but also because I knew that our friendship was over and there was nothing I could about. At least not yet anyway. I had a plan, it was going to take everything I had to pull off this plan. It may even kill me, but if this plan it would all be worth it, everything would return back to the way it had been before that one damn card showed up. One month earlier . . . I had just gotten back from Applejack's farm and was taking a more scenic route back to my knew castle home right were the ponyville library had been before Tirek's attack. A few monthes had passed since then, and nothing major had come up for a while. Spike was laying on my back calm and collected as I walked down the path taking in all the beautiful scenery. The gravel road was interesting because it not only had the basic gravel but little bit of rounded gems were strewn along with the pebbles to make the ground sparkle almost all the time. Quite a few trees were freshly watered from a recent rain storm the pegasai had planned not to long ago, and that made them almost shine. And a cool evening breeze had also accompanied me, carrying with it an almost hypnotizing melody. Well if it weren't for spikes snoring that is, but either way the walk was calming and nice. The sound of crunching stones being pushed into place as I stepped on them, and the cool breeze made me feel even more at home then being in Canterlot with Princess Celestia. I could feel the heat of fire at my back as Spike snored and let out a breath of emerald fire. I turned to at least get one eye him, just to make sure he wasn't going to breath any fire on me. No need to have another accident with my mane getting lit on fire. I heard the crunch of paper underneath my hoof, causing me to stop. The sudden stop woke spike up, his sleep ridden eyes looked to me questioningly. “are we home yet?” he asked obviously to tired to even bother looking around. “No Spike,” I dead pan as I lift my hoof up to inspect what I had just stepped on. “I just stepped on something.” “Ew.” Spike said with a huge tone of disgust. Rolling my eye I use my magic to lift up a card, it was slightly larger then a hoof, and rectangular in shape. “It's just a card spike.” “Oh” he said now seeming fully awake. He leaned over to look at the card himself. The card had a dark blue trim with a picture of three poines, each of which was from one of the three types unicorn, pegasai, and earth pony. The were each facing a a light that glowed in the center of the three. “What is that?” Spike asks curiously. “It looks like some sort of playing card.” I say, although I wasn't sure myself. “probably for some silly filly's card game.” “I don't know.” “Something wrong spike?” Spike rarely questions something after I try explain what I think it might be. For him to still be curious about something only served to make me further examine the card. Turning it over revealed a perfectly blank but shiny side. “That's odd,” I say squinting to make sure that I wasn't just seeing the shine. “almost every card has two sides. One side to make them look similar and one to indicate some sort of status or type.” “Hmmm.” Spike hummed as if he was trying to think of someplace he might have seen the card before. But it was obvious he was failing if you took just one look at his face. “Well whatever game it's from, I should probably put turn it in to the lost and found.” I levitate the card to spike so that he could hold on to it for me. “hold on to this until then, okay?” “Sure.” Spike says as he grips onto the card and studies the blank side ever closer. Little did either of us know that that one card was going to change the course of our lives. In that one moment I was the oblivious innocent one, and spike might just have the knowledge to save all of Equestria. Author's Note This story is a random side project. I do not know if i will finish it, but if the response if good, I just might. that being said please enjoy it! Chapter 2T: The Night of MagicI awoke to the sound of a low humming. It wasn't very loud or anything, but it was still strange. I lit my horn so I could see what was going on. Spike was laying in his bed just like normal, his blanket a tangled mess from all his tossing and turning. The low hum seemed to be coming from down stairs. Lifting my blanket up with a little telekinetic magic, I got out of bed. My legs shook a little under my weight simply because I wasn't awake yet. When I got to the railing just before the stairs the humming seemed to get louder. I continued down the stairs to find the source of the sound, only to also find a simple glow emitting from one of the rooms to left. The crystal floor and walls echoed my hoof steps as I walked to the room. In the dead of night the castle sometimes seemed scarier then it actually was. The light of my horn helped to calm what little nerves I had while lighting my way to the glowing room. With each step the light emanating from the room seemed to get brighter and brighter. Finally I stopped just out side of the doorway, slightly anxious to find out what was going on. “Hello?” I say poking my head ever so slightly to the side to see who, or what was making that light. The light itself illuminated the room, allowing me to see that this was Spike and my closet for storing our packs and clothes, mostly my clothes but still. The light seemed to be coming from one of the packs on a near by table. “What the hay?” throwing caution out the window, I walked into the room and marched right over to the pack. I had to squint my eyes in order to make sure that the light coming from the pack wouldn't blind me. Using my magic I grabbed the clasp and opened the pack. One with one blinding flash of light the room suddenly became dark. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust, but as soon as I was able to I lit my horn for only a little bit of a glow as I found only one item in the pack, the blank card I found just the other day. But something about it seemed different, but I just couldn't seem to place my hoof on what it was. “Twilight?” My name being called out so suddenly made me jump. Turning around I saw that spike was in the door way his eyes slightly drooping from exhaustion. He stood there staring at me, his gaze partially empty because of his sleepless state. “Oh hello Spike.” I say trying to calm my nerves. “What are you doing up this late?” Spike stood there scrunching his face as he thought. “I'm not sure, I just suddenly woke up and had the feeling I needed to come down here.” While that was odd, I didn't really pay any mind to what Spike had said. My mind was still more concerned what was going on with that strange card. “Why are you down here Twilight?” He asked. I froze for a moment, simply because I didn't know what to say. Trying for a smile, I simply told him that I had forgotten something down here. Spike frowned and shook his head at me. “Twilight your worse at lying then Applejack.” “Hey!” I felt completely offended by that. “Whatever I'm going back to bed now.” Spike walked away without another look back. I turned back around to look at the card. Levitating the card closer to my eye looked as closely to it as I could, but I still couldn't tell what was off about it. “I may have to write about this to Celestia.” I had never seen anything react like that that didn't have some massive amount of magic contained in it. Placing the card back into the pack, I made a mental note to study it. Morning seemed to come earlier than usual as I looked out the window and noticed the beams of light coming from the glass panes. Throughout the rest of the night I had spent a good portion of it looking through the archives of my knew library section to try and find anything that had to do about cards. Only several books were were salvaged from the old library, but thankfully most of those had been the ones I had keep in a special storage chest protected by a spell. Of course none of those book had anything on cards, stuff about old magical artifacts. Those had been the first books I looked through but came up with no results. Hours of searching turned up no results for what I was looking for. Dozens, if not hundreds, of books littered the floor of the large room. Several shelves had empty spaces where many of the books were supposed to be. My frustration was growing by the second, there was nothing on this type of card in any of the books I had. One of the beams of light partly blinded me as the suns light hit my face. Finally getting me to put down the books. “Morning already?!” Getting to my hooves I started using my magic to put all the books back in there proper places. As soon as I finished putting the books away, then I gathered the card and the pack carrying it. I race down the hall and out the door. Spike was probably to tired to send a message to the princess, but thankfully I knew a very secret way to contact her, one that I myself had come up with years ago. I ran towards the outskirts of town and towards one of the many little lakes that ponies used to keep cool in summer. Nopony was around simply because of the fact it was fall and starting to get cold. The water was shining and shimmering in the beautiful sun light. Walking up to the waters edge calmly, I scanned the area just to make sure that there really was nopony around. Thoroughly satisfied that I was alone, I quickly went to work on the spell. The water slowly began to swirl around right in front of me. A small whorl pool began to form and take shape, slowly settling into an almost perfect image of Celestia. “Celestia!” I shout. The image shakes and shrinks a little before it turns to face me. “Twilight?” I could hear Celestia's voice come from the image in the water. Confirming that the spell had been successful. As a child Celestia would often drink tea early in the morning just after she would raise the sun. I had come up with this spell while studying under her in my early years. Her guards were often to strict to let me go see her in the mornings. This spell was my solution. “Yes, Prin-er . . . yes, Celestia it's me.” The image looked straight at me. “Well this brings back memories of when you first started appearing in my tea, as you are now. May I ask why you have chose this means to contact me?” With a slight blush I looked the image of Celestia in the eye. “Spike is most likely still asleep and I did not want to wake him. Besides I thought it would be better to talk to you in a more . . . direct way.” Celestia raised an eye brow at me and motioned for me to continue. Taking a deep breath I used a little more magic to pull the card out of my pack. “Spike and I found this card the other day on our walk back from Applejack's house.” Celestia did her best to try and look at the card, “forgive me if I fail to see how that is relevant.” I move the card closer to the image in the water. “Last night I heard a rather odd humming sound that woke me up. When I went to investigate the source of the sound I found this card glowing crazy bright in my pack.” Celestia placed a hoof to her chin trying to examine the card, most likely through her cup of tea. “I do not recognize this card Twilight, but I would suggest you keep it under watch if you feel as though something is strange about this particular card.” “Okay Celestia.” “But,” she says with a hint of skepticism. “Be careful. If I can not tell you what this item is. It may contain magics far more dangerous then that of even the 'alicorn amulet', and that is if this card is a magic item.” Biting my lip I nod to let Celestia know that I understood what that may mean. “Alright Celestia. I'll keep a watchful eye out.” “One more thing.” Taking a deep breath as I waited for Celestia to continue. “You may want to also consult Discord, for he may know somethings that even I do not know.” “Alright Princess, thank you for the advice.” With one final farewell I ended the spell. Leaving myself alone by the waters edge. Taking out the card one more time I looked at the blank side once again. Only this time the blank side seemed to have the faintest of images on it. Author's Note Yay! Chapter 2! I have a little game for everyone, in the titles of all the chapters there will be simple secret that will help you figure out something vary useful about all the chapters of this story. take your guess as to what that secret is and put your idea down below. there will be no prizes for anyone, but it should still be fun to try and figure out the secret. Enjoy the story and my little game! Chapter 3S: Frustration and Resoluteness“GAAHH!” With an immense sense of anger boiling up I grabbed another book and started flipping through it. This one was about ancient magical items believed to be from the prediscordian era. “Why can't I figure out where I've seen that damn card is from!” My nostrils fumed in irritation, making smoke rise as I clawed my way through the book looking for the information I sought out. Having not found the information yet again I added the book to the growing pile next to me. Placing my hand on the temples of my head in agonizing frustration I knew I was missing something, but what was it. That damn card was so familiar to me, but I didn't know why. There was just something that really irritated me about it, almost like it was highly important for me to remember. The sound of the front door opening and closing. After a moment of silence a voice called out into the corridor. “Spike are you up yet?” “Yeah Twilight.” I reply quickly knowing full well that my irritation had seeped into my