A crash came from down the hall and echoed off the crystal walls of Twilight’s castle. Just a moment later, a little dragon poked his head out of one of the many doors with a frown plastered across his face. He knew of Ponyville’s rather chaotic tendencies, but so early in the morning? Swinging another door wide open, Spike searched for any sign of catastrophe. To his growing dismay, there was no sign of his alicorn roommate.

“Where is she?” Spike said as his eyes darted around the surprisingly empty study room. He winced as the sound of another loud crash shook his skull. Slamming the door behind him, Spike ran in the direction of the disturbance.

Spike was no stranger to the aberrant. It seemed like every other day Ponyville was under attack from mythical creatures or besieged by the villainous. The day’s activities would be thrown to the wind and occasionally reality would be bent backwards on itself, but the Elements of Harmony always found a convenient way to restore some of normality to the town.

Despite not directly seeing anything out of the ordinary, Spike could already guess what sort of trouble he would find himself in today. No lengthy monologue assaulted his ears. No clouds were raining chocolate milk. No epic battles were raging just outside the castle walls. That could only mean one of two things: either Twilight and Starlight were practicing magic again, or Twilight was up to no good. Unfortunately for the young dragon, Starlight was out today on account of many uncompleted friendship lessons.

There was no debacle that could really match the magnitude of one of Twilight’s moments. Just thinking of the few times Twilight pushed herself to the limit sent a shiver down Spike’s spine. Never again would he stick his toes into time travel. He could feel his face twist and form more worried looks. The castle had been amplifying the sounds of crashes and bangs all morning, and he seemed no closer to finding-

BANG!

Spike covered his ears as a loud explosion assaulted his ears from just beyond a nearby door. Not needing a more obvious hint than that, he burst through the threshold to see Twilight limp on the ground with thin smoke tendrils slowly rising from her body. Her eyes looked like they were fighting to keep themselves open as she rolled onto her back.

“Twilight! What happened here?” Spike said as he ran over to her side to help her up. To his surprise, an indignant look spread over Twilight’s face to accompany spastic flailing.

“Spike, stop!” she yelled as she sprung up on her hooves with a newfound vigor. “You’re going to invalidate my data!”

A mix of emotions sped their way through the young dragon’s mind with confusion leading the way. Twilight let out an exasperated sigh and engulfed Spike with her magic placing him squarely across the room without so much as a word exchanged between them. Spike tried to ask her exactly what was going on before he found himself buried in an impossibly massive stack of scrolls and parchment.

Spike poked his head out from the pile of papers only to be met face to face with the frazzled Princess of Friendship. Spike was witnessing first hand one of Twilight’s moments again. In fact, he was surprised she had not completely lost it yet.

“This is no time for questions, Spike,” she said with a crooked smile. Her eye twitched as she disappeared in a burst of magic only to reappear in the center of the room. Twilight tensed her body as she focused on channeling her magic. The air felt alive with electricity as errant bolts of magic landed near Spike causing him to shrink farther back into his impromptu cover. “I need you to get rid of all that data right now. I can’t waste anytime looking at it now that you’ve ruined my experiment.”

“What? How did I-”

Without so much as loosening her stance, Twilight’s eyes turned to stare at him. There was no visible expression on her face sans the look of intense focus, but the intent was no less clear to Spike. She expected action to be taken immediately lest he suffer the consequences.

The young dragon gave a hasty salute as he started to shovel his way through the pile throwing every piece of parchment he could find out into the hall and out of sight. Even though he was working as fast as his body would allow, Spike could still feel Twilight’s eyes burning holes in the back of his skull.

“I’ve been trying to kill myself all morning, but now that you’ve intervened I can’t know for sure that my theories are correct.”

Spike poked his head out of the stack of papers for just a moment with a look of concern dominating his features.

Twilight waved a hoof and shook her head to dismiss his worries. “Don’t worry, Spike. I should be immortal, but this is just to know for sure.” The way she spoke was so matter-of-factly that it did nothing to sooth Spike’s concerns. “I have never once given up on an experiment and today is not going to be the day that those words become lies.” A quiet chuckle escaped Spike as he fidgeted about and scratched the back of his head. Surely Twilight knew what she was doing. If there was one thing that Twilight was certainly known for, it would be her persistence. He hoped it wouldn’t get her into too much trouble like it so often did.

