A Spiked Life

Interlude I - The School Assignment
by LightningStrike34

Windsor Elementary School (September 16th, 1999)

"Okay class, listen up! I have one last special assignment to give you all today." Mr. Andrews said as the class and I looked over, "Considering the new year is slowly reaching upon us, I want each and every one of you to do a research project on the previous decade in hopes to move forwards into the new age."

The rest of the class groaned while I rolled my eyes as he interjected, "I know, I know, but just hold on a second class. This will be a lot more fun than you think," I had a confused expression before he continued. "We're going to be researching cartoons from the 80's, and to decide who does what," Mr. Andrews pulled out a hat as he put it on his desk saying, "You'll be drawing names from this hat."

One kid spoke up from the rest of the class, "So, if we pulled out The Ninja Turtles, we'd have to write about The Ninja Turtles?"

Mr. Andrews perked up, "That is correct, thank you Billy. Now, would anyone care to go first?"

Most of the Class and I held our hands in the air until I saw him looking towards me, "Stephen, please step up front to grab a name from the hat."

As I was walking my way over to the desk, I heard a nagging voice speak out, "Hey, no fair! I wanted to go first. Are you just giving him special treatment just because he's Asian?"

Mr. Andrews responded sternly, "He was simply the first person I saw, you'll get your turn eventually Maxwell."

Max grumbled as I stuck my hand in as I pulled out a name, "Rescue at Midnight Castle?"

A girl speaks up catching me off guard saying, "Hey! My mommy showed me that one. It was a bit scary but also fun."

"Isn't that that My Little Pony Movie?" Alex said chuckling as the rest of the guys joined in laughter.

I turned to face them saying, "Hey, you may be laughing now but wait until one of you chumps pull out 'Barbie's Magical Dream Adventure' and then we'll see who gets the last laugh."

Walking back over to my desk I felt myself falling over as a girl caught me in her arms, "Careful, you'll get hurt if you fall like that."

I chuckled, "Thanks Lill, I think someone may have tried messing with me." I said looking over at Max whistling nonchalantly, "I'm glad to have a friend like you looking out for me."

Lilly giggled, "Anytime Stephe, you're like the little brother I've never ha-" She was cut off as the school bell rung out signaling the end of the day.

Mr. Andrews called out in alarm to the sound of the school bell ringing, "It's that time already? Ok class line up over to my desk in an orderly fashion and I'll give you each a tape to watch and study."

"Sorry, gotta go. My Dad is probably waiting for me to get outside, see ya Lill." I said waving her off grabbing my things as Mr. Andrews stopped me near the doorway as I walked out.

"Hold on just a second Stephen, don't forget this on your way out." Held in his hand was a VHS Tape, in black marker had 'Rescue at Midnight Castle' written on it as I grabbed it stuffing the Tape in my backpack.

"Thank you Mr. Andrews, but my dad is waiting for me to get outside. See you tomorrow." Waving him off as I walked I glanced inside to see my remaining classmates walking over to his desk handing out VHS tapes one by one as I looked back heading outside to look for dad's car.

Montgomery, Alabama

Walking out into the parking lot I see my dad's car running over to it quickly, when dad sees my face he yells at me to come over in Japanese getting in as he makes the journey back to our house to get home in time for dinner.

On the ride home, my little sister Maggie is playing with one of those sticky hand toys as dad asks me in Japanese, "How was school today? Good grades I would hope right?"

"Yeah Dad, It's Good Grades overall as usual. Nothing too impressive."

Dad had a stern voice before speaking, "Would you say the same thing if your grades were underaverage?"

I responded before being cut off, "Well, no but-"

"Then I have proven my point."

Sighing I pulled out the VHS Tape from my bag as I saw Maggie look over to me with curiousity in her eyes, "Hey big brother, what's that?"

I responded, "It's part of some assignment Mr. Andrews gave me, he said we would have to write a paper on it. I think it's a movie?"

Handing it over to her she read the written text on the front, "Rescue at Midnight Castle? Oh, I heard that Toby's sister saw it with her mom from what he told me. He said it was really good."

