Spike stared at the far wall of the empty hallways with a blank expression, quietly wondering just what he was going to have for dinner while he waited for the door to beside him open, or for Twilight to call him inside.
Without warning the door flew open and a brilliant corona of cerulean light caught in his peripheral vision as Twilight tumbled to the floor beside him, stumbling and landing in what at a glance looked like a disorganized pile of legs and wings. He turned and casually watched her pick herself up, spin around on the spot, and half stumble back towards the door again, only for it to slam shut mere inches from her face and send her stumbling backwards again.
Spike gave her an appraising look as she fell on her rump and decided that it would be best to put his dinner plans on the back burner for now, at least until this was taken care of, and at least until he had the time to check how many rubies were left in the pantry.
“It didn’t go well, I take it?”
Twilight tried to shoot him a glare as she dusted herself off, but it immediately faltered when she saw the look of quiet concern on his face. Her shoulders slumped in defeat and she sighed. “I tried to talk to her, Spike, I really did, but…” She sighed again and stared at the floor, as if hoping to find some kind of solution buried in the translucent crystals that they both knew wasn’t going to be there.
Spike waved a claw in front of him before crossing his arms. “But she wouldn’t.”
Twilight glanced back up ag him again, then looked back at the door in front of her before finally opting to fix her gaze on the floor again. “I tried to talk to her about it. I tried to ask her what happened, but she wouldn’t give me anything to work with!” She groaned and stared up at the ceiling. “I want to help her figure this out, but the only thing she would tell me is that whatever happened was all her fault.” She frowned. “She just kept on saying that I couldn’t fix this…”
Spike winced when he heard a keening sob carry through the door in front of them. Twilight’s ears pinned themselves to the back of her skull and her frown deepened just that little bit more. For a while neither of them said anything, until Spike finally decided to break the silence again.
“Look, Twilight, don’t beat yourself up about it.” He walked over to her and set a claw on her withers. She looked down at him, still frowning. “I know that you feel like she’s your responsibility, and I know that you want to help her getting through whatever it she’s going through…” He looked away and shook his head. “But if she won’t tell you anything, if she won’t let you help her, then there really isn’t anything you can do.
She sighed again, her shoulders sagging just that little bit more as she seemed to try to melt into the floor. He calmly rubbed his claw across her shoulder before grabbing it just firmly enough to get her attention.
“Twilight, look, you know this bothers me just as much is it’s bothering you. Starlight is my friend too.” He sighed. “You know I don’t like seeing her like this either, but you know there’s nothing we can do until she talks to us.” He relaxed his grip and let his claw fall back to his side, shaking his head. “Until she does getting worked up about it isn’t going to help anyone. The best thing we can do is to just give her some space and give her a chance to think about it.”
Twilight blinked at him, surprised. Her expression softened slightly and she wiped a hoof across her muzzle, snuffling. “Thanks Spike.” She gave him a weak smile. “I know you’re right, but it’s just so hard to walk away when she’s hurting like this.
Spike gave her a smile of his own. “Hey, listen. Friendship isn’t always easy, but there’s no doubt it’s worth fighting for. So sometimes it’s worth waiting for too, even if it hurts, right?”
She laughed and hugged him, running her hoof down his back and rubbing his scales gently. “Right.” She dipped her head down and buried her muzzle in the name of his neck. She took a moment to gather herself before pulling away and shooting him a sly grin. “Just when did you get so wise.”
He laughed and took a step back so he could look her in the eye. “I learned from the best.”
Twilight gave him a look and reached up to ruffle his spines. “Thanks, Spike, I needed that.”
“Anytime, Twi.” He shot back.
She smiled down at him again before turning back to the door beside them. She let out another exasperated sigh. “There really isn’t anything that I can do until I know what happened. So if Starlight doesn’t want to tell us, then the only thing we can do is wait until she does.” She swallowed and took a moment to collect herself. “As much as it pains me to admit it, you’re right, Spike. The best thing we can do right now is to step back and treat this whole thing with kid gloves until she’s ready to move forward.
Spike nodded automatically, but then stop to consider her odd phrasing and he raised an eyebrow at her. “Kid gloves?”
Twilight gave him a serious looked before it lapsed into a soft smile. “Right, you were probably too young to remember that…” She looked back up at the door and with a flash of lavender a scroll and quill appeared in the air in front of her. She quickly scribbled something down before sending them away with another flash. “Alright, there, I left Starlight a note saying that we would be having tea in the library. That way she knows where to find us if she decides she wants to talk before we’re done.”
She smiled at Spike again, standing up and gesturing for him to climb up onto her back. After a moment’s hesitation he scrambled up and made himself comfortable. “In the meantime I can tell you about one of the most important stories Celestia ever told me, and about one of the hardest lessons I ever had to learn…”
A quick trip to the pantry confirmed two things. Firstly that there were about seven rubies left for Spike to make his dinner plans, and secondly that both Twilight and himself would be having a couple of mugs of hot chocolate instead of tea for their tea. That was something that they both learned from Celestia a long time ago, that you didn’t have to actually be drinking tea to sit down and having tea. The Alicorn of the Sun herself oftentimes preferred sipping coffee with light cream during her morning meetings.
When they made their way to the library Spike found himself shifting carefully on the cushion beneath him, trying to get as comfortable as possible while clutching his mug. Twilight was sitting across from him in her favorite plush armchair. Her mug floated lazily beside her, caught up in her lavender aura. She brought it to her lips and blew quietly, trying to cool it down just that little bit faster. Meanwhile spike took a hearty swig of the nearly scalding liquid with a nigh imperceptible smirk plastered on his lips, silently appreciating the fact that he didn’t have to worry about such things.
She let out a soft sigh and set her mug down on the small table sitting between them. “So you probably don’t remember anything about my report to Celestia on Minotaur culture, do you?”
Spike took another sip and shook his head. “Not really, no, it doesn’t stand out.”
She looked down at her mug pensively. “You were probably too young, that’s probably for the best.” She let out a mirthless chuckle. “Sometimes I wish I could forget about it too.” She sighed again, but before Spike could ask why she continued. “It was a long time ago, I think just a little bit after you turned two. So it’s completely understandable that you wouldn’t really remember it.”
There was a pause where Twilight took another moment to collect her. Spike took another sip of his cocoa before speaking up again. “So did something happen?”
Twilight glanced up at him, locking eyes only for a moment before looking way again. “No, thankfully, but I almost did something that I would have regretted.” She sighed again. “Honestly I still regret almost doing it.”
