1. Twilight Sparkle Vs. the Spider
Twilight Sparkle's day began with the smell of pancakes. That enticing aroma wafted in from the kitchen beneath her, filling the room with its' sweet scent. Slowly, she rose from the pile of plush warmth she called a bed, almost absent-mindedly following the alluring scent to its' source. She met her reward as she watched her assistant Spike placing a plate of his undoubtedly glorious pancakes on the table of the kitchen.
Spike turned to notice Twilight standing in the doorway, eyeing up the pile of pancakes now standing on the table beside him. "Ah, Twilight, I was just about to call you" he smiled.
Twilight grinned, nodding and feeling her hunger steadily grow as she tried to avert her gaze from the absolute beauty awaiting her on the table. "Did you do all this yourself?" she asked in true wonder.
Spike smirked, noticing that Twilight hadn't made eye contact with him yet, instead keeping her gaze fixated on the hard work next to him. "Sure did." Spike moved to begin cleaning the kitchen. "Help yourself" he called behind him, hearing the familiar sound of hooves on wood as Twilight hastily approached the pancakes that were commanding absolute attention.
"You didn't have to do all this" Twilight commented, just before beginning her assault on the top layer of the tower before her.
"I just thought you deserved something after working so hard last night." He paused, searching for a cloth with which to free the surfaces of pancake batter. "How did that go, anyway? Get all the research you wanted to get before you passed out?" Spike was referring to the state the librarian would end up in at least three nights a week: sound asleep on the floor, notes, half completed, strewn about the place as she slept, perhaps an experiment toiling away on a nearby desk.
Twilight blushed to herself and giggled, unable to deny her assistant's assumptions, as much as she would have liked to be able to. "I got most of it done, but I'll have to go back and finish off some stuff, and then generally tidy it all up for it to look presentable... Or at least legible." She watched Spike tidying up the kitchen. "Need any help with that?" she offered.
"No, I'm pretty much done here." Spike turned, wiping his hands clean with a tea towel before tossing it to the side. "Besides, you're already working hard enough on those defenceless pancakes" he grinned.
"I... Don't know what you mean, Spike" she responded calmly, not wanting to give him the satisfaction she knew he was after. Her eating of the pancakes suddenly became much more refined and careful, and noticeably less ravenous.
This reaction left Spike feeling satisfied enough, even if he didn't get an actual outburst from her, and he giggled mischievously as he made for the door. "Anyway, we're running out of supplies, so I'm going out to get stuff. You need anything while I'm out?" he offered.
Twilight smiled gratefully, pleasantly surprised with just how useful Spike was being today. She decided to take him up on his offer, requesting "Ink! Ink and quills!" before seeing the opportunity to repay her assistant, if only a little. Twilight floated some extra Bits towards the dragon. "And get yourself something while you're out, okay?"
"Wow, thanks Twilight!" She could practically feel the happiness in Spike's voice. "I don't know how long I'll be" he called out from near the front door.
"Take your time!" Twilight called back, finishing up her pancake massacre. She levitated the plate towards the sink as she heard the door close. As she cleaned, she thought she heard an odd shifting from the main room, the distinct sound of paper turning in the wind, and a soft drumming against wood. Abandoning the plate in the sink, Twilight Sparkle moved into the main room of the library.
She scanned around the large room, listening for the source of the faint drumming sound. The drumming stopped as her gaze glided up the tall shelves of books surrounding her, landing on the odd black object that was now attached to the ceiling of her library.
As Twilight began wondering just what the mass of darkness could be, it opened its' beady green eye, making Twilight step back nervously. She watched in wonder as the gem-like eye was joined by another, and then by two more. Wonder gave way to horror as she witnessed the creature spread its' two, four, six, eight thin legs, carving deep gashes in the ceiling. Twilight felt the abomination's gaze rooting her to the ground as it dropped, turning quickly in mid-air to meet the floor.
The creature towered over Twilight, easily twice her size, probably three times as big. Its' orb-like eyes dug into Twilight's particularly edible-looking form. The eight-legged fiend bared its' dripping fangs and impressive mandibles, before quickly closing the gap between the two.
Twilight almost instinctively sent out a heavy wave of energy to push the hideous creature away from her. The spider, caught off guard, was slammed into a bookcase. Books rained down on the creature, irritating it. The creature quickly jumped away from the falling books, attaching itself to the wall with disturbing silence. It crept swiftly towards Twilight, who was struggling somewhat with not distracting herself by wondering where the beast came from or how it came to be.
Focusing her mind on the task at hand, she mentally skimmed through her list of combat magic that she had learnt while wandering into that chapter of a spellbook created by Starswirl himself.
Mentally preparing herself for serious combat, she decided on using a simple cutting spell. The spider slowed to the threat of the sharp magic hacking at it, but refused to stop advancing on its' prey. Twilight focused her magic for detail, shrinking the size of her energy blades and aiming to cut the face of the creature, hoping to blind the fiend. The spider dropped suddenly, slamming its' weighty abdomen against the floor. The sudden loud noise and shaking of the ground threw off Twilight's concentration, and her blades faltered before dissipating to air.