Sensing the effect of her words on her assistant, Twilight let the magic dissipate as the spell completed itself. Her breath slowed and let her composure reasserted itself as she trot over and gave Spike a loving smile. Seeing this less crazed, all-powerful alicorn take measures to regain her composure allowed Spike to calm his imagination choosing have a little faith in Twilight.

“Spike, this is not at all what it looks like,” Twilight said as she began to explain herself. “I’m trying to test this new theory of mine. I call it, the Many Worlds Interpretation.”

Spike blinked.

Twilight dismissed his silence. “It’s actually not that complicated. Let me explain.” She pulled a few dozen scrolls from Spike’s hiding spot. Unfurling a few to show to her assistant, Twilight began to lecture.

“I’ve theorized that every decision we make has a profound effect on reality,” Twilight said pointing at an impressively large diagram of branching bubbles. “Each little bubble in this diagram represents a different reality. Where one path splits into multiple is where a decision was made.”

Spike blinked.

The resounding smack of Twilight’s facehoof was loud enough to cause Spike to wince. “Okay, Spike. Let’s say that I had a fifty-fifty chance of destroying—I don’t know—the whole castle,” Twilight said as she tapped a hoof on her chin. She paused for a moment to consider where to take her explanation next.

“Each time I test the spell, reality splits into two new realities. If I test this spell, say, twenty times and I live, I can say with almost certainty that I am immortal.” Content with her explanation, she began to mull over the details of her experiment. Now that she considered it, the spell she had been using had more than enough kick to flatten every tree from here to the Whitetail woods.

“Uh, hello?” Spike said shaking his arms around to get Twilight’s attention. “That sounds pretty cool and everything, but don’t you think it’s a little too, uh, dramatic?” Jumping out from the pile, Spike began a lecture of his own.

“And what about the times where your spell actually, you know, works? This really seems like a lot of risk just to know something that you already know.”

Twilight giggled and began to charge up her magic once more. “Nonsense! I don’t know if I’m immortal for sure. With this experiment, I can be certain within one ten-thousandth of a percent!” A brilliant flash of light engulfed the room as an earsplitting boom shook the castle once more. Luckily for Spike, he harbored enough common sense to protect himself by covering his ears and shutting his eyes. Only after he was sure that spell had finished did Spike look to Twilight.

A familiar sight greeted the young dragon as he saw Twilight in the same beat up position he had found her in. Spike couldn’t help but run over to make sure that Twilight was alright knowing that he couldn’t live with himself he had chosen not to. While relieved, Spike couldn’t help but feel guilty as the alicorn threw herself into another fit.

“Alright, it’s obvious that I can’t conduct this experiment if I can’t be sure that my decisions alone are the ones being tested,” She said as her horn lit up with a familiar aura floating a strange metal box over to them. “So instead of trying to kill myself, how about we test this ‘doomsday device’ I made?”

Spike deadpanned at Twilight knowing full well the futility of any objections he could bring up. Instead of trying to reason with the unreasonable, he chose the less conflict oriented route and took the strange ‘doomsday device’ into his claws. With a sigh he began to formulate a way to talk Twilight down from her antics.

“Alright, I’ll bite,” Spike plainly said. “I really don’t want to help you ‘doom’ the world, or kill yourself, but what does this thing do anyway?”

“Well, to put it simply, it will collapse space-time unto itself creating a localized black hole anomaly strong enough to destroy the greater Ponyville area.”

Spike let out a relieved sigh and wiped a bead of sweat from his head. As far as he was concerned, this was par for the course. He expected some crazy device that would bring the moon down on the world or something equally apocalyptic. “You’re joking, right?” Spike said setting the contraption down as gently as he could. Maybe if he chose his words carefully, he’d be able to have this whole ordeal over by lunchtime.“That sounds too crazy even for you, Twilight.”

“It is crazy, but I have to know for sure, Spike,” she said with a cheery smile which caused her assistant to jump. “And you know what that means.” And did Spike ever know.

He tried to make a break for the door, but both of them knew it wasn’t going to amount to much. The doors magically slammed shut with enough force to shake any remaining organized books loose form nearby shelves. Spike spun around on a heel to face his tormentor knowing that he was helpless to change his fate. Twilight wore a smile which telegraphed her intentions clearer than any words could. This was anything but reassuring to him. Spike could already tell that she used a substantial amount of sanity to keep up her calm demeanor in the past few minutes. The smile began to grow inch by inch until Twilight’s features were defined by its twisted excitement.

“No! You’re not going to drag me into your crazy ideas, Twilight! I’m not getting in trouble for you anymore!”

