In which a series of actions, words, and movements lead to describable events; which are, specifically, described with words.
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The Application of Advanced Draconic Manipulation for Ongoing In-Transit Orders in the Equestrian Postal Delivery Service
In which a series of actions, words, and movements lead to describable events; which are, specifically, described with words.
Twilight was currently pursuing the library for something interesting to read. The crystal library, in the Castle of Friendship. Her library, the ones with all the books she was responsible for in it.
They weren't really her books. Her books exploded. These ones were nice, but them being hers and just 'books' was the difference that led to her looking for something she wanted to read, rather than just pull the first book she saw off the shelf to go through for the fourteenth time.
Most of these books weren't new either, they were transfers from Canterlot, replacements mostly. None of them had the dog ears that all her books had gained from Spike had marked his spot. Speaking of... Where is he? It had only been since last night, when they both had dinner and went to bed that she'd seen him last. Twilight would have normally just dismissed the thought as having not been lucky enough to see him in the morning, and he had something to do. Probably with Rarity or the Crusaders.
Except.
The same thing had happened several days in a row. Twilight sees Spike at dinner, occasionally in the morning, and he's in the wind for the rest of the day. Probably planning a prank with Rainbow or a party with Pinkie. Then she dismissed the thought. She readjusted her focus, glancing at the shelf she was hovering in front of. Probably not the greatest idea to think while flying, but according to Rainbow, instinctual flight was far easier than manual.
Twilight kept herself moving, tracing her hoof along the bottom of the books out of habit as she skimmed the titles. That is, until she read the same title twice, and then stopped and narrowed her eyes. She flew back a few flaps, moving down the shelf and taking note of the disorganized books. It wasn't just that line either, she peaked down, and saw that the whole shelf was in a sorry state of titles mixed with genres. Fiction and non-fiction.
As she was in the middle of deciding how disgusted she should be, a green flame, telltale of Celestia's dragon fire spell materialized from smoke and turned into a scroll. Twilight caught it in her magic and landed without any fanfare.
The scroll was unmarked, and unsealed; a simple rolled up piece of parchment.
Twilight narrowed her gaze at the oddity as she unrolled it.
Hey Twi, it's Spike. Don't worry about this letter, I'm just practicing something.
Twilight blinked a few times, before her mind put together the fact that Spike had sent her a letter. He'd never done that before, as far as she knew, he'd never been able to do that before. A smile split her muzzle. Magic! Incredible, I wonder how h- Twilight levitated the paper over to the nearby table as an idea popped into her head.
"Why wonder when I can go ask him myself?" She said out loud to herself, charging her horn. In truth, Twilight was bored. We can make a day of it. Maybe I can help him, and we can go get hayburgers. Twilight hadn't taken Spike out... recently. It was easily high time to make up for that; that, and this shelf was still a right mess, and... This'll be her chance to figure out what he's up to.
Twilight wove a mildly complex spell, a signature tracking spell mixed with a magnetic cardinal direction matrix. If Spike sent the letter himself, it should be covered in his aura still, something Twilight could find easily. Once she had it, her horn stayed lit with the addition of a slight tug that supposedly would lead her to Spike.
She sent a glance to the bookshelves and shrugged. I can read later.
It was a short flight through Ponyville, despite her intent to walk, the constant internal reminder that she needed to keep practicing her flying to build up muscle in her wings encouraged her to fly instead of walk.
Said flight led her directly to confusion, or more accurately, the EPS building in Ponyville.
The Equestrian Postal Service. Why would Spike be at the post office? Intending to get an answer to the question, Twilight entered with a neutral look on her face. Scanning her surroundings for details, specifically she was expecting there to be pie spontaneously in her face. There were two other ponies, somepony she didn't recognize, and Ditzy Doo, one of the local mailmares.
Said wall-eyed mailmare waved to Twilight once she got a good look. "Heya Twilight! What brings you around here? Need to place any orders? Look for lost mail?"
Twilight approached the counter tentatively. "I... I guess I'm looking for Spike?"
"Oh!" Her whole face lit up, her yellow eyes straightened for a moment, and her ears perked as she turned behind her. "Spike!"
Twilight's eyebrows furrowed in the split second before she heard Spike's voice call back. "Yeah?"
