MLP: The ELE (Equestrian League of Exploration)
For most ponies, midnight was a time for them to be basking in the joys of deep sleep, or at grabbing a quick snack before returning to bed. For one purple Alicorn, that wasn’t the case. Twilight Sparkle, the newest Alicorn in Equestria and Empress of Magic, was not peacefully enjoying sleep, quite the opposite actually.
Frantically pacing around her personal bedchamber, Twilight looked as if she was in the middle of a small panic attack.
“Ugh, where is it? Where is it? Of all the times to misplace it, it had to be today.”
Twilight continue to panic. Coming to a stop in the middle of her room, Twilight began to let her stress get the better of her.
“If I don’t find it soon this whole visit will be ruined!”
Unknowingly her wings started to slowly lift her into the air. When suddenly her bedroom door slammed open, revealing a visibly annoyed purple dragon in his pajama bottoms. Spike the Dragon, Twilight’s adopted little brother, and Ponyville’s only Dragon resident, was used to Twilight’s frequent fits of stress fueled episodes, but she had kept him up late the previous night and he was not in the mood.
Spike himself had recently gone through a small growth spurt, much to his excitement. He was finally growing and now he stood at a reasonable 5’0’’. Still shorter than the girls but hey it was something. While he didn’t have wings yet, Spike still hoped that one day he would finally grow a pair.
“Twilight! It’s 2 in the morning! Knock it off with the loud stomping already! I was having a really nice dream too.”
The young dragon shouted, voicing his frustrations at his sister’s antics. What he didn't say was that said dream was about a certain beautiful white mare. Sadly Twilight was so deep in her stressed out mind that she didn’t even hear Spike’s protesting.
Seeing as he wasn’t getting anywhere, Spike let out a sigh and made his way over to the floating alicorn.
“Twilight,” Spike grabbed her legs and pulled her back down to the floor and “gently” slapped her.
*SMACK*
“OWW!” Twilight raised her hand and rubbed her cheek, as it quickly turned red from the impact. “Spike what was that for?”
“That was to get you to calm down. You’ve been in here stomping up a storm and you woke me up.” he replied with a tired tone in his voice. Clearly Spike was ready to go back to bed for a few more hours.
“O-oh,” Twilight blushed at the realization. “Sorry I woke you Spike, it’s just that I have a really important meeting with someone really important tomorrow and I misplaced my crown.”
Twilight grabbed her little brother by the shoulders and lightly shook him as her nerves started to resurface.
“You mean the one on your head? Seriously Twilight? All this running around and you didn’t think to check your mirror?” Spike said with an annoyed expression on his face. For all Twilight’s smarts, she sometimes overlooked the simple answers. Especially when she was stressed out.
“Oh my gosh really? Why didn’t I think to look, I’m so stupid.” Twilight made her way over to her bed and dove head first into her fluffy white bed pillows.
“C’mon Twi, you and I both know you can forget small things like that when you’re stressed out. Now how about instead of sulking about it, you tell me why you’re this loud at this early in the morning.” Spike said as he sat on the edge of Twilight’s bed, comforting his embarrassed sister by gently patting her back.
Twilight turned her head so Spike could clearly hear her, “Last night, after you went to bed, I got a letter from Celestia.”
“Wait if you got a letter then why didn’t I know about it? After all I’m the one who burps them up every time.”
“No she sent this one through a teleportation spell. I guess she figured we’d be either asleep or almost going to be. Either way I got it and it said that tomorrow I would be receiving an important visit from an important Equestrian historian all the way from Trottingham.
“Ok, besides them being from Trottingham, what makes them so important?” Spike asked.
“She said that this historian’s family works directly with her and Luna, keeping them informed on new historical discoveries from all over Equestria. Apparently they haven’t made a trip to Ponyville in 6 years. 6 years Spike!” Twilight sat up and continued.
“Well that definitely makes this visit seem important. Why haven’t they come to Ponyville in all that time?
