Forged in Fire, Tempered by Time

The shaft of sunlight had been moving inexorably across the pillow all morning, advancing upon its blissfully sound asleep target. After an arduous journey it finally alighted upon the purple unicorn, the unforgiving brightness pushed through tightly closed eyelids, pierced the veil of her dreams and brought her, quite unwillingly, back into the real world. With a groan Twilight Sparkle rolled over and buried her face in the pillow, desperately trying to reclaim the wonderful dream she had been having. During the motion, an errant hoof caught a book that had been resting on the end of the bed, sending it careening over the edge. The heavy tome impacted the floor with a solid thud. The noise, so completely unexpected in her sleep addled state, caused Twilight to shoot upright in bed, a wild look in her eyes as she searched for the source of the startling sound. Finding it, her shoulders slumped as she relaxed and let out an exasperated sigh. Glancing over at her clock she noted the time as just coming up to 9:30.

Now quite wide awake, and without any hope of returning to the mental wonderland her sleeping mind had conjured, Twilight dragged herself out of bed, being careful not to knock over any more of the precariously balanced books that were weighing down the sheets. As her hooves touched the floor however, she heard a crunch. Wincing slightly, she gingerly lifted a hoof to see the crumpled and broken remains of some quills. Worse was the pot of ink that she had also managed to knock over. A puddle of quickly spreading ink engulfed her hooves and spread across several pages of notes, rendering the tightly packed, impeccably neat rows of script unreadable. Another sigh, this one irritated, sprang from her lips.

Blowing some wayward mane out of her eyes, she paid close attention to the floor this time before going another step. It was littered with books, notes, blank scrolls, balled up paper, quills, empty mugs, and now a puddle of ink. Looking back down at the mess of ink and spoiled notes, she decided she would deal with it later when she was fully awake. Some precise application of magic would restore the notes and perhaps she would be able to persuade Spike to help her tidy up the health hazard that was her bedroom. Glancing to the end of her bed, she saw his basket was empty. His beloved blue ‘blanky’ lay in a dishevelled heap where he had thrown it off this morning.

Paying close attention to her route, Twilight Sparkle negotiated her way through the room to the door. She didn’t do too badly, managing to knock over only one pile of books. A trail of inky hoofprints followed her all the way to the bathroom. The unicorn's ubiquitous horn flared with a purple nimbus as she marshalled her magic, pulling back the shower curtain and turning the taps. A present from Pinkie Pie, Ponyville's resident party enthusiast, the curtain was adorned with cupcakes and candy canes. Pinkie had proclaimed the shower’s original plain white curtain "Boring and un-shower-rific", turning up the next day with its replacement. Shaking her head slightly and smiling at the memory of her unfathomable friend, she tested the stream of hot water before gratefully stepping in.

The ink off her hooves curled away down the plug hole as it drifted smokily through the water. The downpour of steamy water gently massaged her back as she swayed back and forth, ensuring total coverage of the warm liquid. Twilight unceremoniously shoved her head under the shower, completely soaking her mane in a few seconds. The water pulled it down so it fell over her face and shoulders, removing any evidence of the horrible bed hair she had possessed only a few moments previously. With her tail likewise soaked, the violet and pink highlights than ran through both tail and mane mingled with each other and the dominant dark sapphire blue of her hair, becoming a spectrum of colour rather than the discrete blocks they usually were.

Her horn glowing once more, two bottles of shampoo and two brushes levitated over from a shelf wreathed in a matching aura. With a thought, Twilight commanded the bottles empty some of their contents onto her coat and mane. She then set the brushes to work, lathering up the sweet smelling soap. With a contented smile and half lidded eyes, Twilight glanced over at the mirror and contemplated her reflection. Deciding she looked silly covered in bubbles, she let lose a childish giggle before stepping under the water again to wash it all off.

The bathroom door opened releasing a wave of steam and out stepped a refreshed and revitalised Twilight Sparkle. Her mane and tail set in their usual style, coat brushed, and a bright gleam in her eyes signalled the unicorn’s readiness for the day. Deciding it was high time he she got some breakfast down her neck, Twilight summoned forth her magic and disappeared with a loud pop and a flash of purple light.

***

In the kitchen, a young purple and green dragon by the name of Spike was desperately reaching for a jar that remained a torturously small distance out of his clawed grasp. Every muscle in his body was held taunt as he strove to balance atop his structurally questionable tower. He extended a claw, attempting to reach the object of his desire: a large jar with a hand written sticker that read "Gems". They were usually only doled out as a treat or a reward. It sat atop a cupboard normally well out of his reach, so while Twilight was sleeping in, he had constructed an elaborate scaffold to reach the prize. His scaffold had a chair as its foundation, with a second, slightly smaller chair on top of that, then a stool, and then some books. Needless to say it was dangerously unstable.