Spike frowned and leaned forward. “Twilight, if you don’t want to talk about it then—”
“No!” Twilight blurted out suddenly, shouting. Almost immediately Twilight froze up and a hoof shot up to cover her mouth when she realized that she had raised her voice to him, something that she was normally very careful to never do. She stared at him with wide eyes, but then the moment passed and she let her hoof fall with another sigh. “No, Spike, this is something I’ve been meaning to tell you about for a long time.” She shook her head. “It’s something you deserve to hear about, and there’s a lesson in it that I would rather you learn now instead of have to learn the hard way later on down the line.”
Spike considered that for a moment, taking another sip. Then he carefully set his mug down and waited for her to continue.
“Back when I was just a little filly, too young to be practicing magic full time without running the risk of hitting a magical surge halfway through practicing some new spell, Celestia realized that just telling me to take breaks and to pace myself wasn’t going to keep me from pushing myself beyond what was safe for me to try. So instead she would give me other things to do besides between her private lessons with me. She had me do reports on things like history, math, science, and other stuff like that, just to keep me occupied until I could practice with her in a controlled environment.”
Twilight paused to take another sip from her mug before continuing. “At first it was frustrating. There I was, a filly with the opportunity to learn magic from Celestia herself, but whenever I wasn’t working with her she had me doing reports on things like the history of pottery in Equestria.” She set her mug down again as another smile touched at her lips. “But then I started to appreciate all of the interesting things I was learning, like how Star Swirl himself was an avid potter in his younger days, or how Minotaurs and Goats come together to form a societal structure that’s completely unique on Equis.”
“Goats? Spike furrowed his brow. “I thought this report was just about Minotaurs?”
Twilight waved one of her hooves in an expansive gesture. “That’s just the thing; the more I learned about Minotaurs the more I started to realize that it’s impossible to write a full report on them without writing about Goats. They’re inextricably linked because…” She paused as a through struck her, shifting in her seat slightly and leaning forward. “You know how we’ve discussed how Dragons and Ponies have different psychology?”
Spike shrugged and took another long sip from his mug. “Yea, what about it?”
“Trust me, it’s important here...” Twilight looked down and brought a hoof to her lips, mumbling to herself. Spike just rolled his eyes and waited for her to figure out exactly how she wanted to explain whatever she was trying to explain to him. Suddenly her ears twitched up and her hoof dropped again to reveal a beaming smile. “I got it!”
Spike just rolled his eyes again, but Twilight ignored it. “Alright, so I want you to imagine a big empty room, Ok?”
Spike just nodded and went along with it. “Ok, so what about this big empty room?”
“Well, what do you think would happen if you put a bunch of Ponies into it?”
Spike thought about it for a second looking down at his mug and then glancing back up at Twilight. “You mean what would they do?” She nodded and he hummed to himself thoughtfully. “They would bunch together, right?”
Twilight smiled at him and nodded again. “Right, if you didn’t give them any reason to stay separated then they would come together and form a singular group. Or they would form multiple groups, depending on just how many Ponies are in the room together. Now imagine the same situation, but what would happen if we put Dragons into the room instead of Ponies?”
Without missing a beat he replied. “If you didn’t give them any reason to stay together, then they would spread out as much as possible.”
Once again, Twilight nodded. “Right again, at least as far as we understand Dragon psychology and how it differs from Pony psychology. As far as we can tell Ponies, on average, tend to be pretty social and collectivistic, they’ll consider others before they consider themselves and they’ll prefer to be in a group than to be alone. Meanwhile Dragons are on the other end of the spectrum, anti-social and individualistic.”
Twilight stopped and looked at him seriously for a moment, about to say something, but Spike waved a claw and cut her off. “I know what you’re going to say, Twilight, so forget it. Like you said, we talked about this stuff before, and I get that it would be dumb to let it define me.” He huffed. “At the end of the day I’m my own person and these things are all predictive, not descriptive, right?”
She gave him a concerned look before smiling again. “You’re absolutely right, Spike, and for the record you’ve grown into a very considerate and kind young drake.”
Spike mumbled something under his breath as he felt his cheeks warm up and Twilight just giggled before continuing. “Anyway, first off I’ll say that in the same situation Minotaurs will fall somewhere between Dragons and Ponies. If you put a bunch of Minotaurs together in a room they would probably end up mingling together, but not really form any defined group and otherwise keep to themselves until given a reason to really come together.”
Spike reached forward to grab up his mug again, taking another sip and holding it close for a while. “Alright, so what about Goats then? By the way you’re bringing this up I’m guessing that they are different somehow, right?” Twilight nodded. “So what would happen if you put a bunch of Goats in a big empty room like that without giving them anything to do?”
Twilight took a moment to grab her mug again and take another sip herself. “That’s just the thing, they wouldn’t do anything.”
Spike furrowed his brow again and tried to think about that. “What do you mean?”
Twilight shook her head. “I mean what I said, they wouldn’t do anything. If it was just a room full of Goats that didn’t know each other and they were told that they didn’t have to do anything, then they wouldn’t do anything at all. They would just stand there and wait.”
“So nothing?” Spike asked.
“Nothing at all.” Twilight replied.
“Hmm…” Spike took a long draw from his mug, trying to imagine the scene and what it would be like, but completely failing to do so. “That’s just so…”
“Bizarre?”
Spike considered the word and nodded. “That works, I guess. I just can’t imagine it. Why are they like that? There has to be a reason, right?”
Twilight gave a noncommittal shrug. “Well, it’s hard to say for sure. Honestly we know less about the way Goat psychology think than we do about Dragon psychology, but overall it seems to be something to do with their generally servile and codependent nature. From a young age Goats imprint on Minotaurs specifically and they will do anything everything they can to serve them from that point forward.”
“Why though?” Spike asked. “Why are they like that? What makes them want to serve Minotaurs?”
Twilight shook her head. “Again, it’s hard to say. We don’t know exactly why or how it happened, we just know that it did. That’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of theories though, everything to really wild ones that say that Goats were created by some forgotten deity for the express purpose of serving the Minotaurs, to the more commonly accepted theory that says that Goats were likely subject to heavy predation by other races and species, and as such ended up living underneath the stronger Minotaurs for protection.”
“So Goats are like that because of Dragons trying to eat them?”
Twilight frowned. “That’s not what I said, Spike.”
Spike stared right through her. “But that’s what you meant, right?”
Twilight matched his gaze, but only for a moment before breaking eye contact and sighing again. “Like I said, Spike, it’s hard to say anything concrete. There’s so much we don’t know when it comes to Goats.” Spike continued to stare at her and eventually she relented. “But yes, that’s the theory that seems to hold up to the realities of the situation.”