words. Hoof steps grew louder as, undoubtedly, Twilight walked closer to the room. She stepped by the door for a second, probably not thinking that I would be in the library area of my own volition. But she stopped in her track as she probably noticed me out of the corner of her eye. “Spike!?” Twilight said as she turned in place to look at me. “Why are you sitting in the library reading all those books?” If I didn't know any better I would have taken offense to the statement. “I'm doing some research Twilight. Just call to me if you need anything, alright.” Twilight seemed utterly speechless, it was almost as if a timber-wolf took her tongue away. She seemed taken aback as if somepony had just slapped her across the face. “uh, um, okay. Just come talk to me if you need anything, I'll just be, uh. . . going over to Fluttershy's home.” I bury my face into another book and start skimming the content looking for the information on that stupid card. “Sure what ever Twi.” Being to busy with what I was doing I didn't notice when Twilight left, but it was obvious that I was alone once some time passed and not a sound could be heard. Well except for the sound of books moving in and out of place. Slowly my frustration began to build again, until I couldn't take it anymore and threw the books across the room. “Celestia damn it all!” I yelled as smoke and fire began to slowly shoot out of my nose and mouth. “Wait a minute . . .” I say as an idea struck me. Face palming so hard that I partly make myself slightly dizzy, “that's my answer, Princess Celestia!” Moving as quickly as possible I put all the books back to there proper place, and start running back to Twilight's and my room. Quickly I gather the parchment and quill and start writing. Dear Princess Celestia, This is Spike writing to you. I would like to make a small request, if at all possible. Could you please send over any copies of books that involve mystical items, or old magical artifacts? Maybe even mythological artifacts if possible. The reason I ask such an odd request is because Twilight and I found a rather curious card the other day and I have the most irritating feeling like I should know what it is. I had saw Twilight inspecting the card late last night after I saw the room she entered stop glowing. I had been so tired that I had dismissed it as nothing, but now I'm not to sure. I will understand if you dismiss this letter, but could you please consider it. This has been driving me crazy and I would at least like some help if at all possible. From, Princess Twilight's faithful assistant Spike the dragon! Taking one quick look over the letter I felt confident that it would do the job. With swift practiced movements, caused only by years of doing this, I rolled up the letter sealed it and sent the letter to Celestia in a puff of smoke. With a relaxed sigh I let myself calm down a little. I was riling myself up so much that I hadn't realized the day was half over until I had send that letter. Maybe I was making this out to be more then it actually was, but for some reason I could not let this be. “This must be how Twilight feels sometimes.” I say finally understanding how she could feel so stressed sometime. Deciding to take a moment to breath, I start heading to the kitchen to grab a snack. Thankfully I still had my hidden stash of gems Twilight didn't know about. Oh it made my mouth water just thinking about all the rubies, emeralds, topaz, and amethysts. Walking into the kitchen I double checked that no one was near. Satisfied that I was in fact alone, I walked over to the to left side of the kitchen, right next to the sink and coffee pot. Carefully placing my hand on one of the tiles that covered the kitchen. Carefully I slip one of my claws in between the seems of the tile and lift it to reveal a little hole filled with a variety of gems. Grabbing a fist fully of gems I went out of the kitchen and started eating a few gems. Little bits of broken gem hit the ground as I walked and ate. It felt kind of good to just relax and calm my nerves a little bit after stressing about that card so much. After walking back to Twilight's and my room I decided to pull out a comic book and start reading. Looking through my little shelf of comics I pick out one of my favorites and started flipping through it. Suddenly I felt something burbling up from the pit of my stomach. It was a familiar feeling I knew quite a bit about. Quickly I put my comic book of to the side so that I don't accidentally burn it. Almost instantly I burped and flames shot out of my mouth. The fire swirled around for a moment before becoming a parchment with Celestia's royal seal on it. Right at that moment Twilight walked through the open doorway just as the letter fell to the ground. “Oh hey Spike, is that a letter from Celestia?” She quickly levitated the letter to herself and opened it up, she took only a glance before turning it away. She looked to me and gave the letter back, “This letter is addressed to you spike. Do you know why Celestia would be writing to you?” Nodding I began to explain that I asked her to send over some extra books to help me with my research, but I kept my mouth shut about what I was researching. No need to worry Twilight about something that may not actually be anything. I open the letter and start reading. Dear Spike, I will be shipping copies of those books you asked for to you. They should arrive in just a day or two. Twilight had told me about the card you found. She has her own suspicions about this card. I told her to keep an eye on it just in case. If both of you are suspicious of this card, it has me slightly worried, please be careful when dealing with it. Also you may want to talk to Twilight about what Discord may have said about the card. I myself could not recognize it as something important, but I figured discord may. He is much older than even I, so could know if the item in question is dangerous or not. Sincerely, Celestia After a moment of silence and a couple of rereads I turned to Twilight. Several questions were running through my mind at once but one had me slightly more confused then the others. “You were able to talk to Celestia without going through me?” Twilight who was reading a book turned to me questioningly. She closed the book and placed it on a near by table with her telekinesis magic. “I have a spell that allows me to communicate with her, but only if we're both near some body of liquid at the same time. Meaning it's not always reliable like with your fire, but it can still get the job done if those conditions are met.” “Oh!” I say feeling like that would have been a good thing to know about a long time ago. “Well then I have just one more question for you.” Twilight's eyebrow twitched up a little in confusion, but she gestured for me to continue. “What did Discord say about the card we found?” For a moment Twilight seemed taken aback by my question. She started swaying from side to side slightly. She bit her bottom lip lightly before she turned her eyes away from me. “how did you know about that?” she asked, probably trying to avoid the question. “Celestia told me. Now it's your turn to answer my question.” Reluctantly Twilight sighed and turned to face me, although she kept her eyes facing anywhere else but at me. “Discord said he didn't recognize it, but he could tell that it was a powerful magic item. Not only that but he also it used a highly advanced built in spell matrix that follows a certain set of commands. Other then that he was completely unsure of what it could and couldn't do. He just told me to keep an eye on it like Celestia said.” “So,” I say letting puzzle pieces fall into place in my mind. “This thing is even outside of Discord's knowledge. Meaning that it could be even older than him.” “And if that's the case,” Twilight says jumping into the conversation to help me. “it could be more dangerous then we know.” “But,” I say as lift up the letter Celestia sent to me. “We may actually have some record of what it might be. I know that the card seems familiar, so that must mean at some point I had to have read about it.” Twilight perked up a bit, “Which means we could possible identify what this card actually is and if it really is dangerous.” “Exactly!” I shout with a slight smug happiness. “We just have to be careful and wait to see if I can find the information once the books I requested get here. Then we should have everything we need to determine if the card is dangerous and/or can be destroyed if the need should arise.” “So,” Twilight says as she looks to me. “What do we do until than?” I sigh and look Twilight dead in the eye. “We go about our business as usual, carefully watch the card, and wait. That's about all we can do right now.” Author's Note Yay! new chapter out! I can't believe I wasn't able to get this out sooner, I am so Sorry! Collage got in the way and made me a tiny bit late on writing this. I took pretty much all day to churn this story out, but I think it came out pretty decent. Hope you all enjoy, this story is one that may get a little confusing after a while but i will answer any questions that anyone needs answered, as long as they don't contain any spoilers that is. either way enjoy the story and if you have any theories please share them for everyone to see. Chapter 4S: Pinkie sense FAILS?!With a sigh, I sat at my table off to far side of Sugar Cube Corner with one of Miss. Cakes newest creations for dragons 'raspberry ruby muffins'. The muffin was sitting on the table little bits of berries and rubies poking out of the bread. It looked great, amazingly delicious even. But for some reason I just couldn't seem to find my stomach. “What's wrong Spike?” came the bubbly voice of Pinkie Pie. She looked her usually self, big, pink, and bouncy, but today she had a somewhat concerned look on her face. She sat at the other side of the table from me. Thankfully I had come into Sugar Cube Corner not long after the lunch rush so pinkie was mostly free to just sit down and talk to me. “I'm just stressed out, I guess.” My claw slowly moves over to the bag I was carrying with me. Today Twilight had told me stop studying and take some time to relax. I knew she had a point, Twilight usually did. But I just couldn't get my mind off of that card. Nearly four days of constant research had taken it's toll on me. Celestia had sent me nearly 6 full carts of books. Each book talking about at least one of the topics I had asked her to send to me. I immediately went to work and forgot about almost everything else. Before I knew it four days had passed and Twilight had to pull me out of my research. 'Spike your almost obsessive about finding out what this card is, you hadn't even talked to Rarity when she came over the other day.' Twilight pulled the books away from me, forcefully gave me a bath, and handed me some money. She had talked to me a little about the fact I needed to take a break and eat something, surprisingly I hadn't eaten for nearly two days. She had handed me this bag and said that the card was in there along with enough money to pay for some food. The card was with me simply because she had wanted me to hold on to it for a while because she was going to be out of town and the card was starting to put off some type of odd magic vibe. The bag had a spell on it to prevent the card from sending out that feeling, and she felt better keeping the card in Ponyville because it was less likely to get stolen when compared to Manehattan. “Maybe a party will help!” yelled pinkie, suddenly bringing me back my scenes. “Uh . . . Maybe . . .” I say suddenly feeling a little confused, but Pinkie was smiling like her usual self again. “Hm . . .” hummed Pinkie as she tapped a hoof to chin. “Maybe a simple party, or maybe we can get you a spa day with Rarity and have a little party here at Sugar Cube Corner. What do you think Spike? Do you think either of those will help you have a good relaxing party?” Pinkie looked to me again with a smile on her face, and expecting glint in her eyes. “Oh.” I say finally realizing what Pinkie was asking me. “Uh, not really Pinkie.” Pinkie's eyes got really wide, her mouth somehow dropping to the floor. She was staring at me as if I had just said Nightmare Moon was returning and teaming up with Tirek and Discord, and they were suddenly wielding the power of the tree of harmony. I nearly fell back in my chair at the sight of Pinkie face. My heart was racing and fumbled to try and keep myself balanced. “What's wrong?” I ask, trying to lower my heart rate. For a moment Pinkie didn't do or say anything, she looked almost statue like as she at me. “I'm just surprised.” is all she said. Wait, Pinkie Pie, surprised by me? That was a new one, I can never surprise her. She always seems to just . . . know things. “Surprised? Surprised by what?” Pinkie blinked at me. “You barely acknowledged my idea of you and Rarity spending time together. At a spa. Alone.” She said enunciating carefully so I got the point. Biting my lip, I knew she had a point, that was seriously not like me. Why would I ever turn down an opportunity to be with the mare I love. Maybe I was taking this whole thing with the card a little to seriously. With a sigh and gentle smile I looked to Pinkie and told her I should be fine, I would just need to take a couple steps back. Heck even Twilight has never been as bad as I have been over the past few days. I was being way to obsessive about this one little thing, and it was getting bad. My stomach growled and