"Twilight's here to see you!" Ditzy yelled again. Her outstretched wings knocked a few papers off the counter, which Twilight grabbed in her telekinesis purely on instinct before they could hit the ground. She was already done restacking them when Ditzy turned around. "He's coming." She assured Twilight.
Twilight turned towards the employee's only door as Spike stepped out. His claw held up high over his head to reach the door handle, one of the few that actually closed, instead of just 'swinging.'
He was wearing an orange high visibility vest. Twilight spent the moment trying to understand instead of trying to figure out words.
Spike removed a pair of padded gloves from his claws, folding them inside each other, and tucking them in a pocket on the vest as he walked up to her. "Hey Twi, what's going on? Do you need to send a letter to Celestia?"
"What?" She said, baffled.
"Uhhh... You okay there Twi?" He smiled and perked up, "Oh! Is this about my letter? Did it work?"
Twilight's mind latched onto something she could answer easily, "Oh, that? Yes, how did yo-" She was interrupted by Spike fist pumping.
"That's awesome. I'm definitely going to have to talk to Jenny about that." He looked back towards Twilight, "Think you can help me practice more later?"
What? Her mind chugged away, falling back on the default as she tried to figure out how to handle herself. "Spike, what are you doing here?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I work here?"
"You-" He what? "Work here?" A tentative glance towards Ditzy and her rapid nodding indicated that yes, he did in fact, work here.
Spike confirmed it a second later, his eyebrow still raised. "Yeah, I work here."
A beat passed.
Twilight let a bit of incredulity bleed into her tone, "For how long?"
"Since last week Twi, I told you." He put a claw on his waist, and his raised eyebrow raised fractionally higher. "You remember, don't you?"
"Uh..." Twilight searched her mind, this clearly wasn't a prank, Spike would never have been able to keep a straight face this long into the joke. "I don't... No..." He rolled his eyes, and Twilight felt a little warmth spread in her cheeks. "Well-What, I mean... Why are you working here?" She fumbled.
Spike sent her a look. One of those looks that he tended to send her when she was trying to get out of eating. His confused smile dropped into a thin line, and he waved to Ditzy at the counter, "Hey Derpy, can you put in my fifteen with Tether?"
"Yuperroni!" Ditzy spun, smacking her wing into the counter before stumbling out of view.
"Cmon Twi." Spike walked past, towards the front door. Twilight followed, wondering what was going on; feeling... reprimanded. She felt like she'd walked in on something, apparently having forgotten where he was going during the day was exactly the kind of thing a guardian shouldn't be doing. It didn't matter that she could find him easily with magic...
It was just after midday. The sun had just started its way down, and had three eights of the way to go by just a glance. Spike turned as soon as they stepped outside and headed for a bench up against a bulletin board for the EPS building. Right next to a letter inlet, and a stack of newspapers and other bits and bobs.
Spike jumped onto the bench, Twilight followed suit. "So what's going on Twilight?"
"What do you mean?" Twilight tried.
"You were being a nervous wreck." Spike verbally slammed in monotone. "You don't get like that unless it's something important. Did something happen?" He waved his hand in the air, "I can't hear the normal monster attack yelling from town, so what's up?"
Twilight sent him a sideways smile, "What's up, is that you're working at the post office, and I don't even know why." She leaned in a little, "Did you want to buy something? You know we can alwa-"
Spike waved his hand, "It really isn't about that, and don't worry about the post office, what's going on with you?"
"Nothing!" Twilight's wings spread as she raised a placating hoof. "Really! I just... The shelves were disorganized, I got your letter, and I didn't know where you were so I left and went to find you and-you-wereworkingatthepostoffice." She finished with a toothy smile.
"Uh-huh." Spike responded, clearly unconvinced.
Twilight took a deep breath. "So..."
"The post office?" He guessed, "You really don't remember?"
Twilight frowned, "No. I really don't. I'm sorry Spike."
"Eh, whatever. It's okay Twilight, I forgive you." They shared a smile.
"So..." Twilight lead, when Spike didn't pick it up, she continued, "What do you need the bits for?"
Spike raised his eyebrow before making an 'ah-ha' face. "I already said, I don't need any bits. You know that. I've actually been giving most of them to the Cutie Mark Crusaders to buy safety equipment."
"You are?"
Spike shrugged. "I'm not sure it really helps."
"If it's not the bits, why are you working?" She asked, hoping the broader question would lead to a clearer answer.