Spike continued to glare at her for a few seconds before accepting that was the most direct acknowledgment that he was probably going to get and going back to occupying himself with his now half-empty mug of cocoa. “Alright,” he asked after another long sip, “but what makes Minotaurs special here? Why don’t Goats have the same relationship with Gryphons or something?”
Twilight sighed again. “That’s the thing; we think that Gryphons would have probably preyed on Goats at one point as well.” Spike gave her a confused look and she continued. “Despite the fact that Gryphons don’t normally prey on other sapient races, there might have been a special exception here due to the fact that Goats have a language that’s completely incomprehensible to anything besides Minotaurs and other Goats.”
Spike cut in. “So the Gryphons wouldn’t have known that they were sapient?”
Twilight shook her head. “They probably would have known, it’s not that difficult to tell, but they might not have acknowledged it or recognized it amongst themselves.” She sighed. “It’s complicated; suffice it to say that the language barrier likely would have prevented such a relationship from forming between the two races.”
“So why it is that Minotaurs can understand Goats when nobody else can?”
Twilight paused to take another sip before responding. “Well, suffice it to say, there’s a reason that there’s a reason that the theory about Goats being created by some deity hasn’t been outright rejected at this point.” She set the mug down again and scratched at the side of her neck. “There’s just so much we don’t know about them, it’s really hard to say why they’re so different. Again, the only thing we do know is that they seem to have a language, or it might be better to say that they have a way of communicating, that can only be understood by other Goats and Minotaurs.”
“Anyway,” she continued, “we could spend all day talking about what we know about Goats, or more to the point what we don’t know about them. For now though, just try to keep in mind that Goats live their lives for Minotaurs and almost everything they do is justified by them trying to do their best to serve them however they can, even if it doesn’t always seem like that’s the case.” Spike nodded and Twilight smiled and continued.
“As I was saying before we got sidetracked, it had taken me about a month’s worth of reading to notice that this relationship between the two races even existed, because up until that point I had mostly been referencing different historical texts from Minotaur historians and usually they’ll only refer to Goats indirectly, if at all, in anything they write.”
“Why?”
“Goats don’t like being written about or talked about in place of the Minotaurs they serve, they consider it disrespectful and as such most Minotaur historians have done their best to avoid mentioning them wherever possible out of deference to their wishes.”
“Huh, so they would rather be forgotten than recognized.”
Twilight nodded and continued. “At first I just assumed that Goats weren’t that significant, since most of the texts I was reading through barely mentioned them at all, but once I realized that wasn’t the case I started looking for texts that specifically talked about Goats. After that I started learning just how important Goats are to Minotaur society. So I decided to completely rewrite my report and try to focus on everything we know about the relationship between the two races, and to try to address some of the speculation regarding the things that we were still trying to understand at the time.”
Twilight straightened up a bit in her seat and her eyes scanning back and forth as she called up images in her mind’s eye, trying to recall the specifics of the report that she had written all those years ago. Then her eyes caught on Spike again and she froze momentarily, her face falling and her shoulders slumping again.
She looked away and stared aimlessly off to her side and continued again. “It was about that time that you started trying to help me with everything I did.” She smiled softly to herself, but still didn’t turn to face Spike, he frowned. “You were always tripping over yourself trying to bring me whatever you thought that I needed.” She let out a short laugh. “At first that was mostly blocks and boxes of juice, but after some time and some gentle coaching from Celestia whenever she stopped by, you started to get a better idea of what I actually needed, and then all I had to do was to ask you to bring me my notes, or a scroll, or some book…”
Twilight’s voice trailed off as she glanced down at her mostly empty mug, staring at it with a complete lack of expression on her face.
“But you still needed the juice, right?” Spike blurted out, hoping to break the silence and make things just a little bit less awkward.
She blinked and looked back up at him again. “Juice?” She blinked again, and then let out another laugh as her whole body seemed to relax just that little bit. “Yea, juice was nice sometimes too…”
She sighed and after another moment continued, but this time with a little conviction in her voice. “The whole time I worked on that report you did nothing but try to be as helpful as you could possibly be.”
She smiled at him, but only for a moment before looking down to stare dead eyed at her mug again. “For the most part you did great,” she sighed again, “but sometimes, or a lot of the time, you made mistakes.” She sank further into her chair. “You were still young, still just a kid.” She let out another laugh, but this time there was no mirth there. “I shouldn’t have expected as much as I did from you, but every time I got pulled out of whatever I was reading at the time because you couldn’t remember where the ink was, or because you couldn’t reach one of the books, or because…”
Twilight trailed off again and there was another long pause until Spike finally spoke up again, this time his voice a bit quieter than before. “So what happened?”
Twilight’s eyes stayed locked on her mug as reflexively reached out with her magic and started fiddling with it nervously. “Two weeks.” She said flatly. “It took two weeks to fully rewrite the report, and even though I was grateful whenever you brought me something I needed, or when you helped me with something else, I found myself getting more and more frustrated with you whenever you couldn’t, or didn’t.”
For what seemed like the thousandth time she let out another sigh, and then took a deep breath before looking up at Spike. The moment her eyes made contact she tensed up, as if to look away again, but she didn’t. She sat there frozen for a few seconds that seemed to stretch into an eternity. Then, just as as suddenly as she stopped before, she continued. “When I was trying to finish up the last few pages of the report I somehow managed to snap my quill clean in half right over the page. I didn’t have any more quills on hand and I was so focused on making sure that I didn’t spill any ink anywhere that I asked you to go get me another one without really thinking about it…”
Spike’s throat tightened up suddenly as he started to vaguely remember how this story went and how it ended. “Twilight, I’m not sure if—”
She shook her head. “You did a great job too. I didn’t even have to tell you where to find the quills that time; you just ran out and came back maybe a minute later with a clawfull of them.”Twilight glanced away from him reflexively and her gaze fell somewhere between him and the mugs sitting on the table. “But the thing was I was still so distracted with the ink that I didn’t notice when you came back right away. Since I was busy I guess you just tried to reach up and put the quills right on the desk for me, and the feathers of the quills must of brushed against your snout in just the right way, and it was just around that time that your fire was starting to come in.”
“Twilight, I—”
“So before I could even blink, green flames had engulfed all the parchment on my desk, the report I had spent two weeks working on burning up into ashes and floating away right before my eyes.” Twilight’s eyes darted between Spike and her mug a few times before she shakily reached down with a hoof to pick it up and take a long draw from it, only stopping when it was completely empty. She looked down at it, almost like she was surprised there was nothing left inside, and then clutched it to her chest tightly.