The spider took advantage of the window of opportunity it had made, and charged towards the purple prey it was so determined to devour. Twilight retaliated by jumping back and behind the library's main desk, a fraction of a second before she would have been tackled by the freakish creature. She used the beast's moment of confusion to levitate a small pile of quills from behind the desk, and took aim.
As the spider turned to face the pony, its' face was assaulted by the sharp points of a dozen quills. It quickly lifted its' forearms in front of its' face in an attempt to defend itself, but some quills turned to curve around its' limbs, and the spider felt an intense pain in one of its' four eyes. The creature screeched sharply, breaking Twilight's concentration and forcing the pony to end her quill assault, letting the sharp feathers fall lamely to the ground.
The spider, in its' anger, shot a string of thick webbing in the pony's direction, but missed on account of it only having three eyes remaining. The rope of adhesive sailed through the air, attaching itself to a shelf of books above Twilight. The spider quickly made use of its' error by pulling the shelf out from the bookcase, raining heavy books down upon Twilight.
A particularly thick book struck Twilight squarely on the head, creating a sharp ringing in her ears. She cursed herself for ever doubting its' intelligence, and quickly realised that this fight would not be as easily won as she had thought. She shook her head lightly to try to clear the distracting ringing in her head; if she couldn't concentrate, she couldn't cast her spells.
Twilight dived and rolled off to the side just as the spider charged its' way through the desk she had moments ago been using as cover. The thick desk practically exploded, splintered wood bursting off in every direction, sheets of paper scattering about the room. The heaviest pieces of desk were shot forward from the spider, slamming into the bookcase that was now missing a shelf. The bookcase toppled with a speed that surprised the spider; it tried to jump backwards to no avail. The bookcase slammed heavily onto the creature while it was still a foot or so off the ground, shattering as it connected. The fiend was forcefully grounded under the sheer weight of a tall library bookcase fully loaded with thick, heavy books.
Twilight took a few deep breaths, watching the pile of wood, books and legs carefully. The beast was still, but Twilight wasn't convinced. She quickly prepared a heavy crushing spell, ready to smash the foul abomination at the slightest movement. Carefully, Twilight made her way over to the destruction before her, heavy magic at the ready. She blinked and swore that she saw a twitch, or was she just being hasty? She wondered if the beast truly was dead, before fascinating herself with thoughts of what it was and where it came from.
From beneath the wreckage, the spider read its' prey's body language carefully. It watched patiently as the purple morsel lost itself in deep thought, breaking her concentration. The spider readied itself as Twilight's horn's glow faded, her attention entirely devoted to thinking of the various ways of researching the beast. The beast rose to its' feet, getting a good footing underneath the broken bookcase without moving anything too noticeably. Using the cover of the shattered desk, it slowly shuffled forwards, avoiding the attention of the distracted pony. It lined up its' impressive abdomen with a large chunk of former desk.
Twilight's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the pain of a large blunt object slamming into her side. She slid across the room before feeling her back slamming into another blunt object. She heard a sickening crack upon impact, and felt a searing pain burning deep in her body. Waves of needles shot through her body, pulsing in time with her heartbeat. The Unicorn's rational mind guessed that something had broken, likely a few ribs. Twilight hoped that damage wasn't done to her spine when she connected with the tree stump centrepiece of the room, although it certainly wasn't out of the question. She coughed suddenly and blood shot from her throat, spraying onto the floor.
The spider advanced menacingly on the crumpled form of its' prey, feeling triumphant with the sneaky move it had played against its' meal-to-be. It stopped a few feet from its' target to watch in amazement as the purple pony rose shakily to her hooves. The spider was impressed; it didn't expect her to still be putting up a fight. It was glad that this hunt wasn't over yet; this was definitely the most fun it had had in a long time.
Twilight winced in pain as she steeled herself to rise to combat. She certainly wasn't about to give in that easily. The diabolical fiend seemed confident; it let her make the first move. She ignored the pain to focus on magic. The thought of survival granted Twilight new-found strength, and she admired this feeling of power as she effortlessly ripped the floorboards out from underneath the beast, lifting it about two feet into the air. She turned the planks from horizontal to vertical, sliding the creature off the boards and dropping it onto the soil where the planks once were, surrounding it. She circled the fiend with the planks, gaining speed quickly. Suddenly, she struck out with one of the boards, beating the monster hard in the side.
The spider turned sharply to look at what caused the dim pain in its' side, only to feel another plank striking its' back-most left limb. The leg buckled and the spider stumbled, but managed to catch itself before falling. It barely managed to regain its' footing before it felt many planks start to beat it all over its' body, pain appearing in a different place each time. The dull pain sapped the spider of its' energy with every strike.
By now, Twilight had picked up great speed with her floorboards and was lashing out with them randomly against the defenceless beast. However, she was beginning to tire herself out with the constant movement of the planks, as if her mind were sprinting to keep the planks up. She hoped that the abomination wouldn't notice that her planks were slowing, or that they weren't hitting as hard.