suddenly that muffin was looking all that much more tasty. Grabbing the muffin I took a bite from it. The wonderful crunch of the ruby combined with the taste of the raspberry muffin to make it an amazing treat. “I think I'll be fine, Pinkie.” She smiled at my words and I could tell she seemed a little relieved to here that. “I could at least use a couple more of these though.” Pinkie smiles at me and nods. “Okie Dokie Loki.” She gets up and bounces around to the back of the store. After a few moments I could hear the clatter of some metal and some voices. What was going on back there? Finishing my muffin, I hopped down from my chair and made sure my bag was carefully slung over my shoulder before going around the counter, and into the back. As soon as I opened the door a slight cry of pain and the feeling that the door hit something solid got my attention. Immediately I knew I had accidentally hit someone with the door. “Ow.” Cried Mr. Cake as he clutched his muzzle. “Why didn't you warn me Pinkie?” I could see Miss. Cake standing next to Pinkie with a questioning look on her face. But what really caught my attention was the look of surprise on Pinkie's face, her eyes were wide, her mouth hung open slightly, her hair looked deflated, and for some odd reason she was covered in either flour or sugar. After a moment Pinkie said something under her breath that I never would have caught had Miss. Cake not asked what she had said. Pinkie said it again, louder this time, but still nopony heard what she said. Mr. and Miss. Cake exchanged a worried look at each other before looking to Pinkie again. “Come again?” Asked Mr. Cake. “I said 'I didn't know'.” Pinkie replied finally able to speak at a level we could all hear. “'Didn't know' what?” I asked speaking up and letting my presence be know. “I didn't know Mr. Cake would need to watch out for a door opening.” At first I didn't really get what she was talking about. Pinkie was acting strange even for her. But as soon as I looked to the Cake's I knew they understood what Pinkie was talking about. And I was about to ask what was wrong, but Miss. Cake spoke before I could. “Pinkie.” She said, “Are you telling me that your Pinkie sense didn't warn you about the door?” With as simple nod of conformation Pinkie looked at her hooves. “I didn't know the flour was going to fall either.” Suddenly everypony was looking at each other and at Pinkie, who seemed the most surprised of us all. Her Pinkie sense failing? That had to mean something was very wrong. The air in the room started to become thick with tension as we all just looked at each other. *Sniffle* We all watched as Pinkie slowly began to cry and fall to the floor. Nopony seemed to know what to do, normally Pinkie was the one who knew how to cheer others up. But this time Pinkie was the one need to be cheered up. Without thinking, I walked over to Pinkie as she hid her face behind her hoofs and hear tears were falling to the ground, and pulled her into a hug. Pinkie wrapped her Hooves around me and she continued to cry on my shoulder. Speaking softly I did my best to reassure Pinkie that it would all be okay, it would just take some time. After a while Pinkie calmed down enough that she finally stopped crying, of course I was partly covered in both flour and tears. So I tried to make a quick joke about being ready to be the tasty spike cake I was meant to be. That got pinkie to laugh a little and you could tell she was feeling better because of the fact her hair was puffy again. But she still looked a little upset. Mr. and Miss. Cake helped me and Pinkie get cleaned up and closed the shop for the rest of the day. After some more time comforting Pinkie and carefully helping her into bed I walked out the front door receiving thanks from the whole cake family. As I look to the sky I can see Luna's moon high in the sky. Oh great I'm late getting home. I guess I'll just have to hurry. The cool night air felt nice against my scales but my bag felt heavy and warm. I didn't bother to look at anything as I ran back to the castle. I just ran as fast as I could trying to avoid have a worse punishment from Twilight. Finally the castle came into view and in the moonlight it looked way more ominous, almost foreboding. Steeling my nerves I walked up to the doors and slowly opened them up. The first thing I see as I walk through the door is Twilight walking towards me with a very angry look on her face. “Where have you been?” Twilight demanded as she stopped only a couple inches from my face. I was backed up against the door, feeling trapped. “Helping the Cake's take care of Pinkie.” What ever Twilight had been expecting, she obviously wasn't expecting me to say that. She backed off a little with a confused look on her face. “What?” was all she could say. I began to explain the events of the day to her and as I went on Twilight's eye seemed to get bigger and bigger, by the end you would think her eyes would be bulging out of her head. We stood there for a little while as Twilight processed everything. Finally, Twilight sighed and pulled me into a hug. “You did good Spike.” “Thanks Twi.” Twilight broke the hug and looked me in the eye. “just try to make sure I know if your going to do something like that again. I almost thought someone attacked you because of that card or something.” The card. . . “The card!” I yelled as something dawned on me. Twilight was surprised by my outburst and had to step back as I ran past her. Pulling the bag up to my face I opened the flap and reached into the bag and pulled out the card. I could hear the sound of hoof falls not far behind me, but I didn't care to look back. There was something I had to take a look at. The card was held firmly in my claw as I ran towards my destination. Turning the corner I ran into the room where Twilight kept all the books we had. By passing the books Celestia sent me I went straight to the spell book section. I quickly pulled a specific book and started flipping through the spells. “Spike?” Twilight called out. Soon enough I could hear Twilight coming up behind me, her breathing shortened. “What are you doing Spike?” Finally founding the spell I was looking for, and with a quick turn I showed Twilight the pages. “I think the card can use spells!” I say. As soon as I said it Twilight looked to the book and her eyes got wide with shock. She immediately the book in her magic. As she read the spell her eyes got wider and wider. When she finally looked back up to me the realization hit her like a ton of bricks. “Spike.” She said as her eyes drifted to the card. “This spell is advanced even for me. 'Control base' is a spell designed to manipulate not only creatures, but also take away and duplicate some of there natural abilities.” “I know.” I say causing Twilight to look at me strangely. “I've been reading a lot more material then you realize Twi. But that's no the point!” pointing to the book I bring the card up into Twilight's view. “That spell can still work on ponies if done right. It would explain why Pinkie's Pinkie sense stopped working. She was hanging around me for quite a while before the incident in the kitchen. I'm thinking this card used that spell and it affected Pinkie!” “Spike if that's true-” “I know Twilight.” I say interrupting her. “This is dangerous if it can use such a complex spell.” With a gulp Twilight looked back to the spell book, “We may need to talk to Discord again too. This spell requires at least the power of three unicorns normally, and that's just for the average slightly dangerous creature. To be able to affect a pony would require the power of at least Princess Luna.” Both of us looked at the card as if it was toxic. Only the most dangerous artifacts I had read about over the past couple of days had that much power. Author's Note Finally I get the next chapter out. This is where things are starting to get interesting. I hope you all enjoy this chapter! If you have any questions comment them below! I will try to reply as soon as I can. Chapter 5T: His Determination and My ResolveI stood in the open doorway, looking at Spike as he continued to research. The day after he came back from Sugar Cube Corner we had sent a letter to the princess about what we thought the card had done to Pinkie. The princess replied with urgency in her letter saying that we should either seal the card or destroy it. Whatever this card was, it was dangerous. The ladder sounded like a safer option at first. But when I tried to you my magic to tear it, my magic got cut off for a couple seconds. I tried to blast it, but the shot hit the card and bounced back at me, nearly hitting me in the face. The last thing we tried was placing a shield around the card and tried to light the card on fire to burn it away. The result was small contained explosion that burned a circle into my castle floor and barely made the card warm. Finally Spike and I chose to seal the card away in a room we weren’t using with a special spell the made it so that only him of me could enter. The spell I used was probably the most powerful I could make. Spike had sent a letter to notify the princess about what had happened and went back to researching the card to see if he could find out what it was. It had been close to a week since then and he hadn’t stopped working except for when he needed to sleep. In that time Pinkie had told all of us about the fact her Pinkie scene had stopped working. Most of the girls tried to comfort her, but she just said that it was fine. I decided that I should let the rest of the group know about the card and told them about what Spike’s theory was. There were mixed reactions, but one thing seemed to be on everyponies mind. They all decided that if Spike and I were on the problem, they would do what they could too. But I had insisted that they just avoid being around the card as much as possible and go on as if nothing was happening. They didn’t seem to like that all too much, probably because they didn’t want something to happen to me, or Spike, but eventually they all gave in. “How's Spike taking all this?” Pinkie ask catching everyponies attention. I told them that he was doing massive amounts research to help fix the problem. And in the end the girls decided it was best that they at least check up on us a couple times a day. One would come by in the morning and another by the afternoon. All of them stayed for few minutes and all of them tried to get Spike's attention, but that was to no avail. Except when Pinkie came by, that was when Spike decided to put his work on pause and talk with others. He always had this apologetic look on his face when ever Pinkie would come by, and in the end him and Pinkie would always end up alone in the throne room, just talking. Even Rarity couldn't get spike to stop working and acknowledge she was there. But the second Pinkie even walked into the castle, he was already at the archway into the main hall to greet her. And almost as soon as she left Spike's would change back. He would go back into seclusion and pick up right where he left off. It was actually pretty scary, at times he would get so secluded and determined that I would need to go up to him and do almost anything I could to get his attention. Pinkie visited yesterday and as soon as she had gone home, Spike went straight back to work. But that time something seemed different about him. That was when I noticed the look in his eyes. A look I had seen at least a couple times before, but not on him. This look was a strong desire, a heavily fortified determination. A look that I had only ever seen in my enemies eyes when they sought to overthrow Equestria. But Spike's eyes still shone with a light to protect something he cared for. It sent chills down my back, and brought out a feeling I just couldn't recognize. Today Spike was working just like yesterday, his determination not wavering in the slightest. It was something I had always wanted to see in him, but the circumstances weren’t exactly what I thought would bring this side of him out. I watched as Spike puts one book down and reaches another, and just as he cracks open the new book his tail twitches slightly. The motion would have been lost from view had it not been for the fact he had looked back at his tail in confusion. A simple shiver ran down my spine and I felt my own tail twitch. Weird that’s never happened before. *CRASH* The sound of glass breaking jolted both me and Spike as we both got up and ran towards the sound. Rounding a corner, with Spike right behind me, we ran up several flights of stairs. The sound had been above us, and the only glass that we knew of that was up stairs were the winds and the sky light at the top floor. It was mostly used for night time star gazing, or in my case watching the constellations as they moved. Spike and I ran for the top floor, somehow we both seemed to know exactly where to go. Like something was driving us. As we reached top, I rushed through the door, Spike only a step behind me. There on the floor covered in cuts and glass laying all around her was Rainbow Dash. Even from close to three meters away. “Ugh. . .” Immediately I cast a spell to remove all the glass from the area, something that had been useful when beakers had broken on countless experiments. In the span of ten seconds the glass began to break down to dust, gather into a ball in the air, and return back to it's spot on the ceiling becoming the skylight I knew that it was before. Spike had run past me and over to Rainbow. Giving quick