"One of the girls in my class said the exact same thing, they didn't mention her brother though. Do you know her name?"

Maggie replied, "I think Toby said her name was Sarah? Sorry big brother for not knowing..."

I consoled her, "Hey- Hey Sis, it's okay. You don't have to apologize, why don't you watch this with me when we get home?"

Maggie perked up at this smiling, "You really mean it? Thank you big brother!" She pulled me into a hug as I reciprocated her gesture.

"You're welcome sis, you really mean a lot to me. Now, if only we could-"

I was interrupted as Dad spoke up in Japanese, "We are here, everyone get out of the car."

The Sato Household

After stuffing the tape back into my backpack, I walked inside to see that Mom was chopping up some salmon as she heard us come in giving us a comforting smile, "Oh, hello you three." She looked at dad, "How was your day at work honey, was there any traffic on your way back?"

Dad was fiddling his car keys into his pocket as he spoke, "Thankfully no, I am just happy you are here with me that all that mess makes it worthwhile." Dad walked over to Mom as he leaned in and kissed her on the lips for a few seconds.

Maggie gagged, "Ewww, cooties."

Mom chuckled, "You say that now, but one day you will find yourself a man who loves you as much as you will love him." Mom cleared her throat before continuing, "Would you be a dear and help me set the dishes, Margarete?"

Maggie smiled, "Yes mommy!"

As I saw Maggie run into the kitchen, dad put a hand on my shoulder, "Son, you and Margarete are our pride and joy. Do not ever forget that."

With a Flushed look on my face I said, "Hey, lay off the sentimental stuff, Dad. It's embarrassing!"

Dad laughed before speaking, "Besides the point son, do you not have an assignment to do?"

"Yeah, don't worry Dad, I'll get right on it. Hey Sis, meet me in my room after you're done there!"

Maggie shouted, "OKAY! I will."

I then soon after made my way to my bedroom to start working on my assignment.

Stephen's Room

When I first walked in I set my backpack on the foot of my bed as I laid down on my bed and collapsed into it, "Uuuggghhhh... Why does dad have to be such a softy? It's annoying!" I groaned getting up and crawled my way over to my backpack and opened it up pulling out the VHS Tape and a notebook pad and pencil. Putting the other two items on my bed I turned on my Tv as I put in the Tape and started up Midnight Castle.

The movie, (If it could be called that) started off with a small jingle accompanied by several balloons with Children's Video Library right beside it before it began with the introduction of a Rainbow with two pegasus ponies riding it while laughing and giggling until they fell into the river before the intro jingle started.

♪‘My Little Pony, My Little Pony. Isn’t the world a lovely place?’♪

♪’My Little Pony, My Little Pony. Everywhere you go, a smiling face!’♪

♪‘Smiling and skipping, merrily tripping, watching the morning unfold’♪

♪’My Little Pony, My Little Pony, what does the future hold?’♪

At the Beginning of the intro sequence, it zooms into a camera shot of an old timey castle colored pink and blue as a couple multicolored ponies run out of it, as the last one looks up and spots the two pegasi from before flying into and around a tree doing loop-de-loops with relative ease.

The pony then jumps into the air as it crash lands into a nearby pond where a yellow and blue pony with a ribbon in her tail is seen taking a bath splashing her with water as she stares to look at her laughing and giggling like a child as she spots the two pegasi flying in a loop around the nearby sky above the river.

Meanwhile, the words ‘Starring Sandy Duncan’ flash upon the screen followed by ‘Starring Tony Randall’ as a narrative voice announces them, while at the same time two ponies, one a blue pony with pink hair and a white unicorn with red hair are seen jumping off of a cliff and safely land upon the nearby ground with care.

The camera is then seen switching to a pink unicorn with white and purple hair running on a cliff and stopping to look at the water below as another pony calls out to her saying, “Look out Twilight, here I goooo!” As she’s seen rolling off the mountain wearing roller skates landing on the ground next to the blue and pink pony from before and leaping to somewhere offscreen.

The giggling pony from before is then seen running up to Twilight as she bounces off of her head saying “Now, it’s my turn.” as the Pink and Blue haired pegasus catches her before hitting the ground and bringing her down.

