Elements of Canterlot

Spike was feeling pretty good about himself right now. His chores were done, the library was properly organized, and everything that could be right was right. There was just one tiny matter that needed attending to, and that was the party. He'd been looking forward to going to see Moondancer for some time now, and so he wore a big happy smile as he carried his carefully-prepared present. Little could dampen his spirits in this moment. That is, nothing except his lifelong friend, Twilight Sparkle, suddenly crashing through the door as he was reaching for it. The impact sent him flying back onto the ground, and Twilight herself, oblivious to his predicament, looked around for him.

"Spike? Spiiiiiike?"

Then, after just a second, she looked down, finally seeing him upon the floor.

"Spike? Oh, there you are."

Fortunately, dragons, even young ones, were pretty tough, and it would have taken a lot more than being hit by a door to do Spike in. Though he did grumble a little as he sat upright, nursing the spot on his head where'd the door had hit it. But, sadly, he wasn't given a chance to say anything, as Twilight once more rushed right past him.

"Quick! Find me a copy of predictions and prophecies!"

Spike was, needless to say, rather confused about his friend's words, doubly so when he saw her rushing around the library, narrowing her eyes at a number of books on their shelves. But, after again looking to her assistant, the unicorn mare at last noticed something odd about him.

"What's that for?"

At first, Spike was confused, but then his heart sank as he realised what she'd been talking about. For there, planted right on his tail, was the present he'd intended to take to the party. Disappointment came to him as he took hold of the now-ruined gift, and he sighed.

"Well, it was a gift for Moondancer."

The mood was further dropped as part of that present, a stuffed bear, fell out of the bottom of it, much to Spike's chagrin. Twilight, by contrast, did not seem that concerned with this, and so turned again to her precious books.

"Spike, you know we don't have time for that sort of thing!"

The drake looked to her, just as confused as he had been when she first came back.

"But we're on a break!"

Unfortunately, Twilight had ignored his words, and instead ignited her horn, beginning a levitation spell. It was the kind of spell she'd used a thousand times in her life, and yet, as with all things, she put her all into it, using her power to bring forth a number of books to her. However, with every tome and encyclopaedia she glanced at, her irritation grew.

"No...no...no...nonono! Argh! Spike!"

Thankfully for her, the young drake was already one step ahead of her and had, unbeknownst to her, climbed up a very tall and, frankly, unsafe-looking ladder. Within his clawed hand was a particularly ancient-looking book, which he held out for her to see.

"It's over here!"

But, so focused was Twilight on her current task, whatever it was, that she again used her magic to bring the revealed book to her. Sadly, Spike happened to still be holding onto it at the time, and so was unceremoniously dragged down to the ground along with it, his face planted right into the floor beside Twilight's hooves. As for the latter, she again ignored his impact, instead narrowing her eyes at the new book. This time at least, she seemed satisfied, as a smile came to her face for the first time since she'd arrived home.

"Aha!"

And with that, she happily trotted off, book in tow, leaving Spike behind to get himself off the floor. Though the assistant soon found himself fairly annoyed at discovering that his friend had left quite a few of her books strewn about on the floor, and so let out a sigh as he started picking them up. Twilight, having placed her book upon a nearby pedestal, began to rapidly flip through the pages, mumbling under her breath as she did so.

"Elements...elements...e, e, e, e...aha!"

She brought her face closer, allowing herself a better look at the page she'd finally chosen.

"Elements of Harmony."

But the smile she'd been wearing soon faded, and it was replaced instead with a look of confusion.

"See...Mare in the Moon?"

Spike, who had been again climbing up a nearby ladder to get his gathered pile of books away, looked down to his carer with a look that could only have been described as incredulous.

"Mare in the Moon? But that's just an old ponies tale."

Like had happened often today, Twilight hadn't heard him, and she had instead taken herself to another ancient tome of legends and stories. Again she flipped through the pages, and again she quickly managed to find what she was looking for.

"Mare...mare...aha! The Mare in the Moon. A myth from olden pony times. A powerful pony who wanted to rule Equestria. Defeated by the Elements of Harmony and imprisoned in the moon."

Spike was listening, as he'd pretty much trained himself to be able to do many things at once while Twilight was going off on one of her knowledge-obsessed rants. But, he was still struggling to get those aforementioned books away, even as Twilight continued to become engrossed with her discovered story.

"Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about night-time eternal!"

Twilight gasped with horror.

"Spike! Do you know what this means?!"

Of course, the tiny dragon only had one possible answer for her.

"...No?"