“I couldn’t believe it, all of that work, all of that effort…” She halfheartedly waved a hoof up in the air before bringing it back to clutch at the mug again. “Just for it all to literally go up in smoke!”
She looked up at Spike again, doing her best to hold eye contact with him. “I was…” She looked away again, back down at her mug, eyes scanning, searching for the right words.
“I was angry that…” She trailed off again, but then found herself and continued. “No, that’s not right. I was exhausted. I was distraught. I was frustrated. I was feeling so many things and, well, I didn’t know how to deal with it all properly.” She let out another little laugh that came out sounding more like a sob. “I was just a kid…”
She took another deep breath and looked up at him again, her eyes sparkling with half formed tears that were all borne of regret, pain, and trepidation. Spike stayed silent and still and waited for her to find herself again and continue.
“So I did something that I never should have done and something that I will always wish I hadn’t. Without saying a single word, I stood up, turned around, raised my hoof, and then—”
“You hit me?” Spike said, only half questioning as his memories of the scene in question became clearer and clearer to him.
Twilight flinched as if struck and stayed frozen on the spot for yet another eternity before she finally had to exhale again. “No.” She swallowed audibly. “No, I was going to, I really was. I knew it and so did you.” She sniffled, obviously miserable with herself. “I’ll never forget the look on your face…”
There was another pause and another sigh. “I was really going to hit you, but just before I was going to bring my hoof down, an amber aura scooped you up and pulled you over towards the balcony…”
Spike blinked. “Celestia?”
Twilight nodded. “I just stood there for a few seconds with my hoof hovering in the air before it finally registered and I looked over and saw her standing there. You were buried in her chest and she was just cooing over you, calming you down. I didn’t really know how to react to the situation,” she let out another humorless chuckle, “so I didn’t react. I just stood there for a few seconds and stared at her, scared to death that she was going to punish me.”
Twilight shook her head. “She didn’t though, and if she was upset then she didn’t say anything. She just stood there holding you until you finally calmed down, then she finally walked over to me and told me, asked me, to sit down.”
Twilight let out another sigh, but this one was a bit different. She looked miserable, but at the same time it seemed as if a great weight had just been lifted off of her back. Spike watched the tension that he hadn’t noticed before slowly start to drain away from her face and out from her shoulders as she settled down in her chair again.
“And then?” He asked.
Twilight wiped a hoof across her eyes and muzzle, in a fruitless attempt to make herself look decent again. “She sat down with e and told me a story, ‘The Minotaur and the Sculptor’ she called it.”
Spike let out a breath that he didn’t realize he was holding and he smiled. “I think I’d like to hear that one for myself.”
Twilight smiled back at him and squirmed in her chair a bit, getting comfortable again before diving straight into the story. “Well then, once upon a time, there—”
Not wasting any time himself, Spike quickly stood up from his seat, walked around the table, and jumped up onto the chair with Twilight. For a moment she just sat there surprised, but then her expression softened and she smiled down at Spike, her Spike. She scooted back a bit so that he had more room. Then he leaned back, laying himself on her chest and stomach, and she carefully draped a wing over him like a down blanket.
He breathed out a happy sigh and snuggled into Twilight’s warm down and fluff. “Alright now I’m ready.”
Twilight giggled and squeezed him gently with her wing. “Thanks, Spike, you have no idea how much this means to me.” She took a second to savor his warmth and weight against her before starting again. “Now, once upon a time, there was a young Minotaur who lived in the highlands to the northeast of Gryphonstone in a midsized trading town full of other Minotaurs and, of course, Goats.
“He was a sculptor by trade, one who had trained under a master sculptor in the Gryphon Lands for several years before coming back to his hometown to ply his craft on his own. Things were tough for him there. He had talent, but he was surrounded by folk who, for the most part, had very little appreciation for the arts and his work. The majority of his clients ended up being travelers and traders who passed through the town with an eye for fine stonework and deep enough coin purses to be able to actually afford them. Because of this he wasn’t wealthy, but he wasn’t poor either.
“Either way he didn’t spend much time dwelling on any of this. He was always working on some new piece, always trying to make something that he could be truly proud of, something that would finally allow him to lay claim to the title of master himself.
“So day in and day out he threw himself into his work with little consideration for anything else or for anyone that wasn’t a potential patron. He even went so far as to ignore his friends and family. However, despite his focus and dedication to his craft, the world around him kept on turning as it always had, and as such time passed.
“One day, he was pulled away from his work by a light knocking on his door in the middle of the night. He opened the door and to his surprise, found a young doe,” Twilight paused and added, “a young female goat, with a note tied to her neck with a length of twine.
“Seeing this, he carefully knelt down in front of her and reached around her head to undo the twine so he could read the note. While his hand worked against the back of her neck she lovingly nuzzled her head into his arm. He paid this no mind, focusing on undoing the twine. Once the note was free he stood up and read it
“To his surprise, but not necessarily his shock, the note said that his uncle, a bull of some wealth in renown in the area, had recently passed away. In all his focus the Minotaur had missed all word of his uncle’s passing and had even missed his uncle’s funeral. He was surprised, but again, not particularly shocked or upset. His uncle was very old, and it had been no secret that his health had been deteriorating. Still, it was a little unsettling that he had only heard about it after the bull’s funeral. He scratched behind his head with a hand idly, pondering about that as he read on.
“The note stated that of all the old bull’s wealth and possessions, he had deigned to grant his nephew one of his more prized possessions. He granted him his last remaining Goat, both to ensure that she was taken care of and to ensure that the Minotaur had someone to watch over him. The note said that the old bull had become increasingly concerned as to the state of his nephew’s obsession with his work and worried about his health and state of mind. It said that he felt it was his responsibility to grant him Auriella to make sure he had something to think about besides his work and that among his uncle’s final wishes he asked that his nephew take good care of her.
Spike looked up at Twilight for a moment. “Auriella? That’s a pretty name.”
Twilight nodded absently. “Mh-hm, it is. Anyway, that was all there was on the note, so he quickly pocketed it and turned his attention back to Auriella, who was beaming at him with a saccharine grin. He knelt back down to get a better look at her, seeing just how young she was, and noticing that she was also a little bit slight and frail looking for her age, but that otherwise she seemed to be in good health in spirits. He reached to scratch gently behind her ear, deliberately this time, and she hummed happily to himself as she all but threw herself into his hands. He smiled to himself but said nothing as he continued to look her over and get a feel for her. Then, once he was satisfied he stood up and walked inside, and she followed.”