“Now Spike,” Twilight said as she nudged Spike over to her ‘doomsday device’. “I think you could at least try and make it up to me considering that you ruined my data.” Giggling to herself, Twilight began to playfully prod her assistant with a corner of her contraption using her magic. It took Spike a great deal of his strength to push her contraption away before he tried salvaging the situation.

“I guess that’s fair, but this thing is dangerous. Think about what would happen to the rest of the ponies!”

Twilight’s magic easily overpowered the young dragon’s physical strength as she poked and prodded the dragon with twice as much enthusiasm. “Funny you say that, Spike, because I already have!”

At this, Spike let out an annoyed cry of his own as he pointed an angry claw at Twilight.

“Alright, you’re out of control,” he said turning towards the pile of discarded scrolls. “I’m telling Princess Celestia.”

Twilight let out a rather unladylike gasp as she lowered herself ready to fight. “You wouldn’t dare!” She flared her wings and launched herself at Spike. “You know she’ll never agree with my methods!”

In a panic, Spike tried to run from the alicorn with a sense of agility that surprised even him. He dodged Twilight’s tackles quite easily considering she was not Equestria’s most graceful flier. And while he may have been able to best Twilight at a game of tag, he could not evade her forever. Twilight grabbed hold of Spike with her magic all the while letting out a sadistic chuckle that sent a chill down his spine. Even as a seasoned veteran of Twilight’s antics, this was a excessive amounts of crazy.

Frantically, Spike thought of ways he could save not only himself, but Ponyville and possibly the rest of Equestria. There was absolutely no way he would be able to free himself from her magic in a timely manner, and judging by the strange noises coming from Twilight’s ‘doomsday device’ there wasn’t much time left.

Through the adrenaline fueled terror that clouded Spike’s mind, inspiration struck and cleared a path to the answers he sought. Turning his attention to the now considerably worn pile of Twilight’s invalid data, he drew in breath and spat dragonfire over each and every piece of paper.

Twilight, seeing the ashes of Spike’s message disappear through an open window, stopped her assault to cry out in defeat.

“Noo!” she said raising a hoof grabbing at the smoke in a vain attempt to bring Spike’s message back to the castle. For the first time that morning, the castle halls fell silent. The two previously feuding friends stood in the middle of the ruined study somewhat patiently awaiting the final outcome of their battle.

It seemed like the time crawled to a standstill as the two waited. “Maybe she’s busy?” offered Spike trying to bring sense back into the conversation. He scratched the back of his head in an attempt to calm his nerves. Flopping onto his back and closing his eyes, Spike resigned himself to whatever fate had in store. Hopefully, the princess would intervene sooner rather than later.

Seeing, Spike’s take on the situation, Twilight beamed. “Well I guess that’s that,” she said as she continued to arm her machine.

With a grunt Spike jumped back to his feet and tried to stop Twilight as she closed in on the final preparatory stages of arming her device. She easily stopped Spike with her magic and her confidence creeped back into her demeanor. The tantalizing promise of discovery edged her forward and no amount of reason was going to get in her way.

It was surprising if not startling when the sun itself quickly rose high into the sky to fill the room the two occupied with a blinding light.

“Twilight Sparkle! What in the name of Equestria are you trying to do with that dangerous artifact!” a voice commanded. Without much more ceremony, the rays of sun seemed to shimmer brightly as one of the alicorn sisters themselves stepped from their godly light in front of Twilight. The air in the room grew thick with tension as Twilight let out a small eek, unable to properly form an answer. In her fright, she failed to notice that she still had a certain dragon in her magical grasp. Before Spike could right himself in the air, he fell unceremoniously onto the ground with a dull thud.

Princess Celestia’s features only showed concern. Twilight took a moment to ease out a breath and smile meekly at her mentor. To her everlasting dismay, Celestia’s motherly composure was equal parts comforting, equal parts petrifying.

The elder princess returned a friendly smile to her student as she took in the state of the world around her. Everywhere Celestia looked there was disorder and destruction. Books lay in massive jumbles at the foot of each bookshelf. Bit of parchment lay scattered about the room and the occasional burn mark stained the walls of the once pristine crystal castle. Through all of this, the Sun Princess’ attention was drawn especially to a worn out little dragon laying sprawled out on the floor.

She chuckled to herself as her magic took Spike gently from the floor and laid him across her back to find reprieve from what must have been an eventful morning. As if her body radiated a soothing aura, Spike felt himself slip slowly into a well deserved sleep.

