Steel's Chapter Dump

“Woo…kinda…what’s the word? Light, I guess? Light-headed maybe…” Spike mumbles to himself, floating through some kind of space. His eyes drift across the monotone world, not a shred of color anywhere. “Where…?”

“You’re dreaming. I thought you’d figure that much out on your own!” A voice, Spike’s voice, says off to the dragon’s right. He turns his head, seeing his moustachioed self, stroking the handlebar with a grin on his face like he just cheated five gamblers out of every bit they had.

“Dreaming? Oh, right…I was thinking about the story,” Spike says, lifting himself off the ground. “My dreams seem kinda…blank today though.”

“It’s because instead of your mind being locked on Lady Rarity, you’re thinking about something else. Particularily…”

“Right, my story and where it was gonna go. Me and Twilight were talking about that…earlier, I guess. I figured out my villain.”

“Me, of course,” Evil Spike says with a chuckle, finally leaving his moustache alone.

“Right. I’ve also got a hero,” Spike says, looking off to his right as Hot Shot fades into existence. He doesn’t have his tuxedo anymore, though. “Where’s your coat and shirt? I thought they looked pretty snappy.”

Hot Shot simply shrugs in response, taking a seat on the snow-white ground. The stallion adjusts his mane, trying to get the bed-head-for-days look out of it, but getting nowhere fast. He simply lowers his hooves with a grimace, letting the locks fall down in front of his eyes.

“You still don’t have a voice, do you?” Spike asks, walking up towards the hero in his story. Evil Spike jumps up on Hot Shot’s head and grabs his mouth, opening and closing it in a talking fashion as he speaks, his voice a trying-but-failing-horribly impression of Derpy’s voice.

“I’m a big, dumb stallion who ALWAYS gets in the way of the handsome Evil Spike’s efforts to get his marefriend back!” Evil Spike loses his grip as Hot Shot clamps his jaw shut, glaring up at the dragon on his head. “What? No sense of humor, you big lug?” Evil Spike says with a chuckle before being thrown off by a quick flick of Hot Shot’s head.

“…Seriously? You’re EVIL Spike, not CHILDISH Spike. Death traps, dastardly plots, complicated plans that have you leave the room JUST as the hero is coming towards the mouth of the volcano.”

“Are you kidding? None of those plans work; I’m not the stereotypical villain that laughs and monologues all the time.” Evil Spike says as he throws his nose up in a pompous fashion, folding his arms with a ‘hmph’.

Spike simply rubs his forehead, sighing. “Alright, before I get more sidetracked and wake up without actually doing anything, how about we start thinking about setting? Any good story needs a good location.”

As Spike completes his sentence, the world begins to bend and fold on itself, walls shattering to reveal massive fences and the metal walls of a fortress. The atmosphere of oppression only grows thicker as the world builds itself, stockades occupied by tortured criminals lining the single red carpet that leads up a short staircase to a golden throne, standing upon it a rather royally-clad Evil Spike.

Both Hot Shot and Spike stare up at disbelief at the massive castle that now surrounds them. A courtyard, it’s just a courtyard with walls and tortured ponies! “Are you CRAZY? If I use THIS as my setting, I’ll be…I’ll be…LAUGHED AT!” Spike shouts, the walls beginning to crumble and blow away as a hurricane tears the castle down, Evil Spike’s royal crown and cape blowing away in the shredding wind. Just as quickly as the dark castle had been built, it had been swept away by something that could only be described as an Act of God. “If I DO use this, I’m just gonna blow it away with some Celestia-driven event.”

“Party pooper,” Evil Spike mumbles as he sits down on the ground where his throne used to be, pouting.

Spike takes a deep breath, ignoring the evil him, and looks around at the world. “Now, what would be a PROPER setting? Considering your background, Hot Shot, I think it should start in Las Pegasus.”