“Just like that?” Spike asked.
“Just like that,” Twilight replied, “as much as Goats are a mystery to us, and even Minotaurs to a certain extent, Minotaurs and Goats seem to understand each other well enough as to where they can form lifelong bonds in just moments under the right circumstances. Even in the face of something that’s considered traumatic, like the death of a previous master, things like this are considered normal.” Twilight hummed thoughtfully to herself. “She was probably just happy to have someone to love again…”
Spike looked up to see Twilight staring at the ceiling with a distant look on her face. “Twilight?”
She ignored him and continued. “When they both crossed that threshold together an unspoken contract was struck, a contract between Minotaur and servant and one between Goat and master. From that day forward the Minotaur made sure that Auriella was well fed and cared for, mostly by continuing his work as a sculptor and ensuring she had a warm bed to sleep in. In return Auriella did everything she could to make his life easier. She did housework, cooked, cleaned, greeted guests when she could, and even did her best to fetch tools for him whenever he was busy with his craft.
“For the most part, their relationship was normal. Or they were normal for a Goat and a Minotaur, at least. However, due to the fact that he wasn’t particularly wealthy to begin with and considering he couldn’t simply earn more by working more, since he was working almost constantly already, Auriella’s presence put a strain on his already tight budget.
“Mostly this affected his ability to travel freely, which was one of the ways he would normally seek out patrons. It also meant that if a tool started to wear out that he wouldn’t be able to purchase a new one as soon as he would otherwise like, which oftentimes meant that he would have to struggle with worn or broken tools until he could buy new ones.
“Not only that, but due to her youth and inexperience, not to mention her general frailty, Auriella couldn’t do everything that would otherwise be expected of her. She always tried her best and she would always give everything she had to over, but there were still so many things she didn’t know, and so many things that she just wasn’t physically capable of doing on her own. So she would often make mistakes and more often than not she needed his help when it came to more physically demanding chores, and even then she would tire herself out quite quickly if she had to do anything even remotely strenuous.
“The Minotaur didn’t really know what to think about this. The little doe was a joy to be around as well as the last gift he would ever receive from his dearly beloved uncle, and as such he cherished her as best as he could. Still though, a part of him couldn’t help but think of her as a burden, as in a very real sense she was a burden. She was something that he had to stop and consider before he did anything and she was something that he always had to keep in the back of his mind.
“However, as time passed the days turned into months and the months turned into years and Auriella became more experienced. She was always as frail as ever, which was something that weighed heavily on the back of the Minotaurs mind always, but they both learned to deal with it and they learned ways to work together to make things easier for the both of them. As she learned more and more about keeping house and sculpting she was able to prove herself in full as the boon she truly was on his household, even if she always had to retire to bed early every day and even if there were some days where she couldn’t do any work at all.
“As time passed Auriella wasn’t the only one to learn and improve. Over the course of several years the Minotaur had started to build himself a sterling reputation as a sculptor of considerable skill and talent. His reputation soon started spreading past the bounds of his hometown, and even beyond the highlands altogether. Eventually he found himself being approached by representatives of wealthy patrons from faraway lands seeking out his talent.
“He always obliged when he could, however due to Auriella’s condition traveling to distant lands was more or less out of the question. He couldn’t bring her with him and nor could she endure being left alone for so long.
“As such he could only take requests for smaller works that he could craft at home and ones that could be safely borne over the long and winding roads that lead to distant lands. So he focused himself on this particular niche and worked tirelessly to make his sculptures as detailed as possible while still keeping them small enough, usually life sized if the subject was the size of a Minotaur or smaller, to be moved around easily.
“In this niche the Minotaur found himself more in his element than ever and found that he was able to focus on techniques that would allow him to improve his craft more in months than he had been able to improve in years before. However, this improvement didn’t come without a cost. As he became more and more skilled at his craft he found that Auriella was becoming more and more distracted by it, to the point where he would even find her up and about in the middle of the night just standing in his workroom and staring at the sculptures.
“This distraction and obsession her part manifested itself in other ways as well. Oftentimes when he would ask her to fetch him a specific tool she would come back with another one entirely. When he would ask her about it she would insist that was the tool he needed, and when he would tell her it wasn’t the tool he asked for they would get into an argument about it. There would also be times where she wouldn’t pay attention to him at all, not coming when she was called and not noticing when he needed something.
“The thing that maybe concerned him the most though, was that she would tire out earlier every day, and that the number of days she spent confined to her room increased significantly. That worried him to the point where he even tried to take her to see a doctor about it on several occasions, but she patently refused, saying that he didn’t want to pull him away from his work and that she could take care of herself.
“The Minotaur often found these things gnawing at the back of his mind when he worked, even on the days where she didn’t have any issues at all. If anything, those were the days he worried even more.
“Then there came a day where the Minotaur was torn away from his work once again by a quiet knock on his door in the middle of the night. To his surprise he found a Unicorn standing on his doorstep, one who immediately asked him if his services were available. The Minotaur spoke with the Unicorn and found that he had journeyed from a faraway land in order to request a sculpture be commissioned for his mistress.
“For a time they sat and discussed all the things that needed to be considered for any commission. They discussed the rates and fees involved, what stone to use, the size of the statue, as well as how the statue would be transported. The conversation and negotiation went well enough, however the Minotaur soon noticed that one important detail had been left out completely, what was in fact the most important detail regarding any commission. He stopped and asked the Unicorn precisely what his mistress would like him to sculpt.
“The Unicorn gave him a serious look and then finally reached produced several scrolls from his bags and presented them to the Minotaur. The Minotaur took them and looked them over carefully, both awestruck and inspired by what he saw…”
Twilight stopped suddenly and Spike looked up at her as she stared up the ceiling. “Well, what did he see?”
Twilight glanced down at him and smiled. “He saw a phoenix, and almost immediately after seeing it the Minotaur had started working on a design in his mind’s eye. He quickly told the Unicorn that he would begin work on the sculpture immediately and physically pushed him out the front door, telling him that he would send for him when the statue was done.”
“He was so excited to start working on it that he just kicked the Unicorn out on the street so he could start on it?”
Twilight giggled softly to herself. “You don’t know the half of it, Spike. He immediately started drafting a design, something bold and ambitious; he wanted to encapture the raw power and fury of the phoenix’s flames in stone itself so that he could show the world the true majesty of such a beast. He wanted to show the whole world its wonder. So he set himself down immediately at his drafting table and started to draw out the design.
“The more he drew the more he was convinced that this was going to be his magnum opus, the thing that he would always be remembered for, the thing that would put his name up amongst the names of the greatest sculptors of all time.