His words had come at a rather unfortunate time, as it distracted him just long enough to cause him to lose focus and tumble off the top of the ladder he'd been standing on. He fell, again heading straight for the ground, but this time, he was fortunate enough to find himself landing on a much more welcome surface, that of Twilight's back. Though grateful for her being there for him this time, he didn't get the chance to say "thank you", as he swiftly found himself being given a familiar pairing of quill and parchment by his rescuer.

"Take a note, please. To the Princess."

Getting himself into a groove with which he was quite familiar, Spike eagerly bounced off Twilight's back, landing back onto the ground and holding aloft his quill.

"Okay, dokey!"

Knowing her assistant was ready in his role as scribe, Twilight began the message she wished for him to write.

"My dearest teacher. My continuing studies of pony magic have led me to discover that we're on the precipice of disaster!"

But, as dramatic as such a moment might have been, it was undercut somewhat by Spike's apparent difficulty in keeping up with her words.

"Hold on...preci...preci..."

He looked over to her, and Twilight, who was inclined to give him at least a little slack, decided to change her description.

"Threshold."

But, after just a moment of trying to get that one down, Spike again looked to her, prompting her to again try a re-write.

"Brink?"

And when it seemed that even that word was too much for the diminutive dragon, Twilight released a frustrated grunt.

"Ugh! That something really bad is about to happen!"

Spike, smiling to the fact that he'd finally understood her, returned to his duties, and frantically wrote it all down. Twilight, relieved that there would be no more interruptions, resumed her speech, walking further from her friend while she did so.

"For you see, the mythical Mare in the Moon is, in fact, Nightmare Moon! And she's about to return to Equestria and bring with her eternal night! Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true! I await your quick response, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

Spike narrowed his eyes during the last part of his writing.

"Twilight...Sparkle. Got it!"

Twilight smiled.

"Great! Send it."

Spike's own smile vanished.

"Now?"

Twilight looked over her shoulder, surprised he'd even ask such a question.

"Of course!"

But Spike seemed less certain about all this than she was.

"Um...I don't know, Twilight. I mean, Princess Celestia's a little busy getting ready for the Summer Sun Celebration. And it's, like, the day after tomorrow!"

Twilight, having heard all of that, turned around and walked right up to him, sounding a little bit shocked at his position on what, in her eyes, was a very important matter.

"That's just it, Spike! That day after tomorrow is the thousandth year of the summer sun celebration! It's imperative the Princess is told right away!"

Seeing the pure determination in her eyes, the drake knew there was little anyone could tell her to dissuade her on this. So, after just a short moment of being a little worried, Spike once more returned to his writing, albeit with just as much difficulty as before.

"Impera...impera..."

Here, Twilight had just about had it.

"Important!"

Her words had been spoken with such purpose that she had, unintentionally, knocked Spike backwards into the nearest bookcase. As the young assistant recovered from this, he spoke with the expected level of concern.

"Okay, okay!"

Getting himself up, he took hold of the now-sealed parchment, taking in a deep inhale of breath. As he finally blew out, a burst of green fire engulfed the paper, and within moments it had been transformed into magical ash, which sped away before their very eyes, and swiftly exited the library via the open window.

"There, it's on its way!" Spike declared.

But then he looked to Twilight with a touch of nervousness.

"But I wouldn't hold your breath."

Twilight, by contrast, looked just an eensy-weensy bit smug.

"Oh, I'm not worried, Spike. The Princess trusts me completely!"

She began to walk back over to him.

"In all the years she's been my mentor she's never once doubted me!"

Though Spike looked like he might have wanted to comment on that, he sadly wasn't given the chance, as an apparent belch interrupted his train of thought, forcing him to bring forth a second small fiery torrent. This time it was yet another message, which materialised right in front of them both, landing upon the floor. Twilight, naturally, was pleased by this, as shown by her smile.

"I knew she'd want to take immediate action!"

Spike, picking the newly-arrived scroll off the ground, unrolled it and cleared his throat in a professional-looking way, before finally looking to the paper.

"My dearest, most faithful student Twilight. You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely."

Twilight gave her ward a quick "I told you so look" as she continued to listen.

"But you simply must stop reading those dusty old books!"

Twilight gasped, completely disbelieving what she'd just heard, and snapped her head to look over at Spike.

"What?! That...that can't be what she wrote!"

But Spike held the paper up to her.

"Sorry, but it's right here."

Twilight galloped over, narrowing her eyes at the writing that was being held to her. Sure enough, there it was, Celestia's writing, as clear as day. Twilight, as one would expect, was dismayed over this, and shook her head frantically.