The gray filly whines, “Aww, I could’ve made it!”

Twilight then is seen scooting her front hooves of the side of the cliff as she repeats a mantra of “I wish” as her horn lights up and she teleports down to the ground safely.

The pink pegasus pony then gets into preparation for an air trick as the other pegasus yells out to her.

“I’m going for the double inside-out loop!”

“But it’s dangerous, Firefly!” The seafoam green pegasus warns her

“Danger is my life, Medley!” She says as she’s seen flying very high into the sky

Medley is then seen beside Twilight and the gray filly as Firefly is seen crashing into an orange pony with five red apples on her flank, as the basket of apples beside her all fall out and break into an apple mush, the apple pony says, “Apple sauce, anyone?”

The jingle music starts up again with new lyrics continuing off from where the previous started.

♪’Sunny and pleasant, Here in the present, No signs of trouble in sight!’♪

♪‘My Little Pony, My Little Pony, May all your days be bright!’♪

♪’May all your days be bright!’♪

While the theme is playing, we see Firefly covered in apple sauce from the crash earlier as Medley takes the basket off of her head. The White and Red Unicorn and the pony wearing roller skates move over to the apple pony, who i would later know as Applejack is seen shaking off excess apple sauce and accidentally causes some of it to hit the unicorn’s face as the apple pony licks her face clean.

~ Interlude ~

As the theme song ends, my sister walks into the room carrying a plate of sushi as she looks over to the tv, “Ooh, ponies!”

I pause the tape, looking over to my sister, “Did mom ask you to bring those over?”

She responded, “Yeah, mom thought you would get hungry from working,” she looked over to the tv, “what did i miss?”

I responded, “Nothing much, just the ponies giggling and laughing and having a good time. It’s been almost 2 minutes.”

“Can you start it up again?” She asks

I pet my hand on my bed gesturing her to sit down, “Yeah, come over here and take a seat and we can start it back up.”

“Okay!”

Unpausing the video, my sister and I see the gray filly asking Twilight a question, “Twilight, will I ever be able to fly like Firefly and Medley?”

Twilight has a grin on her face saying, “No Ember, not all little ponies can fly.”

Ember asks again snuggling up to her, “Will I jump far like Bow Tie? Or disappear like you can?”

Twilight speaks comforting words to Ember, “Ember, you’ll grow up to be your own special little pony.”

Just after Twilight finishes speaking, a dark storm roars like thunder as Twilight and Ember are spooked at what they’re witnessing, as Bow Tie is seen warning all of the ponies, “Everybody, quick! Come on!”

The rest of the ponies are seen with panicked looks on their faces and running away from the storm, Firefly then speaks up saying, “What’s going on?”

Bow Tie speaks up as we see a horde of green dragon-like creatures coming their way, “It’s the Stralgons!”

Twilight speaks up, “Stralgons?”

The ponies are then seen running away in fear from the sight of them as a winged Gargoyle is seen riding one of them before shouting an order, “Seize them!”

The Stralgons are then seen flying down to the ground as one of them attempts to snatch Bow Tie in their claws but drops them due to the mare struggling her way out as she falls to the ground tumbling.

They come back around as they grab two ponies, Ember and the white unicorn who I would later know to be named Moondancer, are snatched up in their claws and hoisted into the air as I later learn they’ve been taken to the Midnight Castle.

The Gargoyle who I would later know as Scorpan gives out a warning to the ponies, “You are all doomed. Soon every pony will belong to Tirak, master of Midnight Castle!”

Scorpan is then seen flying away with Ember and Moondancer off to the Midnight Castle as they’re taken up into the sky as Firefly flies out to get help.

“Firefly, no! Wait!” Cries out Glory

“Where are you going?” Says Bow Tie

“To get help!”

Medley cries out, “No, come back! It’s too dangerous! Firefly, come back! Come back!”

~ Interlude ~

I pause the video and look to see Maggie shaking, “Oh those poor ponies, you think they’ll be ok, Big brother?”

I respond, “I dunno sis, I dunno..."