“Princess,” Twilight said quietly scuffing up the ground beneath a forehoof. “I can explain, really I can. It’s a, uhh, long story though, so I hope you don’t mind.”

Princess Celestia raised an inquisitive brow and turned her full attention towards Twilight. “Oh? Seeing as I’ve attended to my royal duties for the morning, I don’t see what would be keeping me from having lunch with my Faithful Student.”

Twilight’s ears flattened against her head at Celestia’s words. “Lunch already?” she said with a hint of worry. Celestia only looked towards the sun as its light basked the room in a light that had been strangely absent just a few minutes prior.

It didn’t take Twilight long to piece together what Celestia was trying to imply. She swallowed a small lump in her throat as she gestured the Sun princess to follow her to the dining hall for an impromptu lunch. They took a small detour to bring the young dragon atop Celestia to his room. It was only after Princess Celestia closed the doors to Spike’s room did she turn her full, undivided attention to her student.

Twilight shrank back. “It’s not what it looks like!” a certain purple pony started to blurt out as they made their way down the hall.

“Twilight, please-”

“Don’t be mad!”

“Please do not be so quick to make these assump-”

“Don’t disown me!”

“Twilight Sparkle!”

Spike stifled a yawn and stretched out his arms as he woke from a much needed nap. The last few memories that lingered in his mind gave him a headache and even more reason to return to the sanctuary that sleep offered him. Before he was able to weigh the benefits of each option in his mind, the door to his room slowly swung open.

“Ah, I see you’re awake, Spike,” Princess Celestia said. “Can I come in?”

Spike waved in a roundabout in a way which made his intentions clear. “You don’t have to ask me, Princess. I don’t think I could even object if I wanted to.”

The solar princess just wore her trademark smile. “One must respect another pony’s personal space regardless of what they may think of themselves.” At this, Spike let out a small laugh. Happy that the young dragon appreciated her gesture, she walked over and lay herself in a comfortable position on a carpet just a few feet from Spike.

“I think you need to teach Twilight more lessons like that,” he said with a bit of theatrics sprinkled in to complement his words. “She seems a little grab-happy at times.”

Princess Celestia gave only a nod to show her understanding. “Do not worry. I made sure to explain many a things to the young princess,” Celestia said, “There seems to be quite a few things that Twilight needs to learn about life, and you know how she is when she does not know of something.”

The two shared knowing looks before the silence grew between them once again.

“So, did you talk her out of it?”

“Out of what exactly?”

Spike grimaced a little. “You know, the whole ‘I need to find out if I’m immortal for reals’ thing she had in her head?” Spike said thinking back to some of the rather frightening implications of Twilight’s experiments. He shook the thoughts from his head and decided to refocus on the present.

“You have no need to worry. I have her little macguffin in my possession. I also made sure I was very clear about what Twilight should and should not be focusing on with her studies in Ponyville,” reassured Celestia.

“That’s a relief,” Spike said as threw himself backwards into his bed. “Who knows how far she would of gone with her crazy theory. She might of hurt herself!”

The alicorn nodded sagely. “It is a very good thing you got my attention when you did too, Spike. Your Princess of Friendship’s theory is very, very wrong.”

Spike blinked.

“What are you saying princess?”

Spike facepalmed as Celestia smiled slyly gave an all-too-familiar wave of the hoof to dismiss any suspicion. “Oh, Twilight’s body may have changed when she became an alicorn, but let’s just say that she could pass off as the Princess of Good Fortune after the events of today.”

“So, you’re saying that each time I heard an explosion that-”

“Yeees?”

“And her crazy ‘doomsday device’ was actually capable of-”

“Mhmm.”

Pulling the sheets over himself, Spike curled into a small ball and shivered. Seeing this, the sun princess spoke up.

“Would you like me to explain anything else to you, Spike?” she said with a dash of playfulness. Much to her dismay, only a loud groan answered her request. “If anything like this comes up again, do not hesitate to get my attention. It isn’t much trouble at all since I do love visiting you two often.” Nothing came from Spike to answer for Celestia’s sentiment. The princess only laughed to herself as she carefully rose not to disturb Spike.

“If it’s really that bad, I’ll see you both in about a week. Sleep well my faithful subject.”

This time Spike answered; he again did not answer with words, but with another one of his annoyed cries.

Author's Note

In case you didn't notice. I have no idea what I'm writing about. If you like rereading things many times over, feel free to message me. I need someone to tell me to stop using the word 'was' so many times in my stories.

I also appreciate social interaction with others. :)

Blehh.