"This can't be happening! Doesn't she realise how important this is?!"

Spike rolled his eyes.

"Twilight, she's a Princess, so I think she probably knows more about this stuff than you do!"

Twilight frowned.

"Maybe she's just become so engrossed with the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration that she's become distracted and lost focus!"

Spike slumped his shoulders, groaning at seeing his friend go off on yet another patented "Twilight over-obsession" like this. It was made all the worse by seeing her start to quickly pace up and down.

"The prophecy is going to come true soon, and if somepony doesn't do something about it, it could be the end of Equestria as we know it!"

Spike stepped forward, giving her a pat on the side of her body in a vain attempt to get her attention.

"Twilight! Relax! Princess Celestia doesn't think there's anything to worry about, so neither should you!"

But Twilight shook her head.

"I have to worry, Spike! The Princess is sending me off to...to..."

She used her magic to bring the parchment in Spike's hand up to her face, allowing her to read it again.

"...some place called Ponyville! I'll be far away rather than right here, making preparations!"

Spike, who managed to get his arm out of Twilight's magic and land back down on the ground, dusted himself off before looking to her again.

"Well, there's still some time to kill before all the preparations are made to the chariot that'll take us there. So maybe..."

For the first time in a while, he smiled.

"...we can still make it to Moondancer's party!"

Twilight looked down to him, disappointed.

"We can't waste time on parties while the world is coming to an end!"

Her earlier frown returned with a vengeance.

"Besides, I already told those other three that I wouldn't be coming."

Spike, confused, scratched the side of his head.

"Er, what three?"

Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Oh, you know, those three who always try to talk to me? Um...Minny, Twinkler and Lime Heart? Those are their names, right?"

Spike blinked slowly, then sighed, folding his arms.

"Really? Your friends? The ones you've known since you were a little filly and you don't even remember their names?"

Twilight looked away, sounding indignant over that remark.

"I've been very busy, Spike. I can't remember the names of every mare I've come across!"

Spike, annoyed by this, took hold of the paper that had come from Celestia, giving it a look of his own before frowning back at Twilight.

"The Princess is right, you really do need to learn how to make friends!"

Twilight was not happy to hear that.

"We can worry about friends after we save the world!"

But Spike shook his head.

"Nope! We're going to Moondancer's party! I don't want to let her down by not showing up, and neither should you!"

Twilight was taken aback by that.

"Pardon?"

Spike counted off his claws.

"We're going to the party, we're going to have fun at the party, and you're going to spend some long-overdue time with your friends!"

Twilight again looked over to the open book of prophecies on the close-by pedestal.

"But..."

However, Spike cut her off, running over to said pedestal, jumping up and slamming the book shut.

"No! We're going and we're going now!"

He ran behind her, using all his might, which wasn't very much, to push her towards the door of the library. Twilight, realising that her assistant was set on this, and that her own mentor wasn't apparently supporting of her self-imposed quest to save the world from ancient evil, sighed deeply.

"Fine! Fine! We'll spend some time at this silly little party!"

Spike beamed art that, only to stop when Twilight looked down to him with irritation.

"But then we're going straight to this Ponyville place, getting the Celebration sorted out, and then focusing solely on trying to stop the return of Nightmare Moon, alright?"

Spike, having heard all of that, stood straight, giving her a quick salute.

"Yes, Ma'am!"

In spite of her sense of irritation, Twilight couldn't help but giggle, and soon afterwards gave the small dragon a pat on his head.

"Come on then, let's go. But you should probably pick up your...oh."

Only now did she pay attention to the previously-ruined present her assistant had prepared for Moondancer, and Spike himself walked over and picked up the remains. Twilight, for the first time, felt a pang of guilt over this, but Spike, rather surprisingly, didn't seem worried at all.

"Don't worry, you only ruined one of them."

Picking apart some of the packaging, Spike plucked out what appeared to be a picture frame, which he then held up for Twilight to see. The unicorn peered close, seeing a photograph of her reading a book, sitting next to a table where a collection of five other unicorns were. They were happy, laughing, with the exception of one, who wore glasses and was looking to the book-obsessed mare. Twilight, after seeing this, relaxed a little, and looked again to her assistant.

"Well...um...let's go to the party then."

She seemed willing, though whether this was out of a genuine desire to spend time with her friends, or out of some need to go along with Celestia's aforementioned wishes, Spike couldn't say. Still, she was going, and to him, that was what truly mattered here. Spike held the picture close, a wide smile on his small face.

"About time!"