Spike closes his eyes and concentrates, the world once again bending and fading away from the pure white of his blank dreams, slowly giving way to neon-lit bars and casinos and fast-moving chariots going up and down the road, carrying all manner of celebrities and gamblers wanting to make their mark on the world with that fabled roll of the dice. “THIS is my setting. Well…at least at the start of the story before you come to Ponyville.”

Hot Shot looks around, completely taken in by the yellows, greens and reds of all the neon signs. Luna’s moon hangs in the air above the Pegasus Strip, allowing the night to be filled by the visual gold of the City of Sin’s blinding, gaudy lights. The moon even seems to be orbiting further away, as if embarrassed with this challenge against its celestial beauty.

“Sheesh…” Evil Spike says, getting up as he moves about the middle of the street. Two stallions drawing a chariot shout at him as he dodges out of the way, everypony seeming to be in the rush of their lives. Some drunkards walking out of a rather loud bar off to the left start squabbling, two in the group of four earth ponies quickly coming to blows with each other. “I think you over did it, Spike.”

“Are you kidding? I’ve only heard stories about this place. Always wanted to come here just to see the lights…this is probably exaggerating it, but c’mon! Isn’t it awesome!?” Spike says, gesturing to all the sights around them. Hot Shot and Evil Spike follow his gestures, both of them covering their eyes to protect them from some of the more dangerous depictions of mares pouring drinks, or stallions dancing with canes and top hats. One even depicts the Great and Powerful Trixie performing a rather stunning act using two Ursa Minors and a deck of cards. “Take in the sights, guys, cause this is definitely where my story is gonna start.”

“You’re crazy. Anyone who reads this is gonna go blind from IMAGINING this place…I know I am,” Evil Spike replies in his typically insulting tone, shielding his eyes. Hot Shot simply curves his mouth upwards in thought, nodding in approval of the setting.

“C’mon, it’s not that bad. Who knows? I know some villains had pretty cool secret bases, maybe you’ll have one too, Thorn?”

“Th-THORN? You’re calling me THAT?!” Evil Spike tears his eyes away from a bar called ‘The Liver Killer’ to stare at his doppelganger, a look of crazed disbelief on his face. “That’s the stupidest name I’VE EVER HEARD!”

“Alright, alright! I’m probably gonna call you ‘Boss’ most of the story anyway, plenty of time to think of a name.” Spike says as he sidesteps another racing chariot, one of the stallions turning around to raise his hoof in a cursing manner. “Jeeze, they should call this place the ‘City of Stuck-ups’…”.

“Fitting for the hero, don’t’cha think? Since ol’ Hot Shot here is such a stick in the mud…won’t even react when I insult him!” Evil Spike says, glaring up at his rival, Hot Shot quickly returning it. They slowly lean into each other until Hot Shot’s chin is against the ground, both their foreheads butting against each other as they glare burning holes into each other’s eyes.

“Alright guys, calm down. Now, since we’re here, what’s gonna happen? This is before Hot Shot meets Rarity, so what pushes him over to Ponyville?” Spike asks his cohorts, who both pull away from their glare and place hoof and claw on their chins. Spike joins them as they all start thinking.

“Maybe…the original idea was for him to get caught up in some trouble here, right?” Evil Spike starts, raising an eyebrow. Spike nods in confirmation, “So why not get him involved with the mob? Maybe a deal goes bad and he has to run.”

“He’s a gambler, not a criminal. Getting bad debt at a casino would be reason enough to run though. Alright, so let’s see…come with me, Mr. Shot,” Spike says, walking over to one of the sidewalks, Evil Spike and Hot Shot following behind him. “What’s a good name for a casino…?”

“The Hot Dice!” Evil Spike exclaims, wearing a toothy smile.

“Nah…” Spike strokes his chin in thought, stopping in front of a monolithic building covered in neon lighting; Pinkie would have a heart attack out of excitement if she was asked to host a party here. A massive sign hangs over the three pairs of double doors, a blank green across its front, surrounded by shining dark blue.

“Uhhh…The Stacked Deck,” Evil Spike suggests.