“However, when he showed his designs to Auriella and told her his plans, she scowled at him and told him that the design ‘wasn’t right’ and that he should take another approach altogether.”
Spike looked up at Twilight again. “So she told him that he was doing it wrong?”
Twilight nodded. “As the Minotaur was learning more and more about his craft, so was Auriella. Up until that point the Minotaur hadn’t really considered that she had spent years helping him make these sculptures and that she herself had developed a very critical and discerning eye as well as an artistic vision of her own.”
Spike frowned and furrowed his brow. “So when she was giving him different tools and telling him that those were the ones he needed…”
“Twilight nodded against the back of Spike’s head. “That’s right, he didn’t realize it at the time, but when she was giving him different tools it was her way of telling him that she thought he should be using a different technique to work the stone.”
Spike balked. “And he never realized that? You would think that it would be easy enough to see, or that it would be easy enough for her just to tell him that.”
Twilight chuckled and rubbed at the top of his head with a hoof. “Spike, if I learned anything about Minotaurs and Goats in all the time I spent studying them, it’s that even if they can understand the words they’re saying to each other, that they still don’t nessarlily know what they’re trying to say to each other. Minotaurs are notoriously direct and to the point, and for the most part Goats are the complete opposite.”
Spike thought about that for a second. “So it’s like Applejack and Rarity having a conversation about fashion?”
Twilight barked out a laugh at just the thought of it. “That’s disturbingly accurate actually.” She thought about it for another second. “Though it’s hard to say who’s more stubborn though.”
“Rarity or Applejack?”
Twilight laughed again, shaking her head. “No, who’s more stubborn? Rarity and Applejack or Goats and Minotaurs…”
Spike let out a low whistle. “That bad?”
Twilight nodded. “Just about, and it was especially true here. Apparently Auriella and the Minotaur argued about the design for about a week straight. She thought that the design he was going for was entirely the wrong approach. She told him that instead of trying to capture the flames that the creature was famous for, that it would be better to try to capture the majesty, poise, and beauty of the bird itself.
“Neither of them was willing to compromise, but in the end he was the sculptor and she was his Goat, so she did eventually back down. She didn’t do it quietly or without reservation however. As he started to work on the statue she would constantly pipe in saying that this and that wasn’t right and how the entire thing was just off. He was still convinced that he was in the right, however, so he just shut her out and ignored her complaint, instead working on the statue with the complete focus he had become renowned for.
“In the end it took him over four months of continuous work to finish, and it was only when he finished the sculpture that Auriella stopped criticizing it. Instead, however, she insisted that he try to sculpt her version before sending for the Unicorn to return and collect the statue. That way when he returned he would have two different statues to choose from, and he could take the one he thought his mistress would like the most.
“He rejected this plan offhand, saying that his sculpture was perfect and that there was no point in trying again. He told her that he was going to send for the Unicorn the very next day, and that caused her to start shouting at him. She said that he wasn’t taking her seriously and that he should stop and consider what she was thinking for just one moment in his life.
“For a while he just stood there and took it, but eventually what she was saying struck a deep cord and he started shouting back at her. He told her that she had no idea what she was talking about and that she had been nothing but a nuisance the entire time he had been working on the phoenix.
“Things only escalated from there, with her telling him that his design was stupid and pig-headed, to him telling her that she didn’t have an ounce of creative vision in her body and that she would never be anything more than a burden to him.
“After that she stopped shouting and just stared at him. Then she walked over to the sculpture and kicked it as hard as she possibly could. Even then the kick was only just hard enough to just barely tip the statue over, but even that was more than. He watched it crash into the floor and shatter into a dozen pieces…”
Twilight stopped and Spike started to guess why Celestia picked this particular story to tell her. “Twilight?”
Spike felt her swallow hard against his back. “He stood there for a long time, staring first at the broken statue on the floor, and then at the little doe that had shattered what he had considered to be his life’s greatest masterpiece. Then without thinking, he marched up to her and…”
Twilight froze, and Spike decided to finish the sentence for her. “He hit her…”
Twilight nodded mechanically. “He hit her, hard, and he immediately regretted it…”
There was a long pause, another eternity where neither of them said anything. Eventually Spike worked up the nerve to break the silence again. “That’s not where the story ends, though, is it?”
Twilight let out a long sigh and shook her head. “No, but I almost wish it was.” She took a deep breath and continued. “After he hit he looked down at her, sprawled out on the floor unconscious next to the remains of his statue. When he saw the two lying there together, motionless, he immediately realized which one he cared about more. He threw himself on the floor and Auriella up close to his chest and held her there; just rocking her back and forth, telling her that he was sorry, but…”
Twilight swallowed again. “But she didn’t wake up…”
“He realized something was wrong and rushed her off to the nearest doctor. In his grief he told the doctor everything that had happened, the doctor listened quietly, but didn’t say anything as he carefully laid Auriella out over his examination table and looked her over. Eventually the Minotaurs story gave way to a heavy silence as he waited for the doctor to tell him what was wrong with his doe, to tell him why she wasn’t waking up.
“What seemed like an eternity passed before the doctor finally spoke, for the first time since they had arrived. He told the Minotaur that Auriella would wake up in due time, and that the blow the Minotaur had given her likely hadn’t caused any lasting damage. With a thin, melancholic smile he said that as frail as she was, that Auriella was tougher than he would ever likely realize.
“The Minotaur stood up from his seat, ready to thank the doctor, but the doctor told him to sit back down again. The doctor himself left the room for a time, before coming back with a chair of his own and sitting down beside the Minotaur. There was another long pause where neither of them said anything, and then the doctor finally spoke up again. He started with an apology, and the Minotaur’s face fell.
“The doctor told him that Auriella was very sick. He told her that she had been sick for a very long time. The Minotaur immediately asked the doctor what could be done, but the doctor just shook his head. He told the Minotaur that the only thing that he could do for her was to take care of her, and to make sure that she was happy and comfortable.
“There was another pause, and then the Minotaur tried to ask a question, but failed to. The doctor answered the question anyway. He told the Minotaur that Auriella had at best six months to live.
“The Minotaur sat there, motionless, dead to the world, until another question crept up from the back of his mind. He quietly asked the doctor how he was able to figure everything out so quickly. The doctor looked away and admitted that he wouldn’t have been able to do it with just one examination. The doctor told him that Auriella had come to him in the middle of the night six months prior, when she had started vomiting blood...”