pursuit, I followed and found that rainbow looked less injured then at first glance. Most of her cuts looked minor, barely getting past the slight layers of skin, but they were pretty large still. As Rainbow groaned in pain she rolled over so that she was facing both me and Spike. If I had eaten lunch, their probably would have been vomit covering the floor as soon as I was the real extent of the damage. One of the things about my spell was that it didn't effect and glass that was embedded into something, or more specifically somepony. Rainbow dash had several pieces of glass sticking out of her left side and face. Several cuts were bleeding worse then the others causing smears of red to cover her coat and face. And from what I could tell, Rainbow had at least two large pieces of glass stuck in her side. “T-Twi . . . light . . .” Rainbow said as she looked up into my eyes. “W-what happened? D-did . . . I F-fall?” I didn't know how what to do, my mind froze up. “I think so Dash.” Spike said, his voice somehow coming across as calming. Rainbow turned so she could look at Spike, and I could see the flinch of pain it caused her. Suddenly my mind kicked into overdrive and I found myself antsy trying to find the nearest medical kit I could find. “Twilight!” Spike called to me to catch my attention. “Go get help! teleport if you have too. Just go!” Spike's commanding tone and the sudden strength in his voice shook me to my core and brought me into a focused state. Before I could even realize what I was doing I found myself following his order. My horn charged with a familiar feeling and the structure of a spell I had used hundreds if not thousands of times found it's way to the front of my mind. The spell discharged and found myself in the hospital across town. Several ponies looked in my direction to see what was happening. Looking around I tried to find one of the medical staff. My vision focused on the task at hand, I had to find somepony who I get help from. That's when Nurse Red-heart came into view. Without a second thought I ran over to her and grabbed her in my magic. Before she could even react I brought her with me through another teleportation back to the skylight room, and let her down gently. “Nurse we need your help!” Nurse Red-heart started to turn towards me when she saw the hurt figure of Rainbow Dash next to spike. I heard the silent gasp as she looked at the scene and lifted her hoof to her mouth. The shock in her eyes was genuine and I could just tell she looked like she was about to be sick. “Oh, my Celestia . . .” She said in a light whisper. Spike turned his attention away form Rainbow, in an instant the look in his eyes changed from soft and comforting into that of the one I've been seeing when he's researching the card. “Hurry. We need to get her ready for a teleport to the hospital emergency room!” Just like before Spike's change in voice brought me to attention, and with a glance I noticed that Nurse Red-heart seemed like she was in the same boat as me. I watched as she walked up to Spike and Rainbow dash. For few seconds I couldn't think about what to do. But now that I was calmer I remembered there was a med kit back in my room. Over the course of the next couple hours Spike and Nurse Red-heart had helped Rainbow, we got her transported to the hospital, and I had gone to the others to tell them what had happened. Right now we were all standing in silence just outside the operating room. I was sitting in a chair next to Spike, Pinkie, who' mane had gone limp, was sitting nest to Rarity and Fluttershy. Applejack was the only one not sitting down, instead she was pacing back and forth. “What's takin' them so long?” Applejack said in a hushed yet irritated voice. Rarity sighed and looked up at Applejack, “Deary please sit down. Your antsy behavior is a bit unsettling to the rest of us.” Applejack looked like she wanted to say something, but thought better of it and leaned up against the wall. I glanced over to Spike, he had been the one who's quick thinking had gotten me into action and gotten Rainbow into the hospital so quickly. He was sitting down his claws folded into each other, and his head held down. The light green flaps that covered Spike's ears flopped for a second and returned to normal, then his eyes fluttered for a second. Wait a minute, that seems familiar to me for some reason. That's when Spike's knee twitched. I felt a familiar rush in my back, that's when I felt the familiar uncontrollable felling rush through me. Ear flop, eye flutter, knee twitch. There was a short gasp as I realized why this seemed familiar. Reacting almost immediately I jumped to my hooves and got between Applejack and the now opening door. Luckily I had gotten up quick enough, and instead of the door slamming into Applejack, I got smacked by the rather hard door instead. A quick yelp of pain shot through me before the door pulled away from me. “Twilight!” Applejack and the others called out all at once. The door pulled away and Nurse Red-heart winced as she looked at me. “I'm sorry, Princess. I didn't know you were there!” She said quickly. “That's alright.” I say with a slight wince. “It's not your fault. How's Rainbow Dash.” Everypony turned to look at the nurse. “She will need to rest for a little while, but otherwise she should be fine.” With a sigh of relief, I heard the sound of somepony getting to their hooves. Turning around I noticed Pinkie was walking up to me, her eyes were hidden behind shadows. “You have it. . .” “W-What?” I ask unable to hear what she said. Pinkie's eyes shone past the shadows all of a sudden and she looked looked me dead in the eye, a dark feeling of anger directed at me. “WHY DO YOU HAVE MY PINKIE SENSE?!” I was shocked for a second before Spike spoke up, "What do you mean Pinkie?" Pinkie's features softened slightly as she turned around to face Spike. "I saw her Spike. I had looked up and saw the ear flop, eye flutter, knee twitch. The combo that meant 'Watch out for opening doors'." "That explains the tail twitch . . ." I say as the moments before Spike and I heard the crash came to mind. Everypony was staring at me now. I can feel the heat rush to my face as I realize that I had spoken aloud by accident. "Um. . . well I mean, that sounds like the most likely explanation for it." "What do you mean Twilight?" Spike asks. "I mean it explains why my tail twitched before we heard the crash." Spike's eyes suddenly widened. he was catching on quickly. "Wait Twilight," Everypony turns to the young drake. "doesn't that mean the card is connected to you!" "What?!" Everypony but Nurse Red-heart yelled. I had to admit that even I was confused and surprised by what spike was thinking. How would the card be connected to me? "If my first theory was right, the one about how the card was using that spell, then it would make since that the card would give the ability or skill it took and give it to the pony it's connected to right?" It did make since, the card could use the spell in that manner, and it would make even more since that the pony that it's bound to would receive the better end of the spell. But one thing was still bothering me. "Why me?" Spike thought for a moment, "Maybe because you were the first one to come into contact with it. That may have established a link between you and it." "Deary when did you learn so much about magic?" Rarity asked, her voice sounding rather impressed by Spike's knowledge. At this point I started to tune everything out. My mind started working on over drive. everything Spike said made sense and I couldn't deny the evidence of what just happened. Applejack would have been smacked in the face and probably seriously hurt if I hadn't known that Pinkie sense combo. After all it was the one I hated the most simply because it had always gotten me hurt. But there was something I knew about that Spike didn't and that was that if the card could affect me with the spell it may be using, then it could use me as a conduit for the spell too. That only left me with a few options. One, try to destroy the card again. Not exactly the best option, but it's still their. Number two, try and sever the connection between me and the card. But this option could be dangerous, if the bond is strong enough, or designed a certain way, then it could kill me in the process. Option three, let the deck fall where it may, and hope that the card doesn't work the way I'm speculating about. But that would be a dangerous gamble, and one where the odds are not in my favor. That only left one option left. "Spike." I say grabbing the groups attention. "As of this moment I am going to have to seal myself with the card. You are in charge of the castle and the only key that will allow you to get in and out of the room where I will be locked away. Only open the door if it's an emergency, or you have food to keep me alive. Understood?" There was dead silence in the hospital hallway that we were all standing in. "Twi," Applejack said breaking the awkward silence, "Ain't that a little drastic." Shaking my head I turned to face the whole group, "No it's not, I could be putting you all in danger just by being around you all." "Twilight, dear that's crazy. . ." Rarity tried to interject, but I cut her off almost Immediately. "It's the only way I can make sure your all safe." I say as my wings flair a little. "If the card is bound to me that means it could us me to do what it did to Pinkie. I will not let that happen to any of you." Fluttershy was about to say something when Nurse Red-heart interrupted, "Listen," she said with a calm and collected voice, "I may not know what's going on here. But I can tell that it's important and should probably be talked about in private, not in the middle of a hospital. My suggestion would be to leave and go talk somewhere else." She pointed to the clock which read about 3:27 pm. "Besides my shift ends in about three minutes and you're all blocking my way." We all shifted to let Nurse Red-heart pass. "I'll see you all at my castle." I say quickly teleporting away. "All I ask is that you all keep an eye on Spike while I'm gone." I say to the girls. We were all standing outside the door to the room I had enchanted to keep the card in. I had made even more preparations over the past few minutes so that the room could be self sustaining and could only be opened by a special key that changes and matches the signature of the lock. A simple precaution used to make sure I can't open the door from the inside with a spell. The girls were all gathered around me, they had tried to stop me from doing this, but they finally seemed to realize that I wouldn't budge on this. We had all said our little good byes, and the door to the room was open, ready to welcome it's newest prisoner. Giving Spike the key, I walked through the doorway and into the room. The soft sound of the door shutting and the definitive soft click of a lock was all I heard before utter silence filled the room. Like most of the other rooms in my knew castle this one was made out of crystal. But that's about where the similarities end because unlike most of the other room this one was almost completely empty other then the one crystal stand the stood in the center of the room. And that stand was currently being occupied by a flouting bubble shield containing a card spinning on a horizontal axis. I walked up to the pedestal and felt my resolve strengthen, "Whatever you are," I say knowing full well I was talking to inanimate object. "We will stop you!" No response. It wasn't like I was expecting something horrific or incredible to happen, but something felt odd about the silence that was plaguing the room. Maybe I was taking things to seriously, maybe I was being paranoid, maybe I . . . The card flouted spinning just as it had before, only now I could see that something had changed. The face of the card now had what looked like some creature with a weirdly human shaped body and face, but instead of eyes, a nose, and a mouth all I could see was an 'O' of some type. I stood there a gasp, the face of the card was there, and from what I can only guess, completely filled in. In the short time from when I locked the card up to now, it had almost completely filled the missing image in. The question was, did that mean the card was going to do something soon? and more importantly what was this card? Author's Note Yay new Chapter! Sorry if I haven't been updating all that much, I got school to take care of first. But I hope this chapter suits the people who are still waiting for more. Enjoy, hopefully we will all be seeing more soon enough.