“That makes it sound like they’re trying to take your bits, as in ‘not fair.’”

“You’re busting me here, man!”

“You’re me! How could I be busting you without busting myself?! If…that makes sense. Stupid dreams…” Spike says as he frowns at his evil double. A strange feeling passes through him as the world begins to bend and fade, as his eyelids fall despite his commands to keep them open.

“Ah, guess it’s morning. We’ll see you later, Spike!” Evil Spike says, waving with Hot Shot as they fade away into white.

“Ngh…what a night…” Spike mumbles, blinking hard against the light streaming in from the window. “What was I doing today…? Hmm…well, I did just wake up, makes sense that I can’t remember immediately…maybe some breakfast’ll jog my memory,” Spike looks over at the bed, seeing Twilight snoring away, rolling occasionally in her covers. He smirks at the sight as he heads for the stairs, walking down while rubbing his eyes, the haze of drowsiness not quite clear from his mind. He stops half way down the staircase, looking at Castle Twilight standing in the middle of the room, the books that make up its walls still not taken and re-organized.

“Well…she did say she’d clean it up…” Spike mumbles, still blinking his eyes on occasion to get the blur out of his vision. He sits down on the step, holding his head between his claws, and closes his eyes. “Sheesh…how bad a sleep did I have? The dream seemed a lot longer than usual…then again; I don’t normally have conversations with myself…does that make me crazy?” Spike asks the darkness, not expecting an answer. “Just the creative process, Spike…didn’t somepony say something about madness and genius…?”

Spike shakes his head, waking up a bit as he continues his morning pilgrimage to the kitchen, stretching as he reaches the bottom of the stairs. “Right then…breakfast, breakfast. Maybe I’ll go with emeralds today; the sour flavor might wake me up a bit…finish off with a glass of milk,” Spike says, nodding at his breakfast plan. He needed a sharp mind for writing today, and slacking off wasn’t an option! Though slacking just before breakfast was alright, as the dragon made a less-than-brisk walk into the kitchen. Soon enough, he’d assembled a good amount of gems and a glass with a milk carton next to it, and he stares off into space as he places the first gem between his steel fangs.

“So…I’ve got a villain. He’s…well, me. Twilight did say to give the characters some quirks…what did Evil Spike act like?” Spike quirks his mouth as he chews on the gem, the shock of sour hitting his cheeks and tongue and revving his brain like Pinkie after a small cup of coffee. “Woo! Plan worked better than I thought,” He says with a raise of the eyebrows. “Ok. Villain is me. How did he act in the dream and every time I went to my imagination?” Spike asks himself outloud, before frowning and furrowing his brow. “Like a foal…great. I’ve got a foalish, overconfident villain, and that’s just copying me!” Spike says with a grimace as he chomps down the other half of his emerald, “That’s kinda bad…maybe he just needs a bit of refinement? He’s clever at least, that’s a feature any good villain needs!”

Grabbing another emerald, his brain continues on the train of thought, thinking about villains and what makes them good. “A good villain needs a reason to be one…Lady Rarity is a good reason, isn’t she? Would I turn evil if it meant she’d be with me…?” He chomps on the emerald in his hand, considering the option. “Nah, Twilight would come after me, writing some speech on the way.” He chuckles at the thought of Twilight racing through Ponyville after his dastardly double, shouting something about a very scathing letter to be sent to the Princess about him. “Then Princess Celestia would get involved, and, well…that’d just end badly for everypony.”

“Morning, Spike…” A voice says from the door, and he turns to see the frazzled form of Twilight. Signs of yet another crazed night of research show through in her saggy, half-closed eyes and ragged mane and tail; somepony didn’t care how she woke up, apparently.

“Morning. I did some thinking about the story last night.” Spike chucks the last of his emerald into the air, it bouncing off his nose during its free fall and, thankfully, landing in his open mouth. He rubs his nose while chewing on the sour morsel, each chew providing more shock for the brain to wake him up. “Like a cup of coffee, only ten times better! Makes me wish everypony was a dragon; emeralds make a great breakfast!”

