Chapter 1: Changes of the Season
Chapter 1
It was a normal day in Equestria.
Well perhaps normal is stretching it for a town that is home to a (possibly) psychotic pastry chef, the fastest being in all of Equestria, and the prized pupil of the Sun Princess herself. Yes normal may be unfitting for such a town, but it’s the only applicable word unfortunately.
Perhaps a little more fitting, if not a little generic, opening for this story would be something along the lines of…
It was a lovely Tuesday morning, and all the townsfolk were enjoying the cloudless fall day. Winter was approaching faster every day, and everyone knew they wouldn’t have such moderate days much longer. Taking a walk down the rich dirt roads, one could observe the usual October activity for Ponyville. Ponies raking leaves, only to be stopped mid-raking by foals jumping into the leaf piles, their laughs and screams light on the cool air; Bark Tap peddling has fresh, home-made maple syrup, a sought after commodity in the fall season; the enticing scent of fresh-made pumpkin pie hanging in the air, wafting from Sugar Cube Corner. Yes, it was a fine day indeed, not too lazy, not too active. A perfect day for a certain lavender unicorn to subject her self and her apprentice to her most ritualistic, and in her assistant’s opinion absurd, practice: re-shelving day.
“’Runic Signs and Languages by Starswirl the Bearded.’ Check! Goes under ‘R’ in the ‘Magical Knowledge’ section!”
“Uggh…”
“’How the Wasteland was Won.’ Check! That goes in the ‘Fiction’ section under ‘H’!”
“Uuuugggh”
“’A Mares Guide to the Stallion Mind’? Cheesy, but check! This one goes in ‘Miscellaneous Guides’ under ‘M’ I believe.”
“UUUUUUUGGGGGGHH.”
Twilight Sparkle halted her organizing to shoot a glare at her assistant. “Spike, are you going to keep groaning like a baby dragon EVERY time we re-shelve the stock?”
Spike gave her quite the look back. “We re-shelved all this last Friday! Three days ago!”
“Exactly, which is why we’re reorganizing it all.” Twilight stated matter-of-factly, “I’ve been doing a lot of study on fall weather patterns since Saturday, you know that. I’ve had to use a lot of references, so its better we just reorganize it all now instead of later.” With that she returned to her work, once again listing off books and their proper shelving assignments.
The dragon groaned again, exhausted from being awake since the wee hours of the morning. “Fine, but I still think this is a little much.” Wanting some kind of mental diversion of hauling and organizing stacks and stacks of books, he decided to push a question that had ben on his mind for a good couple months since a similar situation that spring. “You’ve been going pretty crazy with all this weather study lately,” he noted, “any specific reason why?”
This time she didn’t stop as she answered his question. “Well, ever since Rainbow Dash brought up the topic of her weather duties a few months back” ‘Or rather griped about them’ she thought to herself, “I’ve been curious as to exactly how and why ponies know when to change seasons. I mean, it seems curious that we know the specific dates for the seasonal changes, considering early equestrians didn’t exactly have much in the way of discerning the time or the month. How exactly did they end up calculating the perfect times for the seasons to change?”
Twilight continued to go on and on, as she usually did when one broached such conversations with the mare. Spike could only smile at his best friend’s talkative habit.
“So, to better discern the natural timeframe for the seasonal changes, I’ve been observing weather patterns since spring, since that’s the most obvious change with each new season, I mean…”
“Twilight!”
“Huh?” She halted again, astonished at the disruption mid-thought, and looked back at her assistant.
He grinned amusedly “I get it, you’re curious about the seasons,” she blushed in embarrassment “but we don’t have to go through all this every time you wanna pull an all-nighter or two okay? I can take care of this work while you study, but siting here and using more than half of the day up to organize everything seems a bit wasteful, dontcha think?”
Though still a little embarrassed, Twilight couldn’t exactly argue with Spike’s logic there. It’d be better to put away the books she used while she was actually using them, rather than organize it all and, by habit, the whole library in the process.
