“When he popped out of the ground and saw Soren, he just fainted right then and there!”

“Who?”

“Yeah, and then when we asked him about what had happened to his parents he... he broke down crying.”

“Who.”

“Yeah uh… he really needed someone to lean on. So I took him under my wing... taught him a few things...”

As the voice trailed off, a grumbling beast began to stir.

From downstairs came a loud cackle, bristling the snoozing drake’s scales.

The little purple dragon sat up and stretched, suppressing his yawn with a claw. After rubbing his sore eyes clear of sleep, he begrudgingly discarded his blue blanket and stood. Another laugh rose out from below; the library’s central reading room called his name. Spike groaned.

“Twi?”

He squinted at the bed beside him where his friend lay; the lavender unicorn’s chest rose and fell slowly.

Twilight Sparkle, for all intents and purposes, was asleep.

Another round of shrill laughter erupted from downstairs, prompting the librarian’s assistant to sigh. He grumbled to himself as he clambered down the first of the many steps on the library’s staircase, careful not to slip and fall in the bleary low-light setting.

“Who the hay is up at this time of night?”

The drake’s claws clitter-clattered to a stop just beyond the final step of the staircase. It was there he stood awestruck, taking in the sight laid before him.

The towering gray owl swiveled its head towards the frozen child and dulled its laughter. Caught in the headlights of the predator, the dragon’s heart began to pound.

Claws wrapped around the edges of the central reading table, the owl peered forth at Spike. Another creature in the room also rested their gaze on the dragon; sitting on his usual perch was Owlowiscious. The familiar gave a single hoot and swooped across the room, alighting with a soft click beside the imposing gray owl.

“Who.” Owlowiscious greeted, but Spike was too weak to respond.

After a few moments, the large gray owl let out a quiet churr.

“So,” the owl began, “you must be the ‘number one assistant’ that Owlow was talking about.” The great gray ruffled his feathers a bit and took a step forward on the table.

Spike, feeling a little intimidated by the haven-intruding owl, took a step back and swallowed thickly. “E-heh, yeah… that would be me.”

The owl eyed him again for a moment. Seconds passed by as the owl's stare intensified.

“Owlow’s told me good things about you,” the great gray affirmed. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Much to Spike’s surprise, the owl bent over with a bow. Straightening out, his broad beak broke into a smile. “The name’s Twilight. Yours?”

In that moment, the little assistant’s natural instinct

“I'm Spike!” With a rapidly widening beam, he jabbed his thumb inwards. “Twilight’s number one assistant!”

Twilight’s face quickly grew deadpan. “You’re not my assistant.”

“Of course not! I’m Twilight’s assistant.”

Twilight's feathers ruffled with irritation. “But I’m Twilight.”

Spike could feel Twilight’s patience growing thin.

Spike began to sweat, feeling intense heat filling the room. “Well, you see… There’s a pony upstairs and her name is Twilight… and your name is Twilight…” Spike sputtered as he repeatedly gestured towards the stairwell. “...the Twilight I know—”

Twilight, having finally lost his patience, groaned. “Spike.”

“Y-Yeah?” Spike asked, sweat dripping from his brow.

"Just… call me T.”

“You got it!” His enthusiasm was awarded with a quiet groan from upstairs. “Oh!” he whispered hastily. He spoke again in the much quieter tone. “You got it!”

Twilight rolled his eyes at Spike, then turned his head to Owlowiscious.

“Are you sure this is the uh… what’s the word... dragon, that you were talking about?”

“Who.”

“Huh. I thought he would’ve been a little bit bigger… and smarter.”

Spike ignored the insult, more occupied with the new fact that had been brought to his attention; Owlowiscious had been the one to answer Twilight's question. Spike stood up from the floor.

“How’d you even meet Owlowiscious?” Spike asked, genuinely curious. “And how can you even understand him?” Much to Spike’s embarrassment, he recognized the stupidity of the second question too late.

“To answer your first question,” Twilight began, “I was taking a midnight flight over the Sea of Hoolemere when I ran into a thunderstorm and blacked out. When I woke up, I was on this table right here.” He tapped on the library’s center table with his right claw for emphasis.

“The Sea of Hoofamere? I’ve never heard of that place.”

Twilight groaned once more in annoyance.

“It’s Hoolemere, not Hoofamere or whatever you said.”

Spike gave him a cheeky grin in response, countered by a deadpan stare.

“Anyway,” Twilight continued. “I just sat up and Owlowiscious was there. He told me that he had found me outside and brought me inside. We talked for a little bit, introduced ourselves, and were in the middle of talking about each other’s pasts when you decided to show yourself.”