“I’m sure they do…but coffee’ll do for us regular ponies, I suppose.” Twilight says with a smirk as she goes over to the other side of the table, sitting down and placing her head between her hooves.

“Something on your mind?” Spike grabs another emerald as he raises an eyebrow, chomping down on it as he leans on the table.

“I’m trying to invent a new spell combining teleportation and matter reformation; don’t worry about the terms, it’s making about as much sense to me as it does to you. It’s wreaking havoc on my brain…” Twilight says with a defeated groan at the end, looking wearily up at her assistant.

“There’s always the Princess. Teachers help their students on tough questions, right?” Spike finishes off the emerald, grabbing another from the dwindling pile.

“I know, but this is a revolutionary spell, and I want to conquer it on my own. I might take a trip to Canterlot, see some of the material in the Archives…maybe somepony before me tried to make the same spell, took a different approach that I haven’t seen?” Twilight asks, looking over at the dragon. After receiving a few blinks of confusion and a quirk of his mouth in response, she gets up from the table to make herself breakfast. “Well, just thought I should let you know, right?”

“Yeah, still, talking to me about magic is like talking to Rainbow Dash about subtlety,” Spike grins as he gets a chuckle out of Twilight. She’d had a rough night of research, he thought, so a good laugh is always a great way to start a morning.

“Too true. So, you mentioned your story, how’s that going?” Twilight asks as she draws some materials from the fridge, all coming out in a large purple aura.

“Pretty well, actually; thought up a pretty good villain, something of a plot, and my first setting,” Spike says with a prideful smirk, tossing another emerald into his mouth. He pours himself a glass of milk as Twilight sets about setting up a sandwich.

“First setting, eh? Where is it?”

“Las Pegasus.”

“The City of Sin, huh…sounds like the right place to start off a story about a gambler down on his luck.”

Bread, condiments and several flowers float around in front of Twilight as she sets about making the morning fuel for her brain, Spike watching in half-interest as he takes a drink from his glass of milk. He stares up at the ceiling, letting his thoughts wander as he imagines the neon-lit streets of Las Pegasus, ponies coming and going, shouting about their crazy good luck, getting into bar fights, sometimes a combination of the two. “Maybe I’ll go there someday…”

“Ahhh, no. Las Pegasus isn’t the place for a baby dragon,” Twilight says with a raise of her eyebrow as she turns around, bringing a completed daisy-and-mustard sandwich to the table.

“C’mon Twilight, I’ve gotta go to the place that’ll be the setting for my story!” Spike says with a grimace, grabbing the last emerald on his plate and tossing it into his mouth, chomping on it.

“It’s a city of casinos, bars, drunks and other riff-raff; you think I want a drunk dragon coming home after a week?” Twilight says with a raise of her eyebrow.

“I’m not old enough to drink, you know that. I just wanna go there to study the Strip, see what buildings are there.”

“Still, no. They don’t call it the City of Sin for nothing, Spike,” Twilight says in a motherly tone, as if dealing with a child who just can’t sit down and accept what she’s saying.

Spike sighs, taking his milk in a claw and downing half of it in one glug, thinking. “Do you have any books on the city then?”

“The library carries a lot of historical books, fictional stories, and auto-biographies…I’m pretty sure that somepony wrote about a trip to Las Pegasus, and you might find it here if you look hard enough,” Twilight rubs her chin as she thinks of where such a book might be, ignoring the tasty sandwich in front of her. She looks over at Castle Twilight and sighs. “I remember going through the auto-biographical section for research material…”

“Don’t you usually go into the History and Magic sections for that?” Spike asks, sipping his milk.

“Yeah, usually, but I heard about a famous unicorn travelling abroad who wrote a book on various magical formulae he learned during his travels. It was an auto-biography, so I went through the whole section looking for it…what was the title?” Twilight looks at the ceiling as she finally remembers her sandwich, taking a bite before the shock of mustard lights her up. “GAH! Too much mustard!”