“Celestia didn’t say, I’m assuming they’ve been busy in other areas of Equestria.”
Twilight grabbed the letter that was currently resting on her nightstand. Quickly skimming through it’s contents again to see if the Empress of the Sun left any other details regarding the impending meeting, then handing it over to Spike to let him see it for himself.
“She was relatively vague with the details. All she wrote was that the head of their family’s organization was coming to visit with me to discuss any important events that’ve happened lately. Apparently this is meant to be a relatively quick trip to update their records.” Twilight crossed her arms in slight annoyance that her former mentor did not include more detail on this historian’s arrival.
“Well, she did at least give you a name, Silver Scribe; huh, wonder if they’re a stallion or a mare. Can’t really tell from their name.” Spike started to form a mental picture on what this important historian could possibly look like.
“Spike does it really matter if Silver Scribe is a stallion or a mare? The important thing is that they’re the head of their family’s business, so I doubt it’ll be someone around our age. They’re probably much older than us, according to Celestia they’ve had years of experience in finding and studying historical artifacts.” Twilight replied in a matter of fact tone.
“Well whatever, *yawn* I’m still tired and I’m gonna go back to bed.” Spike stood up and stretched his arms, popping a joint or two in the process. “If you’re gonna stay up, at least put some pants on. I’m tired of seeing my sister’s big butt.” Spike jokingly said as he made his way to the door.
Twilight, mildly annoyed at the snarky comment to her backside that her little brother had just made, responded by throwing a few pillows at him with her magic.
“Oh shut up. My butt’s not that big,” After the barrage of pillows had ended Twilight giggled. “Night Spike, I promise not to wake you up again.”
“Night Twilight.” Spike said behind the closed door as he made his way back down the hall to his own room, his clawed feet making small tapping noises on the hallway’s hard floor. Where he could go back to enjoying his dreams of gemstones and a certain white unicorn.
Now that they’re late night talk was through, Twilight started to realize just how tired she was. Letting out a rather cute yawn of her own, she removed her crown and set it gently on her nightstand next to letter from Empress Celestia.
“Guess I should get some sleep, I have a big day planning for this Silver Scribe’s visit.” Twilight climbed into her extremely comfortable and rather large bed and with one quick use of her magic, turned off her lights. With that she proceeded to get some much needed sleep.
MLP: The ELE (Equestrian League of Exploration)
Twilight awoke the next morning eager to get the preparations for the visit done. So much work to be done and only one day to do it. As much as the young duchess enjoyed scheduling events, this was much more important than scheduling a day full of reading, magic practice or some other trivial task around town.
The purple mare rose from her, admittedly comfy, bed and walked over to her vanity mirror. As much as she loved her long mane, having to brush it every morning was a pain.
“Stupid bed head…*brush*…I can solve extremely long mathematical equations in my head…*brush*…cast a vast array of magical spells…*brush*…but waking up without a tangled mess in my hair eludes me.” Twilight sighed as she continued to brush.
Finally, after a few minutes of brushing, the young alicorn’s mane was back to it’s long straight style. Content with her work, Twilight moved on to her much larger mirror in the corner of her room. Said mirror was primarily used to help pick what clothes Twilight would wear.
“Hmm, what to wear?” Twilight asked herself.
Despite her position of Duchess, Twilight still wasn’t really the dress wearing type. She would if it was a large formal gathering like the Grand Galloping Gala or something but today was simply a “get things ready” kind of day. She eventually settled on a pair of blue skinny jeans, which had her cutie mark design embroidered on the right back pocket, and a black tank top that showed her midriff. On top of that a light blue long sleeved, shoulder less top that also showed off her midriff. Finishing off the outfit was a simple white belt.
Pleased with her choices, Twilight grabbed a fresh pair of underwear and headed for the shower. Eager to get started with the work that needed to be done for Silver Scribe’s visit tomorrow.