Spike looked back down at the mugs sitting on the table in front of them. “So, the entire time that he was working on the phoenix she was…”
Twilight nodded grimly against him. “Dying, yes. She kept it hidden from him though; like she had said before, she didn’t want to pull him from his work.” Twilight sighed, but then continued. “After the doctor told him that, the Minotaur didn’t say anything. He just listened quietly as the doctor explained the entirety of Auriella’s condition and told him what she would need in the coming months. The doctor’s orders more or less came down to her needing plenty of bedrest when she was tired, supervision when she wasn’t, and love always…”
Spike looked back up at Twilight again, who was once again staring at the ceiling. “Love?”
Twilight didn’t say anything, she just pulled Spike that much closer to herself and they both stayed there quietly for a time.
Eventually Twilight continued, though her voice was weaker now. “The doctor checked her over one more time and told the Minotaur that there wasn’t any reason to stay and that Auriella should be taken home and put to bed. The Minotaur opened his mouth to say something and the doctor told him that they should come back if there are any new developments. The Minotaur nodded, not trusting his words, and carried Auriella home.
“He walked through the door and through his workroom, completely ignoring the broken statue that was still on the floor. Then he walked into Auriella’s room, setting her down on the bed and gingerly covering her with her blanket. He left for just a moment to find a chair and bring it in to set it across the room from her. He sat down and watched the rise and fall of her chest as she slept peacefully.
“He thought back to all the time that they had spent together and the life that she had lived completely dedicated to making him as happy as she possibly could despite his unspoken but likely heard resentment of her condition always weighing in the back of his mind. He thought back to the time he first met her, back when she was just the happiest little doe that he had ever seen and he had just learned her name for the first time. He thought back to how happy she was just to be touched and to be loved.
“Then he cried, he cried long and hard in hopes that she would never have to see him cry. He cried to the gods, to the winds, to the stars, to himself, but mostly he cried for her. He cried until he couldn’t cry anymore, and then he sat there sobbing over her sleeping body knowing that she would look very much the same when she passed. He kept on sobbing until he was too tired to sob anymore, and then he just sat there, red eyed, watching here until he was too tired to do even that.
“The next day he woke up with a start when he heard a sharp tapping sound coming from somewhere behind him. He tried to blink away the dryness from his eyes and tried to swallow back the last bit of moisture in his mouth to quench his parched through before standing up and turning around to stare at the door to the room that adjoined Auriella’s, the door to the room that he hadn’t had a reason to enter for years, until that moment.
“As quietly as possible he pushed the door open and his jaw fell open at what he saw inside. He carefully stepped through the threshold and looked around, seeing walls plastered with different designs, both technical and artistic, as well as tools of various makes and states of disrepair, a floor that was covered in scraps of crumpled paper and discarded chunks of stone, and in the center of the room stood a singular half-finished sculpture.
“To his eyes though, it was less a sculpture and more like his own half-formed doppelgänger.
“He stared at it, frozen in shock and surprise, meanwhile the tapping continued from directly behind the statue. Eventually a much softer tapping of cloven hoof against hardwood sounded out as Auriella stepped out from around the back of the statue, locking eyes with him and freezing herself.
“Both of them stood there staring at each other for some time before the Minotaur managed to shake himself out of his stupor. Then he walked to her, knelt down, and reached behind her head to scratch behind her ear lovingly. She leaned into it for just a moment before reaching up a hoof to touch his chest softly. She asked him if she as dreaming and he snatched her up in his arms and held her for the longest time.
“She sobbed into his chest and told him that she was sorry or ruining his statue. He told her it was fine and that her idea was better to begin with. She said she was sorry for being horrible and arguing with him about it constantly. He said it was fine and that he should have listened to her in the first place. She choked out an apology for not telling him that she was sick. He didn’t say anything, but he held her just that much tighter.
“When he finally let go his chest was a mess of snot and tears, as was her face and the top of her head. She looked up at him again and frowned before looking back over at the half-finished statue standing next to them. ‘You weren’t supposed to see this until it was finished’ she told him.
“He kneeled back down next to her to get a better look at it. The statue depicted a Minotaur with his exact build and as of yet undefined features kneeling down and reaching out an arm out in front of him…”
There was another long pause. “So what did they do?”
Twilight leaned back slightly in the chair, eyes fixed on the ceiling again. “Well, the story goes that over the course of the next few months the Minotaur taught Auriella everything he knew about sculpting and stonework while he helped her finish her sculpture of him. Then whenever she would get too tired to continue, he would put her to bed and work on her version of the phoenix, the one that she wanted him to make from the start.
“The two of them continued to work on their respective projects while Auriella’s health deteriorated. The closer their projects came to completion, the longer it took for either of them to make any kind of meaningful progress as they had to take more and more time to deal with Auriella’s condition. Five months passed and the new phoenix was almost complete, as was the statue of the Minotaur; however, at the same time Auriella was almost completely bedridden, only able to work for an hour a day at most before he had to step in to put her back to bed again. They both kept at it though, and soon enough they both managed to finish on the very same day, nearly six months from when they started working together in full.
“Auriella was overjoyed to see the new phoenix. Even though she could barely stand for more than a few minutes at a time she was bouncing on her hooves whenever she could manage. The Minotaur was pensive though, he was proud of his work on the new phoenix and even prouder of Auriella’s design for it, but that wasn’t what gave him pause.
“The thing that shook him was when he finally saw her completed statue of the Minoatur. When she finally finished she walked around it in a slow circle, admiring her work for everything it was and everything it ever would be. Then she stopped in front of it and carefully nuzzled the side of her head the side of her head against its stone wrought fingers.
The pieces clicked together in Spike’s head. “She made a sculpture of when they first met, didn’t she?”
Twilight swallowed again and nodded. “A perfect replica, down to the finest detail. She told him it was the first, happiest moment of her life, and she wanted to make a sculpture of it so that everyone could appreciate it for themselves.”
This time Spike swallowed. “And then?”
Three days later she died. There was a funeral that the whole town went to; everyone was there, everyone but the Minotaur and Auriella.”
“Where was he? And how as she not there, she was…”
Twilight shook her head. “Some say that he went mad with grief, some say that it was his last and greatest act of love for her. Before he had her laid to rest, he took her to a tanner and asked that they make her hide into a pair of fine kid-skin gloves.”
Spike felt his stomach lurch at the thought, but he didn’t say anything.
“Once the gloves were cut and tailored and her remains were finally laid to rest, he started work on finishing her final project.”
Spike looked back up at her. “You mean it wasn’t finished?”
