A Spiked Life

Chapter 12 - The Ponyville Marketplace
by LightningStrike34

Canterlot Castle

'Oh Luna, how I've missed you after all these years.' thought the Elder Diarch of Equestria with tears in her eyes as she looked towards her sister, I'm so glad we're finally back together after all this time, I cannot thank Twilight and her friends enough for this.'

Upon arrival, a scroll had appeared in a vapor of green flame in front of her as she read aloud, "Dear Princess Celestia, Spike and I were thinking about our recent monetary arrangements as we thought about a way to make a fair living." 'I'm glad to hear my faithful student is occupying her time doing something other than reading books.' "one of our options was to charge a late fee for any missing books as any good library does. The second option 'Oh?' is hoping you'll give us a weekly allowance for my own personal friendship studies with our new friends in Ponyville, I hope this doesn't come as a hinderance to you as I'll hope you'd understand. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

Celestia closed the scroll in her grasp before the Younger Diarch spoke in response, "Well sister? Art thou going to agree to thy students request? T'is reasonable is it not?"

"Of Course Luna," she spoke. "I wouldn't see it any other way. It's the least I can do to help her get back on her hooves so to speak."

"Verily Celestia ," the Lunar Princess spoke. "Thou still art in possession of thee Royal Vault art thou not?"

"Of course, I was just on my way there now. Care to join me?" The Solar Diarch said with a calm expression

"But of course! T'is been ages since we've last seen each other. We would love to." Luna grinned

Celestia giggled, "Well come along sister, It's not that far a walk."

The two diarchs then made their way to the Royal Vault without much haste.

Spike's Perspective
Picking the cupcake off the ground, I took the pink wrapper off it as I took a bite. Biting into it felt like pure Ambrosia, a Cupcake practically made by gods themselves.

'I NEED MOAR!' Opening the bag I took out three more cupcakes as I shoved them all down my mouth with glee from the sugary bliss I was experiencing and sighed.

Twilight giggled, "Geez Spike, you must really like those Cupcakes huh?"

I nodded heavily, "They're the best cupcakes I've EVER had. It tastes like pure divinity."

Twilight's eyes widened, "If they're that good, maybe I should try one."

"NO!" I hissed, "They're miiiiine."

Twilight spoke up, "But didn't you tell me that Pinkie Pie asked you to give me some?"

I groaned, "Ugh fiiiiine, you can have one." I pulled out a blue frosted cupcake out from the bag as Twilight levitated it towards her mouth biting into it.

Twilight hummed, "Mmm, This is good! I just have to get the recipe for these."

I grabbed the last cupcake out from the bag as I gobbled it down, once again tasting the god-like pastry with glee. "We have to visit her sometime soon, those cupcakes were sooooo good."

"They taste just like a regular cupcake to me, I don't know why you're treating them so highly." Twilight said befuddled

"To me they just taste so... SUGARY. Maybe it's a dragon thing?" I purported

Twilight giggled, "Well in anycase, let's go do a little bit of shopping until we get a response from Celestia. It may take a bit longer than normal considering what we're asking her of."

"Yeah, that sounds good, do you know where to go Twilight?"

"We can just ask the locals for directions, it shouldn't be too difficult." Twilight responded, "Now, let's get going Spike, we don't have time to waste."

~12~

After about a few interactions and awkward glares later, one of the locals gave us directions to the local marketplace. The pony in question was a Grey Wall-eyed Pegasus with Blonde Hair as she told us, "Just go straight until you hit the next intersection and turn right, you can't miss it."

As we were walking I turned my head back to see her flying away as she had a saddlebag with several bubbles on it that was similar to the mark on her rump. 'Gee, you think I could do that?' I pondered. Looking back towards the road as I ran over to Twilight as we continued our way there.

When we finally reached the marketplace it was filled with a variety of vendor stalls as far as the eye could see, at one of the stalls nearby was a Unicorn mare with a blue mane and magenta colored eyes as I spotted the sign above her had an image of several banana bunches printed onto it. 'Gee, I wonder what she's selling.'

Looking over to the other stalls I spotted one that stood out to me as I made my way there, It looked to be an exotic food shop from the image on the sign as I tried to run there before I felt something pull me back. Looking over I could see the lavender glow from Twilight's Magic as I gave a sheepish grin.

Twilight scolded me, "We're not here to get Sushi, Spike. We're just here to get the basic commodities for now, not to spend, spend, spend like a mad mare until our money's gone!"

"Uh, yeah sorry. What are we here to get?"

Twilight responded, "Just a few eggs, fruits and a hoofful of other things. It shouldn't take too long."

"Okay, well where are we stopping first?" I asked

"Well, there should be an Apple cart somewheeeere... AHA! There it is."

Looking over to the area where she'd pointed was an apple stall about 12 feet away as we headed towards the stall, making our way there I saw what appeared to be an Orange Pony wearing a Cowboy hat as we tredged forwards and when we finally arrived she greeted us with a smile on her face as she spoke, "Howdy Twilight, Spike. Glad ta see ya here, care ta buy something?"

I stood there in shock as I blurted out a simple word, "Applejack?"