Author's Note

The Spy of the Tiger may or may not have figurines that look like us.

these last few chapters were just Shining Armor playing with toys that Twilight owned? (I assure you, owning toys of your friends is normal and in no way weird.)

"Dangit, shouldn't have left Spike next to the window yesterday with that heat wave going on..." Shining Armor pried off a half-melted fabric wing from his Spike figurine. "Ruined a perfectly good custom hoodie, too. Twilight's gonna be pissed."

Twilight emerged from beneath the windowsill outside. "What are you doing, Shiny?"

Shining Armor stared at his sister through the window.

Twilight stared back in a cold, unblinking gaze only possible thanks to her training as the future ruler of the land.

"Uhhhh--stretching my calves on the windowsill! Isometri--"

"What's that you're hiding, Shiny?"

Shining Armor dipped his head with a defeated sigh as he held up the damaged Spike figurine.

"Twilight," Spike rose beside the mare at the window. "Why do you have a figurine of me in your childhood bedroom, and why is Shining Armor in there?"

Twilight's Royal Canterlot Stare™ shattered. "I, uh--well you see..." she tapped her hooves together, gritting her teeth. "Wargames! After what happened in the Crystal Empire, I realized that you are a valuable asset to have on the battlefield thanks to Equestria's enemies underestimating you."

"Uh-huh. And why is Shining Armor in there holding a figurine of me covered in melted plastic?"

"He's a top general in the Equestrian military, Spike. He has the right to participate and initiate such simulations on his own."

"There's still the other half of that question, Twi."

"You just got warcrime'd in that simulation run. New torture method, you see. The... uh," Twilight ran through the list of nations that could even remotely be considered as adversarial towards Equestria. "The Storm Kingdom, you see, was found to be using a method of torture where they pour hot wax on you during interrogation."

Spike pointed at the desk inside, upon which there was a marriage taking place between what appeared to be Celestia and an eraser. "And what about that?"

Twilight's panicked gaze met her brother's.

"Don't you know?" Shining Armor's muffled voice filtered through the glass, "The Princess intends to marry! The lucky pony's identity is being kept a secret for security reasons, and as per my instructions, I've instead used an indescript stand-in!"

Spike wouldn't be able to raise his brow any higher even if he wanted to. Between the nervous laughter from both Twilight and Shining Armor, all of this was quite suspicious.

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