Chapter 1T: how did get to this?Running through the destroyed town was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Buildings were burning, braking down, and partially collapsed on themselves. Fire, lightning, storms, and horrible burst of magic flew across the sky. While the sky it self was sickly green, and horrifying nightmarish images of many creatures, pegasai, and all manners of freaky abortions. As I ran through the streets ducking and diving to avoid random blasts of magic and other assorted items. “TWILIGHT!” Stopping dead in my tracks I turn to see Applejack. She had look of seriousness on her face that made her seem much older than she actually was. “This is all yer fault Twi!” Biting my lip in agitation, I knew she was partly right. I had caused the destruction of Ponyville, and not only that, I hurt almost everyone who ever cared about me. My parents, my brother, Princess Cellestia, Princess Luna, Cadence, and even my best friends. “Ya need ta set this right Twi!” Applejack yelled at me, “and you know what has ta be done in order to set it right!” I felt my right ear twitch as, and before I knew what I was doing I ran at Applejack and tackled her just in time to avoid burning ball of fire just miss my ear. The ball of fire hit a near by house, I barely had enough time to put up a barrier to avoid the the blast before I felt the slight sting of a blade against my skin. Thankfully my body reacted before I could and my telekinetic magic flung the blade away just as the shield was complete enough to block the explosion. The shield fell and I backed away from Applejack, the noticeable feeling of blood dripping down the side of my coat made it clear what AJ's intentions were. She was out for my life, just like so many ponies were now. It hurt me so much, not just because of the physical wound, but also because I knew that our friendship was over and there was nothing I could about. At least not yet anyway. I had a plan, it was going to take everything I had to pull off this plan. It may even kill me, but if this plan it would all be worth it, everything would return back to the way it had been before that one damn card showed up. One month earlier . . . I had just gotten back from Applejack's farm and was taking a more scenic route back to my knew castle home right were the ponyville library had been before Tirek's attack. A few monthes had passed since then, and nothing major had come up for a while. Spike was laying on my back calm and collected as I walked down the path taking in all the beautiful scenery. The gravel road was interesting because it not only had the basic gravel but little bit of rounded gems were strewn along with the pebbles to make the ground sparkle almost all the time. Quite a few trees were freshly watered from a recent rain storm the pegasai had planned not to long ago, and that made them almost shine. And a cool evening breeze had also accompanied me, carrying with it an almost hypnotizing melody. Well if it weren't for spikes snoring that is, but either way the walk was calming and nice. The sound of crunching stones being pushed into place as I stepped on them, and the cool breeze made me feel even more at home then being in Canterlot with Princess Celestia. I could feel the heat of fire at my back as Spike snored and let out a breath of emerald fire. I turned to at least get one eye him, just to make sure he wasn't going to breath any fire on me. No need to have another accident with my mane getting lit on fire. I heard the crunch of paper underneath my hoof, causing me to stop. The sudden stop woke spike up, his sleep ridden eyes looked to me questioningly. “are we home yet?” he asked obviously to tired to even bother looking around. “No Spike,” I dead pan as I lift my hoof up to inspect what I had just stepped on. “I just stepped on something.” “Ew.” Spike said with a huge tone of disgust. Rolling my eye I use my magic to lift up a card, it was slightly larger then a hoof, and rectangular in shape. “It's just a card spike.” “Oh” he said now seeming fully awake. He leaned over to look at the card himself. The card had a dark blue trim with a picture of three poines, each of which was from one of the three types unicorn, pegasai, and earth pony. The were each facing a a light that glowed in the center of the three. “What is that?” Spike asks curiously. “It looks like some sort of playing card.” I say, although I wasn't sure myself. “probably for some silly filly's card game.” “I don't know.” “Something wrong spike?” Spike rarely questions something after I try explain what I think it might be. For him to still be curious about something only served to make me further examine the card. Turning it over revealed a perfectly blank but shiny side. “That's odd,” I say squinting to make sure that I wasn't just seeing the shine. “almost every card has two sides. One side to make them look similar and one to indicate some sort of status or type.” “Hmmm.” Spike hummed as if he was trying to think of someplace he might have seen the card before. But it was obvious he was failing if you took just one look at his face. “Well whatever game it's from, I should probably put turn it in to the lost and found.” I levitate the card to spike so that he could hold on to it for me. “hold on to this until then, okay?” “Sure.” Spike says as he grips onto the card and studies the blank side ever closer. Little did either of us know that that one card was going to change the course of our lives. In that one moment I was the oblivious innocent one, and spike might just have the knowledge to save all of Equestria. Author's Note This story is a random side project. I do not know if i will finish it, but if the response if good, I just might. that being said please enjoy it!
Chapter 2T: The Night of MagicI awoke to the sound of a low humming. It wasn't very loud or anything, but it was still strange. I lit my horn so I could see what was going on. Spike was laying in his bed just like normal, his blanket a tangled mess from all his tossing and turning. The low hum seemed to be coming from down stairs. Lifting my blanket up with a little telekinetic magic, I got out of bed. My legs shook a little under my weight simply because I wasn't awake yet. When I got to the railing just before the stairs the humming seemed to get louder. I continued down the stairs to find the source of the sound, only to also find a simple glow emitting from one of the rooms to left. The crystal floor and walls echoed my hoof steps as I walked to the room. In the dead of night the castle sometimes seemed scarier then it actually was. The light of my horn helped to calm what little nerves I had while lighting my way to the glowing room. With each step the light emanating from the room seemed to get brighter and brighter. Finally I stopped just out side of the doorway, slightly anxious to find out what was going on. “Hello?” I say poking my head ever so slightly to the side to see who, or what was making that light. The light itself illuminated the room, allowing me to see that this was Spike and my closet for storing our packs and clothes, mostly my clothes but still. The light seemed to be coming from one of the packs on a near by table. “What the hay?” throwing caution out the window, I walked into the room and marched right over to the pack. I had to squint my eyes in order to make sure that the light coming from the pack wouldn't blind me. Using my magic I grabbed the clasp and opened the pack. One with one blinding flash of light the room suddenly became dark. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust, but as soon as I was able to I lit my horn for only a little bit of a glow as I found only one item in the pack, the blank card I found just the other day. But something about it seemed different, but I just couldn't seem to place my hoof on what it was. “Twilight?” My name being called out so suddenly made me jump. Turning around I saw that spike was in the door way his eyes slightly drooping from exhaustion. He stood there staring at me, his gaze partially empty because of his sleepless state. “Oh hello Spike.” I say trying to calm my nerves. “What are you doing up this late?” Spike stood there scrunching his face as he thought. “I'm not sure, I just suddenly woke up and had the feeling I needed to come down here.” While that was odd, I didn't really pay any mind to what Spike had said. My mind was still more concerned what was going on with that strange card. “Why are you down here Twilight?” He asked. I froze for a moment, simply because I didn't know what to say. Trying for a smile, I simply told him that I had forgotten something down here. Spike frowned and shook his head at me. “Twilight your worse at lying then Applejack.” “Hey!” I felt completely offended by that. “Whatever I'm going back to bed now.” Spike walked away without another look back. I turned back around to look at the card. Levitating the card closer to my eye looked as closely to it as I could, but I still couldn't tell what was off about it. “I may have to write about this to Celestia.” I had never seen anything react like that that didn't have some massive amount of magic contained in it. Placing the card back into the pack, I made a mental note to study it. Morning seemed to come earlier than usual as I looked out the window and noticed the beams of light coming from the glass panes. Throughout the rest of the night I had spent a good portion of it looking through the archives of my knew library section to try and find anything that had to do about cards. Only several books were were salvaged from the old library, but thankfully most of those had been the ones I had keep in a special storage chest protected by a spell. Of course none of those book had anything on cards, stuff about old magical artifacts. Those had been the first books I looked through but came up with no results. Hours of searching turned up no results for what I was looking for. Dozens, if not hundreds, of books littered the floor of the large room. Several shelves had empty spaces where many of the books were supposed to be. My frustration was growing by the second, there was nothing on this type of card in any of the books I had. One of the beams of light partly blinded me as the suns light hit my face. Finally getting me to put down the books. “Morning already?!” Getting to my hooves I started using my magic to put all the books back in there proper places. As soon as I finished putting the books away, then I gathered the card and the pack carrying it. I race down the hall and out the door. Spike was probably to tired to send a message to the princess, but thankfully I knew a very secret way to contact her, one that I myself had come up with years ago. I ran towards the outskirts of town and towards one of the many little lakes that ponies used to keep cool in summer. Nopony was around simply because of the fact it was fall and starting to get cold. The water was shining and shimmering in the beautiful sun light. Walking up to the waters edge calmly, I scanned the area just to make sure that there really was nopony around. Thoroughly satisfied that I was alone, I quickly went to work on the spell. The water slowly began to swirl around right in front of me. A small whorl pool began to form and take shape, slowly settling into an almost perfect image of Celestia. “Celestia!” I shout. The image shakes and shrinks a little before it turns to face me. “Twilight?” I could hear Celestia's voice come from the image in the water. Confirming that the spell had been successful. As a child Celestia would often drink tea early in the morning just after she would raise the sun. I had come up with this spell while studying under her in my early years. Her guards were often to strict to let me go see her in the mornings. This spell was my solution. “Yes, Prin-er . . . yes, Celestia it's me.” The image looked straight at me. “Well this brings back memories of when you first started appearing in my tea, as you are now. May I ask why you have chose this means to contact me?” With a slight blush I looked the image of Celestia in the eye. “Spike is most likely still asleep and I did not want to wake him. Besides I thought it would be better to talk to you in a more . . . direct way.” Celestia raised an eye brow at me and motioned for me to continue. Taking a deep breath I used a little more magic to pull the card out of my pack. “Spike and I found this card the other day on our walk back from Applejack's house.” Celestia did her best to try and look at the card, “forgive me if I fail to see how that is relevant.” I move the card closer to the image in the water. “Last night I heard a rather odd humming sound that woke me up. When I went to investigate the source of the sound I found this card glowing crazy bright in my pack.” Celestia placed a hoof to her chin trying to examine the card, most likely through her cup of tea. “I do not recognize this card Twilight, but I would suggest you keep it under watch if you feel as though something is strange about this particular card.” “Okay Celestia.” “But,” she says with a hint of skepticism. “Be careful. If I can not tell you what this item is. It may contain magics far more dangerous then that of even the 'alicorn amulet', and that is if this card is a magic item.” Biting my lip I nod to let Celestia know that I understood what that may mean. “Alright Celestia. I'll keep a watchful eye out.” “One more thing.” Taking a deep breath as I waited for Celestia to continue. “You may want to also consult Discord, for he may know somethings that even I do not know.” “Alright Princess, thank you for the advice.” With one final farewell I ended the spell. Leaving myself alone by the waters edge. Taking out the card one more time I looked at the blank side once again. Only this time the blank side seemed to have the faintest of images on it. Author's Note Yay! Chapter 2! I have a little game for everyone, in the titles of all the chapters there will be simple secret that will help you figure out something vary useful about all the chapters of this story. take your guess as to what that secret is and put your idea down below. there will be no prizes for anyone, but it should still be fun to try and figure out the secret. Enjoy the story and my little game!