A few doors down the hallway, a sleeping dragon laid sprawled out on his bed. Having woken up just a few minutes ago, Spike was trying to enjoy the last few moments of laying in his bed that he could before he had to get up and get dressed. One would think it would get easier for Spike to get up early from living with Twilight all his life but….no, no it didn’t.
“Ok, *yawn* time to get up.” Spike told himself. He knew Twilight would give him plenty of stuff to do. Probably clean the main level of the castle, re organize the books in the library wing, and dust everything else. Spike didn’t actually mind the house work,
Spike slowly got up and, as per his daily routine, popped a few joints. He then made his way to his closet and grabbed a towel. With towel in hand the young dragon made his way to the shower.
“Hopefully Twilight calmed down and actually went to bed last night. I really don’t want to deal with a sleep deprived, crazy Twilight today.” Spike said as he sauntered down the hallway, his clawed feet slowly dragging themselves across the floor.
“At least I get to enjoy a nice show-” Spike stopped dead in his tracks as his eyes quickly became the size of dinner plates. He had just accidentally walked in on his sister Twilight, who was currently in nothing but her panties.
“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” Twilight let out a high pitch scream out of embarrassment.
“Spike you pervert! You don’t just walk into the bathroom when someone’s in here. I’m half naked for crying out loud!” Twilight yelled as she quickly covered herself with her towel.
Spike quickly ran out of the bathroom and closed the door with his back towards it.
“Well who leaves the door unlocked when they’re getting into the shower!?” Spike retorted still having the shocked expression, his face beat red from embarrassment .
“………Shut up….” Twilight replied quietly, hanging her head in shame that she forgot to lock the door.
“Just…just hurry up and take your shower so I can take mine.” Spike said through the door.
“Spike….this never happened. Got it?” Twilight replied, although the way she said it made it feel more like an order.
About 20 minutes later, both had finished their showers and Twilight had just finished getting dressed. Making her decent down the grand central staircase, on her way to the kitchen to make herself and Spike some breakfast.
“Hmm, what to make today?” Twilight asked herself as she checked the cupboards and fridge for any signs of food. “Oatmeal? No. Maybe some of the leftover fruit salad from last night, yeah that could work, what else? Eggs and hay bacon?” Twilight stopped for a second and remembered the last time she tried making eggs and hay bacon…she then cringed at the memories of the small fire she caused that morning. “No no no no, not again. Not after that.”
While Spike was definitely the cook of the two. Twilight had slowly started to learn how to cook basic things, with Spike’s help of course. Most of the time, the food came out relatively fine, not great, but fine.
“Ah, pancakes,” Twilight finally found the box of pancake mix and quickly gathered the rest of the things needed to start cooking…and hopefully not burn them.
Meanwhile, in his room, Spike was checking himself out in his vanity mirror, admiring just how much he’d grown recently. Aside from helping Rarity out around her shop, Spike sometimes helped out around at Sweet Apple Acres when he had a day off from keeping the castle clean. All that work helped build some muscle and help trim some of the baby fat he had a year ago.
“Yeah, lookin’ good.” Spike said to himself while flexing. Turning around to check out his back spines, which had also grown a bit. While everything looked fine, but the sight of his wingless back bugged him slightly. He had been hopeful that, at the very least, small bumps would be there. They could be the smallest bumps in the world but at least they would be something in the way of wing growth. He never admitted it but the fact that he was already 15 years old and still nothing.
*Sigh* “Maybe some day.” Spike said in a defeated tone. After putting on his purple t-shirt and making his way down to the kitchen.
*Sniff* *Sniff*
“Mmmm pancakes…oh sweet Celestia Twilight’s cooking.” Spike quickly ran downstairs to hopefully avoid another fire incident. As he entered the kitchen however, he was pleasantly surprised that nothing was on fire.
"Do my eyes deceive me? The Empress of Magic: Twilight Sparkle, is cooking…and isn’t burning the castle down?” Spike joked as he saw the purple alicorn in a pink apron, currently adding the final pancake onto a pretty sizable stack of 6 already on the plate.
