Life was lively in the town of Ponyville. The streets were bustling with life as several of its citizens gathered around the stores, or engaged in several conversations with their friends. The birds singing in the trees were a beautiful sound to hear to the ponies who walked by the several oak trees that were planted near the bustling areas.
The marketplace was crowded and packed as the minutes had gone by. The sound of clanging bits rung in the area, along with the sight of happy shopkeepers.
Near the crowded and plentiful marketplace was the café, one of the few restaurants in the town. The dining area’s seating in front of the quaint café was full. Some of the inhabitants was a lone pony, a group of ponies, and a dragon.
Spike shuffled his newspaper as he grabbed a clawful of gems and stuffed them in his mouth. Spike turned the page as he chewed the delicious gems that he had found four days ago. He sipped some tea as he read through the article.
As he was reading, two mares walk by the café. As their eyes focused on the tiny dragon, they began to giggle, and tried to surprise their laughter. Spike raised an eyebrow when his eyes glanced away from the page. As he eyed the mares, they immediately stopped giggling and continued their stroll, as if nothing had happened.
Shrugging it off, Spike went back to reading his newspaper. As he was nearing the end of the story, the sound of a object clattering on the table caught his attention. He closed the newspaper to see the waiter holding the bill with his magic aura.
“Your bill, sir…” The waiter told the dragon. His eyes scanned his body as he said these next words, “…assuming that you have money on you.”
“Of course I do.” Spike replied. He was perplexed as to why the waiter would assume that he would eat without paying.
Spike reached deep down into his gem bowl and pulled out ten bits, and gave them to the waiter.
As he levitated the bits with his magic, the waiter nodded curtly to the dragon before leaving the table and headed inside the café.
Grabbing his bowl of gems, rolling the newspaper away, and casting the empty plate aside, Spike jumped down from his seat and began to leave the café’s property.
As Spike made his way back inside the castle, he occasionally grabbed a few gems in his claws and began to chow them down. He passed by several ponies who were simply doing their daily routines, although there were times where one of the ponies would give Spike a concerned expression as they saw him ate the gems as he walked.
“Be careful!”
“Don’t choke!”
“Watch what you’re eating!”, they would say.
Usually, Spike would be thankful for their concerned inputs, but then he would occasionally see unicorns walk while chewing on their levitated food, yet no one batted an eye. It seemed that it was only him that received these messages.
He continued to eat the gems as he walked towards the direction of the castle. He reached his hand inside his bowl but realized that his couldn’t feel anything in there. He looked inside the bowl to see if he somehow missed a few gems, but he found absolutely nothing. With a sigh, he threw the bowl away.
With his newspaper being the only thing to occupy him, he shook the paper as he began to read its contents once more. However, while he was reading, he tripped on a rock and fell into a puddle. He felt disgusted as got up from the fall and wiped face.
From the corner of his eye, he could see Roseluck, a florist from the flower shop, giving him an amused look as she walked past the dragon.
"You should watch where you're going." Roseluck advised him. "It seems like you gained that trait from Twilight." she joked.
"I guess so." Spike mumbled as he saw Roseluck walk away. He went to pick up his newspaper, but when he grabbed it, he realized how dirty and wet it had gotten after he fell. He felt a sting of disappointment, since he was hooked onto a shocking and mysterious article. Not only that, but he knew better than to walk with a newspaper in front of your face.
Ignoring the embarrassment he felt, he set he newspaper down on a nearby beach, and continued his way towards the castle.
He only wished that he could’ve read more of that article he was focused on. It was something new, and something that was a bit alarming, but it still entertained the dragon nonetheless. But now he had to go home with nothing in his claws to entertain him with.
Spike had arrived back at the Castle of Friendship. As he stepped inside, he could hear Twilight’s faint hums in one of the rooms near the entrance.
Spike peeked inside one of the many libraries of the castle. He saw Twilight organizing books, as usual. She carefully sorted each book by category, her eyes laser-focused on the book’s titles. She was so distracted that she didn’t even notice Spike enter the room.
“Hey, Twilight.” Spike greeted her as he walked in. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I just want to say that I’m back from my lunch.” he told her.
Twilight’s concentration was broken when she heard his voice. She turned around and greeted him with a warm smile.
“Welcome back, how was it?” she asked.
“It was a good lunch.” He answered.
Twilight tiled her head when she noticed that he was carrying nothing. “Didn’t you bring a bowl of gems and a newspaper with you?” she asked him curiously.
Spike stiffened. Did she really want to know what he did to the newspaper?
Before he could even answer her question, Twilight waved her hoof, dismissively. “Nevermind, its not important.”
Her focus returned onto the books. “Now that you’re back, you could start helping me organize.” she told him.
Spike’s eyes drooped in annoyance, but deep down, he kinda knew that she would say that. Biting his tongue, he approached her and held out his hands. Twilight gave him several books, which, unfortunately for him, were very heavy. Spike exhaled sharply, not expecting to carry such a heavy load.
“Those are the books about botany.” Twilight said as she nodded to a section of the bookshelf that was far from where the two were standing. “They go there.”
Spike made his way to that section, but walked slower and already felt the exhaustion hit him as he only walked four steps. Twilight noticed this and she quickly teleported Spike to that section. Spike gave Twilight a thankful smile.
As he set the books down on the floor, he started putting them away in alphabetical order. As he did so, he saw from the corner of his eye that Starlight Glimmer entered the room. She was holding her daily cup of hot chocolate.
“Hey, Spike,” Starlight greeted him first as she sipped from her cup. Her calm smile then turned into a frown as she saw what Spike was doing. “Already putting books away? Didn’t you come back from your lunch?”
“This happens all the time,” Spike assured her as he put the third book away. Twilight nodded in the background.
“So it seems,” Starlight said, still giving Spike a slight frown. She turned to Twilight now. “Do you need my help?” she offered.
“I think Spike and I can suffice,” Twilight said as her back was turned towards Starlight. She picked out more books and put them away once again.
“If you say so,” Starlight shrugged as she turned around and left the room.
After she left, Spike wondered why Starlight frowned at him. This was certainly not the first time Starlight had seen him carry heavy tons of books. He’d assumed that was one of the things Starlight had gotten used too since she started living in the castle.
But he cast those feelings aside for now as he continued helping Twilight with the organization. He gulped as he saw the thick-sized books that were on the table, and he was quick to assume who would carry them.
Finally being released from his book duties for the day, Spike went into his room and laid down on his comfy bed. He put his head face first into his soft pillow. He felt his energy behind sucked out of his body after that excruciating chore.
He couldn’t help but wish that Twilight wouldn’t constantly ask him for help when it came to giant, heavy books that felt like he was carrying heavy boulders. Even a day off would be nice. However, at the same time, he didn’t want to be seen as an ungrateful, or unhelpful.
This was a complicated feeling for Spike, and he was in no mood to deal with it right now. But it always plagued him.
Would he one day ask Twilight for a day off? Or even suggest to give him lighter books to carry? Would be able to do it without making himself look bad?
No.
That was one word Spike quickly formed when it came to all of those questions; and it stayed that way for years.
And he wanted out.
Author's Note
I thought about this for a little while, so here it is.
Hope you enjoyed the story. More chapters are coming soon.