Spike laughs at the puckered face of the librarian, thinking about what could be going on in her mind right now. Probably spells to neutralize a strong acid or something, and to his surprise, Twilight’s horn lit up and surrounded her head in a bubble for a few moments before bursting, Twilight sighing in relief. “That took care of it…”

“Wait, what spell was that?”

“Acid neutralization.”

Spike widens his eyes and tilts his head. He was right? “I guess there’s a first for everything…” He mumbles to himself as he finishes off the milk, wiping his mouth. “Well, what else can I take care of before setting…?”

“You could try and think of a plot line,” Twilight suggests as she takes another bite, her face puckering up with a groan of anguish as the acidic mustard assaults her tastebuds and cheeks. She clenches her eyes shut and fights through the pain, moaning as the sting fades away. “Yep…not gonna finish this thing, am I?”

Spike shakes his head with a smirk, “You need the food, Twi’, and tossing out a good sandwich isn’t good.”

“As if I need a lecture from you, Mr. Devour Every Gem In Sight, you hardly need all the food you dump into your stomach every day,” Twilight replies with the same smirk.

“Hey, I’m a growing dragon, and dragons need food, don’t we? Split it in half, I’ll take some; brain’s still kinda fuzzy anyway,” Spike says, walking around to the other side of the table. Twilight tears the sandwich in half, handing one half to Spike as she takes another bite out of hers. Spike looks down at the sandwich, wondering what could be so bad about a ton of mustard, and he takes a bite.

He immediately regrets it as something between getting stabbed in the cheek and having a ton of powdered emeralds dumped into his mouth assaults his tongue like a bunch of angry ponies attacking a castle. “Hnngh…!”

“See?” Twilight says with a smirk, which is replaced by a pained grimace as she swallows her food.

“Jeeze, you weren’t kidding! That’s WAY too much! Should probably check that bottle…” Spike says as he rubs his cheek, looking at the menacing yellow bottle on the counter as if it were a weapon of mass destruction. “That mustard is too dangerous to be in pony hooves…”

“I’ll be sure to send it to the Princess to make sure it doesn’t fall into the hooves of somepony with less-than-noble intentions,” Twilight says with a giggle. Finishing off her sandwich with a groan and a grimace, she walks out of the kitchen to start work on disassembling her fortress. Spike decides to get it over with in one go as he tosses the remains of the sandwich into his mouth, and he falls to his knees as the taste attacks him relentlessly. His face turns red as he battles against it, but eventually it fades away, letting him exhale in a slow sigh.

“Another fight is won by Spike the Brave!” Spike says with a smirk as he gets up and walks into the library, which has already become a hurricane of books flying every which way as Twilight organizes them. Spike wonders how a unicorn could stay focused on a spell while organizing a whole library full of books. “It’s like the Pinkie Sense…something you just have to accept as true, I guess,” Spike says with a shrug as a frustrated groan escapes Twilight.

“Don’t mention that!” She shouts as she organizes the books.

“Right, sorry,” Spike grins apologetically as he walks over to his writing desk in the middle of the room. Ducking a few times to gather his supplies, and dodge a few book missiles, he starts writing down his ideas. “Ok…Las Pegasus is the first setting. What should the casino beeee…?” Spike mumbles as he taps the paper with his quill, leaning on his other claw. “The Big Bit? Nah, sounds like they’d be handing out five-foot chips made of lead…Gold Bar Casino? Instead of paying you in bits, they give you gold nuggets!” Spike says with a smirk, then begins to drool slightly. “Mmmm…gold. Way more chewy than gems, but it’s like a delicacy; smooth and sweet with a bitter aftertaste. Sticks to your teeth though…” He says with a grimace, scratching between two of his fangs with a claw to get some bread still stuck between his teeth out.