With a look of intense concentration he stretched forward, balanced only on the toes of one foot. He swiped for the jar; the tips of his claws just brushed it. He stretched a little more. Then just a little more. The tower creaked and wobbled.

"Come on!" Spike wheezed.

Just as he was about to hook his claws behind it, there was a loud pop and a flash of purple light. He knew who that heralded and quickly pulled back in fright. Too quickly. The sudden shift in weight unbalanced the tower and with a yell Spike and his creation went tumbling down. Expecting to hit the floor he scrunched up his eyes. There was plenty of crashing as the various pieces of furniture hit the floor but he remained steadfastly aloft, hovering a few feet in the air. Slowly and carefully he opened one eye, swiftly opening the other once he realised what had happened. He was safely cradled in the soft purple aura of Twilights magic.

"Spike! What were you doing up there?" demanded a cross-looking Twilight. She knew very well what he had been doing. When she had teleported in she had had just enough time to register the incriminating situation before the tower had collapsed. However, she wanted to give Spike the opportunity to come clean.

"Errr....erm...you see Twilight...er..." the baby dragon stammered. Twilight raised an eyebrow. "...Rarity! Rarity needed a...a...a sapphire! That's what she needed! A sapphire! For a dress! And - er - I knew we had some, so I thought I would get one to give to her!" Spike was pretty proud of himself for that quickly thought up and eminently believable lie. Twilight however, was not convinced.

With a deadpan look Twilight asked "Do you really expect me to believe that? I'll admit it's an almost-believable lie, but a lie nonetheless." She lowered him gently to the floor and, using her best 'disappointed parent' voice continued, "It's sad that you would lie to me Spike." The expression on the little dragons face went from smug to ashamed. He looked at the floor, wringing his hands, unable to meet the unicorn’s stern gaze. Twilight continued, "What do you have to say for yourself mister?"

He looked pleadingly up at his de facto Mother and began, "Twilight, I'm so so so SOOO sorry! I shouldn't have lied! I just - I just really wanted some gems. I didn't get to have any yesterday and I had a dream that was ALL about gems and..." He trailed off and looked at the floor again, scuffing a foot back and forth.

Twilight softened slightly seeing how genuinely sorry Spike was, but he still wasn't getting off that easily. "Well congratulations, you've successfully ensured that you won't be getting any today either. Now, you can make some breakfast for both of us while I tidy up this mess." Spike dejectedly set about preparing a meal for both of them while Twilight levitated all the furniture back to their proper places. Once this was done she set about cleaning up the spilled cereal that Spike had managed to send flying when he fell.

Ten minutes later the kitchen had been returned to its usual state and Spike was serving them both oatmeal. He was still looking sorry for himself; he knew he wasn't going to have a fun day. He played with his oatmeal, pushing it around the bowl wondering what sort of things Twilight was going to make him do in order to make up for the earlier incident.

"Come on Spike, stop playing with your food and eat up. How do you expect to grow into a big, strong dragon if you don't eat your breakfast?" Twilight admonished. She had almost finished hers, whereas Spike had barely touched his. Seeing the look on his face she added, "Spike I'm not mad at you, okay? Just so long as you don't lie to me again, I don't like it."

"Alright Twi. I really am sorry, I just thought you'd be mad at me for trying to steal the gems, you know?" the dragon explained.

"Well, I would have been and for good reason, but that's no reason to lie. I like lying even less than the odd stolen cookie, or gem in your case." Twilight explained. "I'll admit when I was a foal I dipped my hoof into the cookie jar a few times. Magic made it a bit easier to reach of course," she chuckled.

Spike brightened at the thought of a filly Twilight Sparkle stealing cookies. "Twilight Sparkle? A thief? Never!" he teased. A cheeky grin spreading across his face.

"Don't think you've got away with it though. You're going to help me clean my disaster area of a room today. There're books everywhere and they all need to go back to their proper places."

Spike Frowned slightly at this but dived into his oatmeal. He was determined to redeem himself; he hated disappointing Twilight and wanted to get back in her good books. If he did a good enough job maybe he could still score some of those delectable gems!

***

Outside and above the hollow tree that served both as Ponyville's library and Twilight Sparkle's home, a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane sat on a cloud watching the approach to the building/tree. She was attempting to be stealthy; just poking her head out far enough to be able to see. The rest of her body was buried in the cloud to keep her out of sight. The fact that it was a windy day and the cloud was stationary didn't seem to bother the pegasus or strike her as being particularly suspicious.

Rainbow Dash had been here for nearly two hours now and she was bored out of her skull. This was the earliest she had gotten up in recent memory and it was taking its toll. Keeping her eyes open had become a battle. Maybe she shouldn't have stayed up till 3 a.m. last night. As her eyes began to drift shut again she shook her head. Today was going to be an awesome day, she had to stay awake. Where was that darn mail-mare?