The dragon nodded, but he was more focused on the fact that Owlowiscious had carried an owl that was twice his size.

“And for your second question, is it really hard to put two and two together? We can understand each other because we’re both owls.”

To Spike instead of reviving his previous bout of embarrassment it brought up another question; If Twilight could speak Equestrian and was an owl, then that should’ve meant that Owlowiscious could speak Equestrian, too.

“Can Owlowiscious speak Equestrian?”

Twilight’s brow furrowed in curiosity. “Eh… Equestrian?”

“It’s what we call our language?”

“Ah!” Twilight blinked. “That’s a good question, I s’pose.” He turned towards Owlowiscious.

“Can you speak Equestrian, Owlow?”

“Who.”

Twilight responded to the owl's response with a frown.

“What’d he say?” Spike asked, confused.

Twilight ignored his question and pressed Owlowiscious further. “Why?”

“Who. Who. Who.”

Twilight gave him a curious look before he turned to Spike again.

“He says that the other Twilight—” Twilight leaned a little closer to Spike who quickly grew uncomfortable. “—and he said specifically ‘the other Twilight,’ told him that Equestrian owls couldn't move their beaks well enough to speak Equestrian, and some foreign... erm, avians?" Twilight took pause to look at Owlowiscious for an answer. He recieved a hoot in reply, and was quickly back on track. "Yeah, avians, could move their beaks in certain ways so that they could speak Equestrian. Well, sort of.” Once Twilight had finished his statement, he settled backwards once more.

Spike gave him a curt nod; he knew that those foreign birds obviously had to be parrots. “Makes sense to me.”

And yet it didn’t… Twilight obviously wasn’t a parrot. Where had he come from, anyway?

The trio sat in an awkward silence, all at a standstill on what to say next. The silence was broken by a loud yawn from Spike.

“Well, I was sleeping before you started laughing,” Spike muttered, rubbing at his eyes gently.

Twilight gave him a cheap grin. “I bring no apologies. There’s always time to party.”

Spike just sighed and turned to head back upstairs.

“I’m going back to bed.”

“Yeah, I kind of have to be getting back to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree…”

“Wait,” Spike stopped and turned back towards the great gray. “How will you even get back to your tree?”

“Good point,” Twilight said, idly looking around the room. His eyes landed on Spike after a moment.

“Mind if I crash in your tree for a while?”

Twilight smiled softly as she awoke. She could hear the birds chirping softly outside the window and smell the delightful aromas of her assistant’s cooking as the scents wafted in from downstairs. Her mouth broadened further as the prospect of a homemade breakfast on a Saturday morning formed in her mind. Slowly, she cracked open her eyes...

…only to find herself gazing into the eyes of a great gray owl.

“Hello there! My name’s Twilight! It’s great to finally meet you!”

Spike smiled as he flipped another pancake in his pan. The screams of the two Twilights upstairs made for quite the morning melody.

Spike loved Saturday mornings.

Author's Note

Relevant.
Anyway, this just so happens to be my first story on Fimfiction. That's not all I have to say though. There are three people I would like to thank for the encouragement.

Soaring, thank you for the helpful tips about using "as" and your sudden outburst that let me know about your love of the Guardian's of Ga'Hoole series. When this story is done and you read this note, I'd like you to know that you've successfully gotten me to publish a story.

NickyDs, thanks for the follow and believing I was cool. I think that you and Soaring's follow got me into the mood to start finishing this story.

And last but not least, The Descendant. I would like to thank you very much for the comments and chats we've had in my very own comments section. You encouraged me to start writing fanfics after I saw your own stories. You were also one of the first authors on this site to draw me in with your story, and although it took me 84 weeks to finally read the second part of that story it, it was very much worth the read.

There are many others I could thank, but for now, I'd just like to thank the Fimfiction community and to those who read this story and leave some sort of response, be it a like, a favorite, a comment, positive or negative, I thank you.

Haha, I was so cheesy when I was younger. Edited 24/4/17.

Haha, I didn't know how to edit at all when I was younger. Edited July 11, 2018.

Haha, I got lazier. I didn't edit this. Nobody's going to read this fic too much anymore, but I consider this a nice trip down memory lane for myself. Maybe I'll finish it. Probably not. I started this story when I was just getting into high school, and now I'm about to graduate. Enjoy your life, people, and cherish the times when 'you were young.' Message received May 30th, 2019.

5-4-21
Just do what you want. Distract yourself, don't let others distract you. Make friends and keep them close. Pony forever.