Twilight looked back down at him with tears hanging in her eyes. “No, it’s like you said. It was a sculpture of when they first met; she finished the sculpture of the Minotaur, but without a sculpture of her to meet it…” Twilight paused. “The Minotaur realized that he could never be complete without her, and neither could his statue. It was only half-finished…”
“So he made a sculpture of her?”
Twilight nodded again. “The story goes that he worked on that sculpture for over two years straight, and the whole time he did it he wore those gloves, those kid gloves. That way it wouldn’t be him that was finishing it, or even just her, but it would be both of them working together even though she was already…”
Spike looked up at the ceiling as he felt his eyes dampen, suddenly understanding Twilight fascination with it. “So that way nobody would ever be able to say that she didn’t finish it…”
Twilight nodded. “It would be her gentle touch that carved the stone and chiseled it to perfection, while his firm and steady hand guided her.”
“The story goes that when he finally finished, he fixed both statues to a plinth and carried them on his back to the middle of town and set the plinth down right in the center of the town square. Then he shouted a proclamation that anyone who so much as touches it would be challenging him to a fight to the death.
“And nobody questioned it?” Spike asked, curious.
Twilight shook her head again. “Nobody is brave, stupid, or cruel enough to challenge a bull in mourning…”
Spike shifted under Twilight’s wing and she lifted it, if only to properly wipe the tears out of her eyes. He took the opportunity to turn around so he could look her in the eye. “So this all happened, didn’t it?
Twilight swallowed once again. “As far as I can tell, every word of it is true.”
Spike turned back around and again and looked at nothing in particular. “Huh…” Another question struck him. “As far as you can tell?”
Twilight nodded. “I ended up looking into it years later, and I found references to a Minotaur sculptor that inscribed the name Auriella into all of his works, including The Phoenix, which is the sculpture of Philomena that Celestia keeps in her study.”
Spike remembered the statue. “So that was hers…”
“Yep, and alongside that I was able to find records detailing the transfer of ownership of a young doe named Auriella from a rich old Minotaur bull to his nephew with dates that line up with the known date of commission of The Phoenix.
“Then there are the sculptures of the two of them, it also has the name Auriella inscribed to into the plinth along with a title that reads ‘The Minotaur and the Sculptor’. Apparently they had been enchanted by someone to be able to resist the elements, so they’re still sitting there in perfect condition to this very day, the only change being that when the Minotaur passed on the kid gloves were placed on the statue’s own hands after he was laid to rest himself.”
“And the Minotaur? What happened to him? Did he have a name?”
Twilight shook her head. “I could never find one. All references to him either go back to Auriella or just have him listed as ‘the Minotaur’. Twilight sighed. “If he ever had a name then it seems he gave it up and took hers on instead. So besides what the story says and a list of all of his works from The Phoenix onward, nothing is known about him.”
Spike took a moment to digest that. “So he gave up his name so that hers would be the one that everyone remembered.”
Twilight nodded again. “To treat someone with kid gloves is to treat them with the utmost deference and respect, to be careful and considerate and to strive to be as empathetic as possible. To treat something with kid gloves is to treat it with the utmost delicacy and tact. The Minotaur himself through his use of the gloves and by sacrificing his own legacy in order for Auriella to have one of her own is the root of the expression, though most Ponies don’t know it.”
“You know, I think I get it.”
Twilight looked down at Spike and matched eyes with him. “You do, do you?”
He nodded. “It’s kind of strange, but at the same time it’s sweet. He just wanted her to be able to finish what she started, even if she couldn’t do it on her own.” He paused and thought about it some more. “So, for the record, I would be totally cool with it if you had Rarity turn me into a pair of boots that you could wear. You know, in case something happens.”
She huffed and glared at him. “Spike! That’s not funny.”
He laughed and looked at her, still glaring. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. You should see the look on your face though. Now that’s comedy!”
She pouted and then burst out laughing herself. “Ok, fine, maybe it was a little bit funny.” She looked around the library for a moment before her eyes settled on the grandfather clock sitting at the edge of the room. “But enough about that for now, it’s been a while and I think it’s about time to check and see if Starlight has calmed down enough to talk now.”
Twilight gently nudged Spike out of the chair and he fell onto his feet with a slight thump, she followed quickly after. Then with a spark of magic she hoisted him up onto her back and turned her head to look back at him. “Ready to go?”
“Ready,” he said.
Without another word they were off, back on their way to Starlight’s room. As they passed through the hallways there was nothing to distract Spike from his thoughts besides the sound of Twilight’s hooves hitting the crystal floor beneath them.
“Hey, Twilight?”
“Yes, Spike?”
“What ever happened with your report, anyway?”
“Oh, that? It must have slipped my mind. After she told me that story she told me that since she knew your fire was coming in soon, she had taken the liberty to bind a sending spell to you so that we the two of us would be able to send and receive scrolls to and from her whenever we needed to. So when you burned up my report it just ended up right appearing right in front of her in a big explosion of parchment.”
“Huh.”
“Yea, apparently that’s why she came to check up on us at just that time; I guess she figured that something like that might have happened when she saw we sent something without knowing about the sending spell.”
“And she just happened to have not mentioned it up until that point?”
Spike saw one of Twilight’s ears flick back as she hit a slight hitch in her stride. “I guess it was just a coincidence.”
Spike glanced up at the vaulted crystal ceiling about them and then back down at the wings hugging onto Twilight’s sides, then forward again towards Starlight’s door as it drew ever closer. Thinking about just how many coincidences they’ve both been through as Twilight gently pushed the door open and once again crossed the precipice, this time with him firmly in tow…
Author's Note
Originally I wrote the entire chapter in about fourteen hours, minus the first two thousand words. Since then I've taken the time to properly go through everything and revise it all, so hopefully it's not as much of a dumpster fire as it was when I first posted it.
Either way, if you made it here I sincerely hope you enjoyed, or considering the subject (I know I teared up a few times revising this, though I think that was mostly the sinus headache with the lack of painkillers talking) that you found something of value here. If not I apologize for wasting your time and wish you the best of luck in finding something more worthwhile down the line. I would recommend any of >Cynewulf's< works if you are looking for something, and since this was written for their world building contest, definitley check out the other submissions too. I'm like fifty-two percent sure that those can all be found >here<
For those who pay attention to that sort of thing, the other thing I've been working on is still in the works. I'll probably put up a blog post talking about this and all of that jazz once this little contest is fully concluded. Until then.
Cheers, Null
P.S.
If you liked this then go and tell >this wonderful individual< thanks for 100% totally accidentally making me actually decide to do this. Don't bug them if you didn't like it though. Like I said, it's not their bag. I would thank them myself, but they're already fading away because anime memes...