Chapter 3S: Frustration and Resoluteness“GAAHH!” With an immense sense of anger boiling up I grabbed another book and started flipping through it. This one was about ancient magical items believed to be from the prediscordian era. “Why can't I figure out where I've seen that damn card is from!” My nostrils fumed in irritation, making smoke rise as I clawed my way through the book looking for the information I sought out. Having not found the information yet again I added the book to the growing pile next to me. Placing my hand on the temples of my head in agonizing frustration I knew I was missing something, but what was it. That damn card was so familiar to me, but I didn't know why. There was just something that really irritated me about it, almost like it was highly important for me to remember. The sound of the front door opening and closing. After a moment of silence a voice called out into the corridor. “Spike are you up yet?” “Yeah Twilight.” I reply quickly knowing full well that my irritation had seeped into my words. Hoof steps grew louder as, undoubtedly, Twilight walked closer to the room. She stepped by the door for a second, probably not thinking that I would be in the library area of my own volition. But she stopped in her track as she probably noticed me out of the corner of her eye. “Spike!?” Twilight said as she turned in place to look at me. “Why are you sitting in the library reading all those books?” If I didn't know any better I would have taken offense to the statement. “I'm doing some research Twilight. Just call to me if you need anything, alright.” Twilight seemed utterly speechless, it was almost as if a timber-wolf took her tongue away. She seemed taken aback as if somepony had just slapped her across the face. “uh, um, okay. Just come talk to me if you need anything, I'll just be, uh. . . going over to Fluttershy's home.” I bury my face into another book and start skimming the content looking for the information on that stupid card. “Sure what ever Twi.” Being to busy with what I was doing I didn't notice when Twilight left, but it was obvious that I was alone once some time passed and not a sound could be heard. Well except for the sound of books moving in and out of place. Slowly my frustration began to build again, until I couldn't take it anymore and threw the books across the room. “Celestia damn it all!” I yelled as smoke and fire began to slowly shoot out of my nose and mouth. “Wait a minute . . .” I say as an idea struck me. Face palming so hard that I partly make myself slightly dizzy, “that's my answer, Princess Celestia!” Moving as quickly as possible I put all the books back to there proper place, and start running back to Twilight's and my room. Quickly I gather the parchment and quill and start writing. Dear Princess Celestia, This is Spike writing to you. I would like to make a small request, if at all possible. Could you please send over any copies of books that involve mystical items, or old magical artifacts? Maybe even mythological artifacts if possible. The reason I ask such an odd request is because Twilight and I found a rather curious card the other day and I have the most irritating feeling like I should know what it is. I had saw Twilight inspecting the card late last night after I saw the room she entered stop glowing. I had been so tired that I had dismissed it as nothing, but now I'm not to sure. I will understand if you dismiss this letter, but could you please consider it. This has been driving me crazy and I would at least like some help if at all possible. From, Princess Twilight's faithful assistant Spike the dragon! Taking one quick look over the letter I felt confident that it would do the job. With swift practiced movements, caused only by years of doing this, I rolled up the letter sealed it and sent the letter to Celestia in a puff of smoke. With a relaxed sigh I let myself calm down a little. I was riling myself up so much that I hadn't realized the day was half over until I had send that letter. Maybe I was making this out to be more then it actually was, but for some reason I could not let this be. “This must be how Twilight feels sometimes.” I say finally understanding how she could feel so stressed sometime. Deciding to take a moment to breath, I start heading to the kitchen to grab a snack. Thankfully I still had my hidden stash of gems Twilight didn't know about. Oh it made my mouth water just thinking about all the rubies, emeralds, topaz, and amethysts. Walking into the kitchen I double checked that no one was near. Satisfied that I was in fact alone, I walked over to the to left side of the kitchen, right next to the sink and coffee pot. Carefully placing my hand on one of the tiles that covered the kitchen. Carefully I slip one of my claws in between the seems of the tile and lift it to reveal a little hole filled with a variety of gems. Grabbing a fist fully of gems I went out of the kitchen and started eating a few gems. Little bits of broken gem hit the ground as I walked and ate. It felt kind of good to just relax and calm my nerves a little bit after stressing about that card so much. After walking back to Twilight's and my room I decided to pull out a comic book and start reading. Looking through my little shelf of comics I pick out one of my favorites and started flipping through it. Suddenly I felt something burbling up from the pit of my stomach. It was a familiar feeling I knew quite a bit about. Quickly I put my comic book of to the side so that I don't accidentally burn it. Almost instantly I burped and flames shot out of my mouth. The fire swirled around for a moment before becoming a parchment with Celestia's royal seal on it. Right at that moment Twilight walked through the open doorway just as the letter fell to the ground. “Oh hey Spike, is that a letter from Celestia?” She quickly levitated the letter to herself and opened it up, she took only a glance before turning it away. She looked to me and gave the letter back, “This letter is addressed to you spike. Do you know why Celestia would be writing to you?” Nodding I began to explain that I asked her to send over some extra books to help me with my research, but I kept my mouth shut about what I was researching. No need to worry Twilight about something that may not actually be anything. I open the letter and start reading. Dear Spike, I will be shipping copies of those books you asked for to you. They should arrive in just a day or two. Twilight had told me about the card you found. She has her own suspicions about this card. I told her to keep an eye on it just in case. If both of you are suspicious of this card, it has me slightly worried, please be careful when dealing with it. Also you may want to talk to Twilight about what Discord may have said about the card. I myself could not recognize it as something important, but I figured discord may. He is much older than even I, so could know if the item in question is dangerous or not. Sincerely, Celestia After a moment of silence and a couple of rereads I turned to Twilight. Several questions were running through my mind at once but one had me slightly more confused then the others. “You were able to talk to Celestia without going through me?” Twilight who was reading a book turned to me questioningly. She closed the book and placed it on a near by table with her telekinesis magic. “I have a spell that allows me to communicate with her, but only if we're both near some body of liquid at the same time. Meaning it's not always reliable like with your fire, but it can still get the job done if those conditions are met.” “Oh!” I say feeling like that would have been a good thing to know about a long time ago. “Well then I have just one more question for you.” Twilight's eyebrow twitched up a little in confusion, but she gestured for me to continue. “What did Discord say about the card we found?” For a moment Twilight seemed taken aback by my question. She started swaying from side to side slightly. She bit her bottom lip lightly before she turned her eyes away from me. “how did you know about that?” she asked, probably trying to avoid the question. “Celestia told me. Now it's your turn to answer my question.” Reluctantly Twilight sighed and turned to face me, although she kept her eyes facing anywhere else but at me. “Discord said he didn't recognize it, but he could tell that it was a powerful magic item. Not only that but he also it used a highly advanced built in spell matrix that follows a certain set of commands. Other then that he was completely unsure of what it could and couldn't do. He just told me to keep an eye on it like Celestia said.” “So,” I say letting puzzle pieces fall into place in my mind. “This thing is even outside of Discord's knowledge. Meaning that it could be even older than him.” “And if that's the case,” Twilight says jumping into the conversation to help me. “it could be more dangerous then we know.” “But,” I say as lift up the letter Celestia sent to me. “We may actually have some record of what it might be. I know that the card seems familiar, so that must mean at some point I had to have read about it.” Twilight perked up a bit, “Which means we could possible identify what this card actually is and if it really is dangerous.” “Exactly!” I shout with a slight smug happiness. “We just have to be careful and wait to see if I can find the information once the books I requested get here. Then we should have everything we need to determine if the card is dangerous and/or can be destroyed if the need should arise.” “So,” Twilight says as she looks to me. “What do we do until than?” I sigh and look Twilight dead in the eye. “We go about our business as usual, carefully watch the card, and wait. That's about all we can do right now.” Author's Note Yay! new chapter out! I can't believe I wasn't able to get this out sooner, I am so Sorry! Collage got in the way and made me a tiny bit late on writing this. I took pretty much all day to churn this story out, but I think it came out pretty decent. Hope you all enjoy, this story is one that may get a little confusing after a while but i will answer any questions that anyone needs answered, as long as they don't contain any spoilers that is. either way enjoy the story and if you have any theories please share them for everyone to see.
Chapter 4S: Pinkie sense FAILS?!With a sigh, I sat at my table off to far side of Sugar Cube Corner with one of Miss. Cakes newest creations for dragons 'raspberry ruby muffins'. The muffin was sitting on the table little bits of berries and rubies poking out of the bread. It looked great, amazingly delicious even. But for some reason I just couldn't seem to find my stomach. “What's wrong Spike?” came the bubbly voice of Pinkie Pie. She looked her usually self, big, pink, and bouncy, but today she had a somewhat concerned look on her face. She sat at the other side of the table from me. Thankfully I had come into Sugar Cube Corner not long after the lunch rush so pinkie was mostly free to just sit down and talk to me. “I'm just stressed out, I guess.” My claw slowly moves over to the bag I was carrying with me. Today Twilight had told me stop studying and take some time to relax. I knew she had a point, Twilight usually did. But I just couldn't get my mind off of that card. Nearly four days of constant research had taken it's toll on me. Celestia had sent me nearly 6 full carts of books. Each book talking about at least one of the topics I had asked her to send to me. I immediately went to work and forgot about almost everything else. Before I knew it four days had passed and Twilight had to pull me out of my research. 