The spider was now frantically looking for a way out of the spinning cell that was mercilessly beating it senseless. It found its' opportunity when it noticed the punishment coming considerably slower and not as harshly as before. Lashing out at a particularly weak-looking board - one with a noticeable crack running down its' body - caused it to break into many wooden shards, splitting it into three large pieces, as well as many smaller splinters.
Twilight felt herself lose grip on one of the planks suddenly. Her tired mind had no chance of reacting fast enough to this, and another plank slammed into the shards of the loose one. Another collided with this one, in turn, and so on. Every time a plank hit something, it broke Twilight's concentration on it and she was forced to let go, and it was a meagre few seconds until all the planks were let go in this fashion. As Twilight's magic wore off and her mind was drained of its' concentration, she was reminded by the searing pain in her chest that she was pretty badly injured. Her ribs cried out for medical attention. Her body craved rest. Her mind demanded relaxation, preferably in the form of the written word. Twilight got to work on trying to ignore these pleas.
The spider, by now, had composed itself after the somewhat traumatic beating it had received, and was trying its' best to make its' way towards the infuriating prey. It was having some trouble doing this, however, as every inch of its' body was aching and sore. Walking became a challenge while its' body felt so heavy, and a dim throbbing of pain washed over its' body whenever it moved. It shook off these nagging problems, the promise of pony flesh granting it a new burst of motivation.
Twilight Sparkle was preparing herself for the next round of fighting, psyching herself up for combat with the unholy demon that was still occupying her temple of knowledge. The vile ghoul approached her in an oddly unsure way, every one of its' actions made very deliberately and very slowly. This threw Twilight off a little when it suddenly picked up a little speed, probably becoming more desperate to win this duel. Twilight was ready, though, and when the beast reared up to slam its' forelimbs down upon her, Twilight responded by diving underneath it, sliding between the gap in its' legs.
As she slid, Twilight used a simple slashing spell to carve a deep gash through its' weaker underbelly, spilling spider parts onto the floor where she just was. The spider shrieked in a way that conveyed deep, sharp pain, slamming its' limbs down hard on the ground, splintering the floorboards beneath it. Twilight didn't let it finish its' cries, opting to end this quickly. She summoned up two heavy entities of magical power, and slammed them both down onto the fiend's hindmost legs, snapping them both instantly. The spider shrieked once more at this new-found level of agony, and slumped to the ground with a heavy thud.
Twilight Sparkle confidently walked around to look into the face of the demon, carrying an even mightier entity of her heavy magic hammer spell, manifested as one large one instead of the two smaller ones from earlier. She stared at the manic face of the crazed fiend that was still gnashing and shrieking at the sight of its' superior prey before it. Twilight finally couldn't bare to watch the hideous monstrosity any longer. She lifted her heavy magic up, and brought it swiftly down upon the skull of the disturbing beast, killing it instantly. The head of the spider exploded, of course, and Twilight was promptly covered in a thick blackish-blue substance.
Twilight didn't even flinch upon being coated with the cranial fluids of a giant spider, and instead began to walk towards the kitchen. Suddenly, her body reminded her of her injuries, and Twilight promptly collapsed in a bruised heap of unconscious pony.
Twilight stirred, feeling herself reluctantly awakening. Her eyes cracked open briefly, only to have the light stun her back into closing them. Once her eyes had adapted to the light, she slowly sat up in the bed she had woken up in. She looked around slowly, and noted that her environment was somewhat familiar, and very white. She thought back to the events with the unnatural spider, and how she had defeated it. She realised that she must have lost consciousness, and guessed that she was in the hospital.
A door creaked open to her left. Twilight turned to see Applejack walking into the room. "Oh, thank Celestia, yer awake" she grinned, trotting over to her friend.
Twilight was still dazed, having just woken up. "How..." Twilight cleared her throat. "How long have I been out for?" She asked the orange pony stood beside her, while rubbing her fierce bed-head idly with a hoof.
"A little over three days" Applejack chuckled.
"Wow" Twilight smiled. "That's a long sleep." And yet oddly enough, she still felt so weak and tired.
Applejack changed the subject. "Those doctors sure did a good job on fixin' you up" she noted.
Twilight nodded, giving up on her bed-head for now. "What was that thing in the library, anyway?" she asked, the question burning in her mind even as she asked it.
The orange mare shook her head. "Ah was hopin' you'd know the answer to that one, Sugarcube." Twilight shook her head back in response, sighing softly.
Applejack chuckled once more, trying to lift her friend's spirits. "The mess the two of you made sure was impressive, though. Took us forever to tidy the place up again."
Twilight giggled, perking up again. "Sorry about that."
"Well" Applejack began, shifting her hat to a more comfortable position. "Ah'd best let the others know yer finally awake." She made for the door.
"Applejack?" Twilight called just before her friend left.
The orange pony stopped and looked over her shoulder at Twilight. "Yeah, Twi?"
Twilight blushed a little. "Could I ask you to fetch a book for me? 'A Study of Arachnids,' Spike'll know where it is."
Applejack smiled and nodded warmly. "Sure thing, Sugarcube." And with that, Applejack left to round up her friends and collect a book.