***

Ditzy Doo looked down into the cavernous mailbag slung around her neck, checking what she had left. The bag was almost empty, only a few letters and large brown paper wrapped package remained. Taking out the package she struggled to focus on the address for a few seconds before finally making it out. It was for the library, Twilight Sparkle to be precise. Ditzy liked Twilight; she was always friendly and talkative. Twilight liked what the arrival of the mail-mare heralded and was always excited to see her. It was normally a package like this one and these packages where, more often than not, books. That mare sure loved reading, she thought. Taking wing, the pale grey pegasus headed for the library.

***

There! The mail-mare was flying low towards the front door of the library. Rainbow Dash ducked back onto the cloud and waited for her to deposit the package. After a minute or so she peeked over the edge again to check where Ditzy was, only to find she was staring directly into a pair of golden eyes. Rainbow Dash almost fell off the cloud as she jerked back in surprise.

"Hey Dash! What you doin' up here?" Ditzy asked cheerfully.

"No - Nothing! Er...I mean...napping! You know, like I do. I nap," Rainbow stammered out defensively.

"You kinda looked like you were hiding. You know clouds are s’posed to move in the wind right?"

Dash winced at her blunder but quickly regained her composure. Deciding not to acknowledge the observation, Dash instead asked, "Did I have any mail today?"

Ditzy thought briefly before replying, "You had a couple of things; they mostly looked like bills though. Oh! You also had a poster tube."

"Awww sweet, that'll be my new Wonderbolts poster. Thanks Ditz."

"No worries Rainbow. I'll catch you later, I gotta finish my round." With a wave she flew off.

Waiting until she was sure Ditzy wasn't coming back, Rainbow dived off the cloud did a couple of loops and headed for an open library window. As she came out of the second loop, the tip of a wing caught a protruding branch and sent her tumbling. With a yell she flew out of control, managing to stabilise her flight just enough to get through the window unharmed.

***

Spike had answered the door to the mail-mare, taking the package off her hooves. Spike liked Ditzy; she was funny and kind. He had just handed it over to Twilight when they heard a yell. It was close, the sound seemingly emanating from right outside and heading their way. Before Twilight could even think anything else - let alone do anything else - there was a colossal crash and the unmistakable sound of a bookcase being knocked over, closely followed by the sound of a small avalanche as books tumbled down. This is going to be one of those days, Twilight thought, when I'm never going to be able to keep the library tidy.

It was an all too familiar series of events and without even turning round Twilight said resignedly, "You know most ponies just use the door, Dash."

With a rather dazed look on her face, Rainbow's head popped out of pile of books that almost completely concealed her. "I'm not most ponies; I'm much too cool to use doors."

"You know you're helping me tidy that up, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, IS IT HERE!?" The pegasus said this as she bounded forward with a powerful thrust of her wings. This sent a wave of books flying in every direction as she burst out of the pile that had buried her.

Wearing an overly innocent look on her face, Twilight started, "Oh, do you mean..." She teasingly raised the package in a magical glow, "...this?" She smiled at the almost-instant reaction her friend had towards the innocuous-looking package.

"OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!" This outburst was immediately followed by a painfully loud fan girl squeal.

Twilight winced. "Dash, this is a library you know, try and keep it down a bit."

"Aww come on Twi, it's not like there's anyone else here. And do you know how long I've been waiting for this!? Weeks Twilight, Weeks!" At this exclamation she rose into the air and spread her fore-hooves wide as if to demonstrate the sheer volume of time.

"I know Rainbow, I've been waiting to, remember?"

"Come ON, open it already!"

"Okay, okay." With that Twilight peeled away the brown paper, revealing a brand new book. The colourful illustration on the cover showed a standing stone made of gold in the depths of the deepest, darkest jungle. A pony explorer stood before it with a look of awe on her face. The title read "Daring Doo and the Search for the Midas Menhir".

Since Twilight had managed to get Rainbow into books, the prismatic maned mare had been spending more and more time at the library. She’d even adopted a favourite spot: a couch in the dark recess under the stairs, lit by candles. She said it made everything more dramatic. One weekend when both Rainbow and Twilight had been reading the latest Daring Doo, Twilight had read out a particularly awesome paragraph for Rainbow and in turn Rainbow had read out a paragraph she had ear marked as being especially radical for Twilight. They both loved the way each other had given life to the various characters and described the events. Rainbow especially enjoyed the voice Twilight used for Daring. Since then it had become a ritual to read a book together every month, each pony taking turns to read a page or two out loud. This month the book they had decided to read was the latest novel in the Daring Doo saga. Although Rainbow had read several books outside this series, it had been these books that had got her into reading in the first place, so she maintained a soft spot for them and had been eagerly anticipating the release of the latest book.

The two ponies curled up in Dash’s favourite spot, cocoa in hoof and candle light flickering, as Twilight opened the book to the first page. The Pegasus could hardly contain herself; her attention was riveted to Twilight as she started to read.

“Daring Doo and the Search for the Midas Menhir!” Twilight began in a serious tone. “Chapter one.”