Dodging another book flying at him, Spike sees the cloud of books around Twilight is finally thinning out, seeing some of her biggest ammunition is still in the cloud; dictionaries. If one of those hits Spike, he’s done for. He takes cover behind his desk as a book flies overhead. “It’s always the dictionaries that hit you…” He says with a shake of his head, one of the massive tomes moving sluggishly by. “Why does Twilight have a dictionary on Olde Equestrian?”

“Helps me write to Luna; I like to send the occasional letter when I’m writing my friendship reports to Princess Celestia. She still uses the old dialect, so I use that old dictionary to help me write in a language that’s easier for her to understand,” Twilight says as Spike rises up over his desk, the hurricane of books finally gone. He sighs in relief, having survived the storm, and returns to his seat.

“I didn’t know you wrote to Princess Luna,” Spike says, leaning back in his chair.

“The seals look the same, so I’d be kind of surprised if you did,” Twilight grins, walking over to Spike. “So, nothing planned for today?”

“I thought about it as I was waking up and nothing came to me. Thinking about it now, I think it was just getting some more ink from the local market…we don’t need quills, do we?”

“Nor do we need sofas; I’ve got a pile of them in the basement,” Twilight smirks, still slightly confused by how a pony could sell quills and sofas in the same shop, and why they’d choose such a strange inventory. “You can write out your setting ideas then head out. I’m going to keep working at that spell; I know I’m on the verge of a breakthrough!” Twilight says with a determined nod, firing up her horn as she turns around. “I’m also on the verge of a breakthrough of how to build castles using books! My Northern wall was tilted a bit though…”

Spike rolls his eyes as they both set to their tasks, his imagination quickly taking over as he falls back into that white world again. He blinks and looks around, seeing only Hot Shot there waiting for him. “Hey, where’s Evil Me?”

Hot Shot replies with a shrug, looking around. He blinks before turning back to Spike.

“It’s gonna be really hard to talk to you if you don’t have a voice…what’s a proper voice for you to use though?” Spike asks himself as he folds his arms. He strokes his chin in thought as Hot Shot draws circles in the ground with his hoof, either bored with waiting, or simply not interested in finally being able to talk. “Voice…voice…well, who can I use as a base…?” He blinks as he looks at Hot Shot, who returns a half-interested stare. “Can you say something for me?”

“Alright. How about this, then? Why do I sound like a mare?” Hot Shot asks in Twilight’s voice, and Spike almost immediately breaks down into a laugh.

“Sorry…I guess the voice I knew best came up,” Spike says, letting a few laughs out. The voice didn’t suit the character at all; a tall stallion sounding like Twilight? Maybe when he’s writing a comedy. “Ok, ok, ahem…try this one.”

“Ahem, the Lucky and Amazing Hot Shot demands he stop sounding like a mare!” Hot Shot says in a pompous manner.

“Too familiar…” Spike answers with a grimace, thinking. “How about…this one?”

“OH YEAH, THIS MAKES ME SOUND WAY BETTER!” Hot Shot immediately belts out in a roar as he leans into Spike’s face. “HOT SHOT GUARANTEES THIS VOICE WILL MAKE YOUR STORY AMAZING, OR HE WILL PERSONALLY GO OUT AND WRESTLE THE WHINY READER, INTO SUBMISSION!”

“Woah!”

“Oh…sorry,” The stallion immediately looks down, using a small, meek mare’s voice.

“Well…” Spike says as he falls on his rear, sticking a finger in his ear. “It’s better than that other voice…” He rubs it after pulling his finger out, shaking his head to get that infernal ringing out.

“Maybe…maybe we should…well…focus on the plotline…if…if you don’t mind…” Hot Shot draws a small circle in the ground, more than just the voice coming through, apparently.

“Yeah…I’ll fix your voice soon, but the plot comes first. Let’s see…” Spike folds his arms and starts pacing. “Alright, so, gambler who gambles all his money away. The policy at a casino is usually…what? Throw you out?”