“Ha Ha, very funny Spike. Anyway, breakfast is ready. The butter and syrup are on the table.” Twilight replied with a slightly annoyed expression on her face.
“Mmmm pancakes…you gonna eat them the right way this time? Or are you gonna ruin them and put peanut butter on them?” Spike asked in a snarky manner.
“It’s not ruining them, peanut butter’s good and it goes good on pancakes, simple as that.” Twilight replied while applying said condiment on her pancakes. “It’s just like butter but with peanuts in it, it’s fine.”
“Weird…that’s weird, you’re weird, it’s all weird.” Spike retorted, while stuffing a whole pancake in his mouth, at Twilight’s disdain.
“It’s not weird Spike!” said Twilight, getting slightly more annoyed. This had been a two year old debate between the two, and Twilight was tired of having it whenever they had pancakes.
“WEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRD!” Spike roared followed by laughter, having way too much fun at Twilight’s expense. He honestly didn’t care all that much, but it was always fun watching Twilight get aggravated about it.
“THAT’S IT!” Twilight screamed, levitating a pancake with her magenta colored magic and threw it at Spike’s face, ceasing his laughter. The purple mare then started giggling at her handiwork.
“Oh…so that’s how you wanna play huh?” said Spike in a deadpanned tone, pancake still covering his face. Grabbing a clawful of pancake, the young dragon threw it at Twilight. At the last second Twilight used her magic and caught the mass of pancake. She had too much work to do today to get her mane covered in pancakes and syrup.
“Spike, not in the mane! I have a lot of work today and I can’t waste time taking another shower getting pancake and syrup out.” Twilight scolded her brother.
“Oh, right sorry.” he replied sitting back down and finished the remnants of his breakfast.
“Speaking of which, I have to get going. I have to get the girls informed and ready for tomorrow.” Twilight took her plate and rinsed it clean. She then made her way to the main hallway, where her heeled sandals and spike’s custom made “shoes”, designed by Rarity of course. They called them shoes but in reality they were custom made sandals that wrapped around his toe claws. Spike only wore them to formal events so any other time he just went barefoot. It wasn’t a huge deal, being raised in Canterlot, and in a fairly wealthy family, Spike knew to keep his feet clean.
As soon as Twilight had finished strapping on her heels, a knock on the door got the young alicorn’s attention.
“Hello? Who’s…” Twilight said, or at least tried to say, as she opened the door to see Rarity adorned in her purple raincoat holding an umbrella, both wet with rain.
“Good morning Twilight. Sorry to bother you this early, but I really needed to talk to you.” the alabaster fashionista said as she made her way inside. Twilight, slightly confused as to why Rarity was wet. Twilight didn’t recall any rain in today’s forecast. She quickly looked outside and saw a fairly good rainstorm going on outside.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Really? Rain, of all the days it had to rain, it had to be today.” Twilight said with an annoyed sigh. She then joined Rarity in taking off her heels. Rarity hung her coat and placed her umbrella in the basket, where Twilight’s own umbrella was currently placed.
“Oh yes, the rain started about an hour ago, I haven’t talked to Rainbow Dash or heard from any of the other weather ponies in town on when it will end. Why were you heading out?” Rarity asked gently placing her black heels at the door, letting her beautifully pedicured hooves make contact with the hard floor.
“Yeah, I was on my way to Sweet Apple Acres to talk to Applejack. I was planning on talking all of you in fact. But you said you had something to talk to me about, so what is it?” said Twilight with a defeated sigh.
“Oh yes of course. I was wondering if I could borrow any books you might have on renaissance clothing, I have an important client who is need of costumes for an upcoming play and she needs them by the end of the week.” Rarity explained.
“Oh, sure no problem. Spike! Rarity’s here, do you mind taking her to the Library Wing?” said Twilight as she called out for Spike.
“Got it!” Spike called back from the kitchen.
“Have fun you two, I have to go contact the rest of the girls.” Twilight said as she quickly made her way up to her study.