'Spike your almost obsessive about finding out what this card is, you hadn't even talked to Rarity when she came over the other day.' Twilight pulled the books away from me, forcefully gave me a bath, and handed me some money. She had talked to me a little about the fact I needed to take a break and eat something, surprisingly I hadn't eaten for nearly two days. She had handed me this bag and said that the card was in there along with enough money to pay for some food. The card was with me simply because she had wanted me to hold on to it for a while because she was going to be out of town and the card was starting to put off some type of odd magic vibe. The bag had a spell on it to prevent the card from sending out that feeling, and she felt better keeping the card in Ponyville because it was less likely to get stolen when compared to Manehattan. “Maybe a party will help!” yelled pinkie, suddenly bringing me back my scenes. “Uh . . . Maybe . . .” I say suddenly feeling a little confused, but Pinkie was smiling like her usual self again. “Hm . . .” hummed Pinkie as she tapped a hoof to chin. “Maybe a simple party, or maybe we can get you a spa day with Rarity and have a little party here at Sugar Cube Corner. What do you think Spike? Do you think either of those will help you have a good relaxing party?” Pinkie looked to me again with a smile on her face, and expecting glint in her eyes. “Oh.” I say finally realizing what Pinkie was asking me. “Uh, not really Pinkie.” Pinkie's eyes got really wide, her mouth somehow dropping to the floor. She was staring at me as if I had just said Nightmare Moon was returning and teaming up with Tirek and Discord, and they were suddenly wielding the power of the tree of harmony. I nearly fell back in my chair at the sight of Pinkie face. My heart was racing and fumbled to try and keep myself balanced. “What's wrong?” I ask, trying to lower my heart rate. For a moment Pinkie didn't do or say anything, she looked almost statue like as she at me. “I'm just surprised.” is all she said. Wait, Pinkie Pie, surprised by me? That was a new one, I can never surprise her. She always seems to just . . . know things. “Surprised? Surprised by what?” Pinkie blinked at me. “You barely acknowledged my idea of you and Rarity spending time together. At a spa. Alone.” She said enunciating carefully so I got the point. Biting my lip, I knew she had a point, that was seriously not like me. Why would I ever turn down an opportunity to be with the mare I love. Maybe I was taking this whole thing with the card a little to seriously. With a sigh and gentle smile I looked to Pinkie and told her I should be fine, I would just need to take a couple steps back. Heck even Twilight has never been as bad as I have been over the past few days. I was being way to obsessive about this one little thing, and it was getting bad. My stomach growled and suddenly that muffin was looking all that much more tasty. Grabbing the muffin I took a bite from it. The wonderful crunch of the ruby combined with the taste of the raspberry muffin to make it an amazing treat. “I think I'll be fine, Pinkie.” She smiled at my words and I could tell she seemed a little relieved to here that. “I could at least use a couple more of these though.” Pinkie smiles at me and nods. “Okie Dokie Loki.” She gets up and bounces around to the back of the store. After a few moments I could hear the clatter of some metal and some voices. What was going on back there? Finishing my muffin, I hopped down from my chair and made sure my bag was carefully slung over my shoulder before going around the counter, and into the back. As soon as I opened the door a slight cry of pain and the feeling that the door hit something solid got my attention. Immediately I knew I had accidentally hit someone with the door. “Ow.” Cried Mr. Cake as he clutched his muzzle. “Why didn't you warn me Pinkie?” I could see Miss. Cake standing next to Pinkie with a questioning look on her face. But what really caught my attention was the look of surprise on Pinkie's face, her eyes were wide, her mouth hung open slightly, her hair looked deflated, and for some odd reason she was covered in either flour or sugar. After a moment Pinkie said something under her breath that I never would have caught had Miss. Cake not asked what she had said. Pinkie said it again, louder this time, but still nopony heard what she said. Mr. and Miss. Cake exchanged a worried look at each other before looking to Pinkie again. “Come again?” Asked Mr. Cake. “I said 'I didn't know'.” Pinkie replied finally able to speak at a level we could all hear. “'Didn't know' what?” I asked speaking up and letting my presence be know. “I didn't know Mr. Cake would need to watch out for a door opening.” At first I didn't really get what she was talking about. Pinkie was acting strange even for her. But as soon as I looked to the Cake's I knew they understood what Pinkie was talking about. And I was about to ask what was wrong, but Miss. Cake spoke before I could. “Pinkie.” She said, “Are you telling me that your Pinkie sense didn't warn you about the door?” With as simple nod of conformation Pinkie looked at her hooves. “I didn't know the flour was going to fall either.” Suddenly everypony was looking at each other and at Pinkie, who seemed the most surprised of us all. Her Pinkie sense failing? That had to mean something was very wrong. The air in the room started to become thick with tension as we all just looked at each other. *Sniffle* We all watched as Pinkie slowly began to cry and fall to the floor. Nopony seemed to know what to do, normally Pinkie was the one who knew how to cheer others up. But this time Pinkie was the one need to be cheered up. Without thinking, I walked over to Pinkie as she hid her face behind her hoofs and hear tears were falling to the ground, and pulled her into a hug. Pinkie wrapped her Hooves around me and she continued to cry on my shoulder. Speaking softly I did my best to reassure Pinkie that it would all be okay, it would just take some time. After a while Pinkie calmed down enough that she finally stopped crying, of course I was partly covered in both flour and tears. So I tried to make a quick joke about being ready to be the tasty spike cake I was meant to be. That got pinkie to laugh a little and you could tell she was feeling better because of the fact her hair was puffy again. But she still looked a little upset. Mr. and Miss. Cake helped me and Pinkie get cleaned up and closed the shop for the rest of the day. After some more time comforting Pinkie and carefully helping her into bed I walked out the front door receiving thanks from the whole cake family. As I look to the sky I can see Luna's moon high in the sky. Oh great I'm late getting home. I guess I'll just have to hurry. The cool night air felt nice against my scales but my bag felt heavy and warm. I didn't bother to look at anything as I ran back to the castle. I just ran as fast as I could trying to avoid have a worse punishment from Twilight. Finally the castle came into view and in the moonlight it looked way more ominous, almost foreboding. Steeling my nerves I walked up to the doors and slowly opened them up. The first thing I see as I walk through the door is Twilight walking towards me with a very angry look on her face. “Where have you been?” Twilight demanded as she stopped only a couple inches from my face. I was backed up against the door, feeling trapped. “Helping the Cake's take care of Pinkie.” What ever Twilight had been expecting, she obviously wasn't expecting me to say that. She backed off a little with a confused look on her face. “What?” was all she could say. I began to explain the events of the day to her and as I went on Twilight's eye seemed to get bigger and bigger, by the end you would think her eyes would be bulging out of her head. We stood there for a little while as Twilight processed everything. Finally, Twilight sighed and pulled me into a hug. “You did good Spike.” “Thanks Twi.” Twilight broke the hug and looked me in the eye. “just try to make sure I know if your going to do something like that again. I almost thought someone attacked you because of that card or something.” The card. . . “The card!” I yelled as something dawned on me. Twilight was surprised by my outburst and had to step back as I ran past her. Pulling the bag up to my face I opened the flap and reached into the bag and pulled out the card. I could hear the sound of hoof falls not far behind me, but I didn't care to look back. There was something I had to take a look at. The card was held firmly in my claw as I ran towards my destination. Turning the corner I ran into the room where Twilight kept all the books we had. By passing the books Celestia sent me I went straight to the spell book section. I quickly pulled a specific book and started flipping through the spells. “Spike?” Twilight called out. Soon enough I could hear Twilight coming up behind me, her breathing shortened. “What are you doing Spike?” Finally founding the spell I was looking for, and with a quick turn I showed Twilight the pages. “I think the card can use spells!” I say. As soon as I said it Twilight looked to the book and her eyes got wide with shock. She immediately the book in her magic. As she read the spell her eyes got wider and wider. When she finally looked back up to me the realization hit her like a ton of bricks. “Spike.” She said as her eyes drifted to the card. “This spell is advanced even for me. 'Control base' is a spell designed to manipulate not only creatures, but also take away and duplicate some of there natural abilities.” “I know.” I say causing Twilight to look at me strangely. “I've been reading a lot more material then you realize Twi. But that's no the point!” pointing to the book I bring the card up into Twilight's view. “That spell can still work on ponies if done right. It would explain why Pinkie's Pinkie sense stopped working. She was hanging around me for quite a while before the incident in the kitchen. I'm thinking this card used that spell and it affected Pinkie!” “Spike if that's true-” “I know Twilight.” I say interrupting her. “This is dangerous if it can use such a complex spell.” With a gulp Twilight looked back to the spell book, “We may need to talk to Discord again too. This spell requires at least the power of three unicorns normally, and that's just for the average slightly dangerous creature. To be able to affect a pony would require the power of at least Princess Luna.” Both of us looked at the card as if it was toxic. Only the most dangerous artifacts I had read about over the past couple of days had that much power. Author's Note Finally I get the next chapter out. This is where things are starting to get interesting. I hope you all enjoy this chapter! If you have any questions comment them below! I will try to reply as soon as I can.
Chapter 5T: His Determination and My ResolveI stood in the open doorway, looking at Spike as he continued to research. The day after he came back from Sugar Cube Corner we had sent a letter to the princess about what we thought the card had done to Pinkie. The princess replied with urgency in her letter saying that we should either seal the card or destroy it. Whatever this card was, it was dangerous. The ladder sounded like a safer option at first. But when I tried to you my magic to tear it, my magic got cut off for a couple seconds. I tried to blast it, but the shot hit the card and bounced back at me, nearly hitting me in the face. The last thing we tried was placing a shield around the card and tried to light the card on fire to burn it away. The result was small contained explosion that burned a circle into my castle floor and barely made the card warm. Finally Spike and I chose to seal the card away in a room we weren’t using with a special spell the made it so that only him of me could enter. The spell I used was probably the most powerful I could make. Spike had sent a letter to notify the princess about what had happened and went back to researching the card to see if he could find out what it was. It had been close to a week since then and he hadn’t stopped working except for when he needed to sleep. In that time Pinkie had told all of us about the fact her Pinkie scene had stopped working. Most of the girls tried to comfort her, but she just said that it was fine. I decided that I should let the rest of the group know about the card and told them about what Spike’s theory was. There were mixed reactions, but one thing seemed to be on everyponies mind. They all decided that if Spike and I were on the problem, they would do what they could too. But I had insisted that they just avoid being around the card as much as possible and go on as if nothing was happening. They didn’t seem to like that all too much, probably because they didn’t want something to happen to me, or Spike, but eventually they all gave in. “How's Spike taking all this?” Pinkie ask catching everyponies attention. I told them that he was doing massive amounts research to help fix the problem. And in the end the girls decided it was best that they at least check up on us a couple times a day. One would come by in the morning and another by the afternoon. All of them stayed for few minutes and all of them tried to get Spike's attention, but that was to no avail. Except when Pinkie came by, that was when Spike decided to put his work on pause and talk with others. He always had this apologetic look on his face when ever Pinkie would come by, and in the end him and Pinkie would always end up alone in the throne room, just talking. Even Rarity couldn't get spike to stop working and acknowledge she was there. But the second Pinkie even walked into the castle, he was already at the archway into the main hall to greet her. And almost as soon as she left Spike's would change back. He would go back into seclusion and pick up right where he left off. It was actually pretty scary, at times he would get so secluded and determined that I would need to go up to him and do almost anything I could to get his attention. Pinkie visited yesterday and as soon as she had gone home, Spike went straight back to work. But that time something seemed different about him. That was when I noticed the look in his eyes. A look I had seen at least a couple times before, but not on him. This look was a strong desire, a heavily fortified determination. A look that I had only ever seen in my enemies eyes when they sought to overthrow Equestria. But Spike's eyes still shone with a light to protect something he cared for. It sent chills down my back, and brought out a feeling I just couldn't recognize. Today Spike was working just like yesterday, his determination not wavering in the slightest. It was something I had always wanted to see in him, but the circumstances weren’t exactly what I thought would bring this side of him out. I watched as Spike puts one book down and reaches another, and just as he cracks open the new book his tail twitches slightly. The motion would have been lost from view had it not been for the fact he had looked back at his tail in confusion. A simple shiver ran down my spine and I felt my own tail twitch. Weird that’s never happened before. *CRASH* The sound of glass breaking jolted both me and Spike as we both got up and ran towards the sound. Rounding a corner, with Spike right behind me, we ran up several flights of stairs. The sound had been above us, and the only