"I alre-Ahk, wait, you don't remember." Spike took a quick breath. "I just wanted to help out more, around town. Learn something new, that's all."
"Aw, Spike." When did you get so grown up? Twilight's smile warmed and deepened, "I'm sorry I forgot... or that I wasn't listening when you told me," She added sheepishly, "I would've helped you find something otherwise."
"That's alright, and I wanted to do this on my own anyways."
What? Twilight's head shifted questioningly to the side, "What do you mean?"
"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Spike reverse asked, "I didn't want you to help me."
I wanted to he... Twilight frowned, I want to help you. Was that a selfish thought?
"What's that look for?" Spike leaned forwards, looking into Twilight's eyes.
"Nothing, nothing." Twilight waved him off. "It's just... odd... I guess." My number one assistant. With his own job.
Spike continued with his leading questions, "What about it?"
Twilight's immediate response was, "I don't know." That's a lie. You do know, say it you silly filly. "I guess I never thought you'd... It's not that I thought you'd always be my assistant." She shook her head, "I just never thought about it... that's all."
Spike mulled over her words for a second, before slowly asking, "Does it... bother you? That I have a job?"
"No." Twilight said, a little too forcefully. "It doesn't. I'm proud of you Spike. I am." That didn't sound very convincing. Which was fair enough, if Twilight couldn't convince herself, she probably wouldn't be able to convince anybody else. When she turned to Spike again and got a draconic-facefull of 'why don't you try that again', she smiled bashfully and made a second attempt at telling the truth. "Yes. It does."
Spike shook his head lightly, "Why?"
"You-" Twilight cut herself off. "You're not going to stop being my assistant right?" Spike's eyes widened, and he moved to speak but Twilight cut him off, "I just don't want to overwork you! That's all, having two jobs is a lot for someone so young. If you need to take a break from helping me 'princess' than obviously, you've got it, I wish I'd talked abou-"
"Twilight." Spike monotoned.
"Yes Spike?" Twilight cut off her own rambling.
It was a thing he did for her, something they'd practiced so much that Twilight almost never rambled in front of him anymore. At least, not unless she was really stressing herself out.
"It's not like I'm moving out." He grinned a near mischievous smile. "Plus, you can always send me letters."
Twilight snrked.
"But seriously." His joking face softened, "I'll always be your number one assistant Twi, I'll still be around, I’ll even still have time tonight to sort out shelf A-nine. It's not like I even work that much." He pointed backwards with his thumb, at the wall. "This is just to break up the monotony and make some new friends."
Twilight couldn't resist. She hugged him.
Well, it was more of a lunge/tackle, but you get the picture.
"Twilight-"
"I'm so proud of you Spike." Twilight spoke softly, mostly because of the distance. Definitely had nothing to do with the fact that she was tearing up. "I know I don't say it enough." She leaned back, hooves still on his shoulders. "You're the kindest, most loyal, funny, honest, and generous dragon I know. If you had four legs, you'd be the same, but as a pony."
"Cmon Twi, don't get sappy on me." He chuckled, "Most of that didn't make any sense."
Twilight leaned back and dabbed a tear off her face with a wing.
"Yeah, and I figure we have plenty of time right?" He said timidly. Twilight looked down, almost surprised. He was twirling his fingers.
"Spike!" Her response was exactly the kind of reprimand he was expecting, clearly, but the direction wasn't the same. She hugged him again. "I don't want you to ever. ever-ever-ever have to think about that."
Spike wheezed slightly from the Alicorn strength. "Yeah Twilight. You bet." He patted her on the shoulder. To an outsider, it may have looked like he was trying to tap out.
She leaned back and poked him in the shoulder. "No more of that." He nodded, "So tell me. What's the post office like?"
Spike lit up, and Twilight's smile grew deeper and warmer. "It's great. Nopony has an eye for detail like me." He stood up on the bench and puffed out his chest. "And! My claws are great for tape and opening boxes. Folding paper and envelopes. I've already been handling all of the mail routes since I've got a good eye for maps too, that and-"
Twilight's bottom lip quivered a little as Spike continued to talk. She pushed it down though, just for that moment. She'd hug him and cry a little again after he was done talking. After all, his fifteen minute break only had six minutes, and thirty two seconds left.
She wasn't going to waste any of that time with him.