“Well…I think…things can get a little more…um…violent…”

“That’s true…alright, so you’re gambling. What’s the problem with using your own money, right? In order to get in trouble, you’d have to borrow money from the wrong ponies,” Spike says, a suited pony appearing in front of him. The pony has a brown coat, a white-gold mane, and a look in his eye that says he’ll make all your dreams come true for the right price. “Let’s say that you’ve got a problem, hopping from casino to casino looking for your big break, and the bad ponies keep lending you money. You say you’re good for it, yet keep wasting it…they come looking for their money, throw a couple threats around, and you’ve got to leave town. Travelling for a while, you come to Ponyville and meet some of the local ponies.”

“You owes us some money, bub, time youse paid up,” The mysterious pony says with a heavy Hooflyn accent, a toothpick appearing in his mouth. “Time’s up.”

“I…I’ll g-get you your money…I just…just need more time…” Hot Shot says, sweat falling like bombshells from his face to the ground as he stares at the other pony’s hooves.

“Da Boss ain’t got no more time t’ give; youse said you was gonna pay up, now pay up!” The other pony shouts, stepping forward. Spike backs off, everything about this pony setting off warning lights in the little dragon’s head; even in his imagination, the right pony can scare him!

“I…I-I can’t pay…” Hot Shot says, backing away.

“Then we got a problem…a big problem,” The pony says, adjusting the toothpick in his mouth as a devious smile crosses his face.

“This is good…” Spike mumbles to himself, watching the scene play out. “This isn’t good…this is PERFECT! A gambler with a problem goes to a loan shark, keeps taking money and wasting it all on gambling! IT’S BRILLIANT!” He leaps up in utter joy, the world falling apart around him as he returns to the library. “Twilight! I’ve got i-“

It takes a bit for him, but he finally registers that he is, in fact, speaking to a book. Not just any book, but a Daring Do novel; ‘Knights of the Lost Ark’, to be exact. He looks up at the ever-growing wall of books, all ranging from reference tomes to dictionaries to the occasional fictional work. “…Another Castle Twilight?”

“Ohhh…why is this spell so difficult…?!” Another book falls into rank with the others constructing the impenetrable wall; looking along it, Spike sees the beginnings of a castle tower. “It’s teleportation! A field that I know front to back! Why can’t I figure out mass movement of objects?!”

“Better just…let her work that out,” Spike mumbles to himself, looking back at the paper. “Maybe somepony can help me think…I’ve got the beginning of a plot worked out, so maybe I should move on to characters? I’ve got my first setting, that being Las Pegasus…got my first plot point, being borrowing from the loan sharks, and I’ve got my characters. Personality and voice…well, only one pony to go to concerning ‘personality’,” Spike smirks, thinking of a certain mare with an overbearing personality. “Then maybe I’ll walk around town, see if I can make a voice for Hot Shot and Evil Spike…sounds good.”

Spike writes down the short list of points he’d made during his trip through his imagination, and files the paper and supplies away in the desk. He hops off his chair and moves along to a rather well-constructed archway in the wall, moving through. “Is that a cloak and crown?”

“It’s Castle Twilight; why can’t I wear a crown?” Twilight asks back, looking at Spike from behind her rather oversized golden crown and regal cloak, reading book after book before sending them into eternal service as pieces of her castle wall.

“Your North wall’s a bit short,” Spike points to the top of the wall, about three layers of books shorter than the others. Twilight growls in frustration, moving some dictionaries off the East wall to compensate.

“Great, now I’m going to be doing THIS all day…I’ve got science to be doing!” Twilight grumbles in frustration, moving books around. Spike chuckles a bit as he heads for the door through another, larger archway; he figures it’s the main entrance to Queen Twilight’s throne room.

“I’m heading out, Twilight! Off to study for my story!”

“Alright, have fun! And be back in time for lunch! Or it’s off to the dungeons with you!” Twilight shouts with a commanding tone before putting on a friendly smile.

“Will do, Your Highness,” Spike says with a bow before heading out of the library, leaving Twilight to her duties of fixing her castle and figuring out whatever crazy spell she’s trying to invent; time to go bother a certain baker pony…