She smiled sheepishly, “Heheh… yea you’ve got a point. I suppose this is all rather silly, huh?”
“Hey no problem Twi, c’mon I know how you get by now!” He grinned toothily right back at her “Besides, helping you get organized is why you’ve got me around!”
She giggled lightly, smiling warmly at him. ‘He’s really matured a lot. He’s not the baby dragon that I hatched in Canterlot anymore.’
She watched him as he returned back to his work, cheerier than he had been before, his morning grumpiness brushed away by their little chat. Indeed Spike had grown much since the duo’s move to Ponyville.
The physical changes were the most obvious; in a few short years he had gone from standing at Twilight’s knee on two legs, to standing as tall as Applejack’s brother on four. His body was still filling out, lean muscle apparent in arms and legs, and the spines on his back had become more pointed and curve. His neck had become longer, more serpentine, and his round, chubby face had elongated into a sleek snout.
Quite the looker indeed, but he still had no wings.
However it wasn’t just his body that had changed, so too had his mind. While he was rather mature for his age when he was a baby dragon, he had become even more so with his adolescence. Even Twilight herself could sometimes feel like a child when arguing with him now, rather than the other way around. Even so, he still maintained his jovial attitude, always one for a good laugh or a well-placed prank.
He had become much more astute in the past few years as well. Twilight could remember the various study sessions of her childhood and the absence of her assistant in most of them, save for carrying a book or writing supplies in when she requested them. Now, he observed and partook in them any time they came up. He seemed to absorb knowledge like a sponge, and at time sought it as if he had been starved of it all his life. He became quite the intelligent dragon in his own right, and Twilight couldn’t have been more proud.
As she stood there, completely ignoring her chore at hand and staring at Spike, she realized just how much he had changed. Even from their conversation earlier, it was obvious this was not the same Spike she came here with thirteen years ago. In their stay here, he had slowly come to be her voice of reason more and more; she depended on his solidarity as much as he depended on her intellect and the quirks that came with it. She had changed to, with some of it thanks to Spike himself, and she’d like to think that his own growth had been at least somewhat aided by her. He had become her family, and these spells of reminiscent thought only reminded her more of that every day.
“Twi’? Hey, Twilight! Hellooo?” Spike knocked lightly on her head, “You alive there Twi’?
Twilight startled back to reality, only noticing then that the young drake had been trying to address her for the past 10 minutes. He simply smirked, remarking, “I thought a cockatrice had snuck in and froze you, you were standing so still. I was worried I’d have to get Fluttershy!”
She gave him an un-amused look “Ha ha, very funny, you’re such a joker” She replied sarcastically.
He raised his hands in mock defense “Chill Twi I’m teasing ya." His face turned serious once again "You okay? You seem out of it.”
She simply smiled at him “Yea Spike, I’m okay, no need to get all worried over me now!” she joked, playfully shoving him with a hoof. “I was just thinking about some things, that’s all.”
“You sure?”
“Yea Spike, I’m sure.”
He was silent for a while, but then simply shrugged. “Well okay then. I finished up with my share of the shelves, so I better get going now. I promised Applejack and Big Mac that I’d help out around the farm today.”
Twilight looked up at the time, noting that it was almost noon. “Alright then, I’ll see you when you get back. Tell Applejack I said hello would you?”
Spike looked over his shoulder as he headed out the doorway, “I will, and Twilight, if you wanna take a break, I can always finish up sorting when I get back.”
She shook her head, chuckling. “Spike I’ve been sorting books since I started reading them, I think I can handle it! Go focus on helping out Applejack rather than little old me.”
He gave her a wry grin replying, “Okay then, if you say so. See ya Twi!” And with a wave he headed out the door and towards Sweet Apple Acres.
She stood watching the door for a little while longer, and then sighed.
“He really has grown up…” she noted somberly.
Looking back to the shelves once again, she saw that they were still a little less than half empty, the remaining books all in piles on the floor. She had been distracted for quite a while.
“Time to get back to work!"