glass that we knew of that was up stairs were the winds and the sky light at the top floor. It was mostly used for night time star gazing, or in my case watching the constellations as they moved. Spike and I ran for the top floor, somehow we both seemed to know exactly where to go. Like something was driving us. As we reached top, I rushed through the door, Spike only a step behind me. There on the floor covered in cuts and glass laying all around her was Rainbow Dash. Even from close to three meters away. “Ugh. . .” Immediately I cast a spell to remove all the glass from the area, something that had been useful when beakers had broken on countless experiments. In the span of ten seconds the glass began to break down to dust, gather into a ball in the air, and return back to it's spot on the ceiling becoming the skylight I knew that it was before. Spike had run past me and over to Rainbow. Giving quick pursuit, I followed and found that rainbow looked less injured then at first glance. Most of her cuts looked minor, barely getting past the slight layers of skin, but they were pretty large still. As Rainbow groaned in pain she rolled over so that she was facing both me and Spike. If I had eaten lunch, their probably would have been vomit covering the floor as soon as I was the real extent of the damage. One of the things about my spell was that it didn't effect and glass that was embedded into something, or more specifically somepony. Rainbow dash had several pieces of glass sticking out of her left side and face. Several cuts were bleeding worse then the others causing smears of red to cover her coat and face. And from what I could tell, Rainbow had at least two large pieces of glass stuck in her side. “T-Twi . . . light . . .” Rainbow said as she looked up into my eyes. “W-what happened? D-did . . . I F-fall?” I didn't know how what to do, my mind froze up. “I think so Dash.” Spike said, his voice somehow coming across as calming. Rainbow turned so she could look at Spike, and I could see the flinch of pain it caused her. Suddenly my mind kicked into overdrive and I found myself antsy trying to find the nearest medical kit I could find. “Twilight!” Spike called to me to catch my attention. “Go get help! teleport if you have too. Just go!” Spike's commanding tone and the sudden strength in his voice shook me to my core and brought me into a focused state. Before I could even realize what I was doing I found myself following his order. My horn charged with a familiar feeling and the structure of a spell I had used hundreds if not thousands of times found it's way to the front of my mind. The spell discharged and found myself in the hospital across town. Several ponies looked in my direction to see what was happening. Looking around I tried to find one of the medical staff. My vision focused on the task at hand, I had to find somepony who I get help from. That's when Nurse Red-heart came into view. Without a second thought I ran over to her and grabbed her in my magic. Before she could even react I brought her with me through another teleportation back to the skylight room, and let her down gently. “Nurse we need your help!” Nurse Red-heart started to turn towards me when she saw the hurt figure of Rainbow Dash next to spike. I heard the silent gasp as she looked at the scene and lifted her hoof to her mouth. The shock in her eyes was genuine and I could just tell she looked like she was about to be sick. “Oh, my Celestia . . .” She said in a light whisper. Spike turned his attention away form Rainbow, in an instant the look in his eyes changed from soft and comforting into that of the one I've been seeing when he's researching the card. “Hurry. We need to get her ready for a teleport to the hospital emergency room!” Just like before Spike's change in voice brought me to attention, and with a glance I noticed that Nurse Red-heart seemed like she was in the same boat as me. I watched as she walked up to Spike and Rainbow dash. For few seconds I couldn't think about what to do. But now that I was calmer I remembered there was a med kit back in my room. Over the course of the next couple hours Spike and Nurse Red-heart had helped Rainbow, we got her transported to the hospital, and I had gone to the others to tell them what had happened. Right now we were all standing in silence just outside the operating room. I was sitting in a chair next to Spike, Pinkie, who' mane had gone limp, was sitting nest to Rarity and Fluttershy. Applejack was the only one not sitting down, instead she was pacing back and forth. “What's takin' them so long?” Applejack said in a hushed yet irritated voice. Rarity sighed and looked up at Applejack, “Deary please sit down. Your antsy behavior is a bit unsettling to the rest of us.” Applejack looked like she wanted to say something, but thought better of it and leaned up against the wall. I glanced over to Spike, he had been the one who's quick thinking had gotten me into action and gotten Rainbow into the hospital so quickly. He was sitting down his claws folded into each other, and his head held down. The light green flaps that covered Spike's ears flopped for a second and returned to normal, then his eyes fluttered for a second. Wait a minute, that seems familiar to me for some reason. That's when Spike's knee twitched. I felt a familiar rush in my back, that's when I felt the familiar uncontrollable felling rush through me. Ear flop, eye flutter, knee twitch. There was a short gasp as I realized why this seemed familiar. Reacting almost immediately I jumped to my hooves and got between Applejack and the now opening door. Luckily I had gotten up quick enough, and instead of the door slamming into Applejack, I got smacked by the rather hard door instead. A quick yelp of pain shot through me before the door pulled away from me. “Twilight!” Applejack and the others called out all at once. The door pulled away and Nurse Red-heart winced as she looked at me. “I'm sorry, Princess. I didn't know you were there!” She said quickly. “That's alright.” I say with a slight wince. “It's not your fault. How's Rainbow Dash.” Everypony turned to look at the nurse. “She will need to rest for a little while, but otherwise she should be fine.” With a sigh of relief, I heard the sound of somepony getting to their hooves. Turning around I noticed Pinkie was walking up to me, her eyes were hidden behind shadows. “You have it. . .” “W-What?” I ask unable to hear what she said. Pinkie's eyes shone past the shadows all of a sudden and she looked looked me dead in the eye, a dark feeling of anger directed at me. “WHY DO YOU HAVE MY PINKIE SENSE?!” I was shocked for a second before Spike spoke up, "What do you mean Pinkie?" Pinkie's features softened slightly as she turned around to face Spike. "I saw her Spike. I had looked up and saw the ear flop, eye flutter, knee twitch. The combo that meant 'Watch out for opening doors'." "That explains the tail twitch . . ." I say as the moments before Spike and I heard the crash came to mind. Everypony was staring at me now. I can feel the heat rush to my face as I realize that I had spoken aloud by accident. "Um. . . well I mean, that sounds like the most likely explanation for it." "What do you mean Twilight?" Spike asks. "I mean it explains why my tail twitched before we heard the crash." Spike's eyes suddenly widened. he was catching on quickly. "Wait Twilight," Everypony turns to the young drake. "doesn't that mean the card is connected to you!" "What?!" Everypony but Nurse Red-heart yelled. I had to admit that even I was confused and surprised by what spike was thinking. How would the card be connected to me? "If my first theory was right, the one about how the card was using that spell, then it would make since that the card would give the ability or skill it took and give it to the pony it's connected to right?" It did make since, the card could use the spell in that manner, and it would make even more since that the pony that it's bound to would receive the better end of the spell. But one thing was still bothering me. "Why me?" Spike thought for a moment, "Maybe because you were the first one to come into contact with it. That may have established a link between you and it." "Deary when did you learn so much about magic?" Rarity asked, her voice sounding rather impressed by Spike's knowledge. At this point I started to tune everything out. My mind started working on over drive. everything Spike said made sense and I couldn't deny the evidence of what just happened. Applejack would have been smacked in the face and probably seriously hurt if I hadn't known that Pinkie sense combo. After all it was the one I hated the most simply because it had always gotten me hurt. But there was something I knew about that Spike didn't and that was that if the card could affect me with the spell it may be using, then it could use me as a conduit for the spell too. That only left me with a few options. One, try to destroy the card again. Not exactly the best option, but it's still their. Number two, try and sever the connection between me and the card. But this option could be dangerous, if the bond is strong enough, or designed a certain way, then it could kill me in the process. Option three, let the deck fall where it may, and hope that the card doesn't work the way I'm speculating about. But that would be a dangerous gamble, and one where the odds are not in my favor. That only left one option left. "Spike." I say grabbing the groups attention. "As of this moment I am going to have to seal myself with the card. You are in charge of the castle and the only key that will allow you to get in and out of the room where I will be locked away. Only open the door if it's an emergency, or you have food to keep me alive. Understood?" There was dead silence in the hospital hallway that we were all standing in. "Twi," Applejack said breaking the awkward silence, "Ain't that a little drastic." Shaking my head I turned to face the whole group, "No it's not, I could be putting you all in danger just by being around you all." "Twilight, dear that's crazy. . ." Rarity tried to interject, but I cut her off almost Immediately. "It's the only way I can make sure your all safe." I say as my wings flair a little. "If the card is bound to me that means it could us me to do what it did to Pinkie. I will not let that happen to any of you." Fluttershy was about to say something when Nurse Red-heart interrupted, "Listen," she said with a calm and collected voice, "I may not know what's going on here. But I can tell that it's important and should probably be talked about in private, not in the middle of a hospital. My suggestion would be to leave and go talk somewhere else." She pointed to the clock which read about 3:27 pm. "Besides my shift ends in about three minutes and you're all blocking my way." We all shifted to let Nurse Red-heart pass. "I'll see you all at my castle." I say quickly teleporting away. "All I ask is that you all keep an eye on Spike while I'm gone." I say to the girls. We were all standing outside the door to the room I had enchanted to keep the card in. I had made even more preparations over the past few minutes so that the room could be self sustaining and could only be opened by a special key that changes and matches the signature of the lock. A simple precaution used to make sure I can't open the door from the inside with a spell. The girls were all gathered around me, they had tried to stop me from doing this, but they finally seemed to realize that I wouldn't budge on this. We had all said our little good byes, and the door to the room was open, ready to welcome it's newest prisoner. Giving Spike the key, I walked through the doorway and into the room. The soft sound of the door shutting and the definitive soft click of a lock was all I heard before utter silence filled the room. Like most of the other rooms in my knew castle this one was made out of crystal. But that's about where the similarities end because unlike most of the other room this one was almost completely empty other then the one crystal stand the stood in the center of the room. And that stand was currently being occupied by a flouting bubble shield containing a card spinning on a horizontal axis. I walked up to the pedestal and felt my resolve strengthen, "Whatever you are," I say knowing full well I was talking to inanimate object. "We will stop you!" No response. It wasn't like I was expecting something horrific or incredible to happen, but something felt odd about the silence that was plaguing the room. Maybe I was taking things to seriously, maybe I was being paranoid, maybe I . . . The card flouted spinning just as it had before, only now I could see that something had changed. The face of the card now had what looked like some creature with a weirdly human shaped body and face, but instead of eyes, a nose, and a mouth all I could see was an 'O' of some type. I stood there a gasp, the face of the card was there, and from what I can only guess, completely filled in. In the short time from when I locked the card up to now, it had almost completely filled the missing image in. The question was, did that mean the card was going to do something soon? and more importantly what was this card? Author's Note Yay new Chapter! Sorry if I haven't been updating all that much, I got school to take care of first. But I hope this chapter suits the people who are still waiting for more. Enjoy, hopefully we will all be seeing more soon enough.
