Familiar Embrace

by Ink Stroke

Rating: mature
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Main 6, Romance, Spike
Length: 84116

Spike has lived his whole life beside Twilight, but has had his true emotions shrouded by his shame. Will the universe bring these two souls closer, or are they to be forever damned to the despair of solitude?

Spike has lived his whole life at Twilight's side, be it in moments of joyous happiness or frigid despair, never straying from his place as her assistant. So close were they that any fool with eyes would see the familiarity they found with one another, and if it weren't for their difference in species one might even come to believe they were brother and sister. It's everything Spike could ever want, but there have always existed desires and emotions in his mind he refused to acknowledge out of his ultimate shame towards them, making his life nothing but a lie he had been keeping alive to shield himself from feelings he was too afraid to face. It was the perfect deception, burying his shunned wishes whilst creating a faux crush he tricked himself into. However, shields are just shields, not cures. What would happen to Spike if his only defense were to crumble before him, unleashing a lifetime of repressed emotions and desires he never knew he had? Will he see something more in the lavender unicorn he had called his best friend his entire life, or will continue to deceive himself, remaining bitterly content with his familiar embrace?

Published 2012-10-26 09:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-17 04:41:24 UTC

Guardian

Chapter 3

Guardian

Twilight took trembling steps away from the oppressive trio of devilish youths closing in on her, the sensation of her flank backing up against a tree intensifying the bone-chilling grip of fear crushing her underneath its unbearable weight as her young body shook incessantly. The entire scene of impending dread was concealed from the rest of the world by the surrounding plant life, hiding them from anyone and everyone who could possibly hope to interrupt what the three spoiled children had planned for the studious lavender unicorn, everyone but a purple drake tearing through the foliage not too far away.

Spike clawed a path through the dense greenery separating him and his closest and only friend, his durable scales preventing any stray thorns from digging into his flesh and his panicked anger fueling his burning determination as he got closer to the clearing Twilight was within. That very determination was only steeled as his anger flared in response to the blue filly of the group levitating Twilight off of the ground, leaving her helplessly flailing in the air.

"Please no! Put me down!" Panic flooded Twilight's innocent mind as the frigid aurora of her oppressor held her aloft, her magic a commodity she couldn't manage to summon through the haze of fright. The blue filly took in all of the effects the panic she was experiencing caused; whether it was the salty tears intermingling with the nervous sweat dripping down her brow, or her desperately useless bucks and swipes, she was there to drink it all in through her golden golden eyes as a malevolent laugh escaped her tainted mouth.

"Oh, what was that? You want me to put you down? Okay!" The mocking sarcasm was painfully evident in the blue filly's words, a testament to her cruel nature that was only enhanced when she pulsed her kinetic grasp forward, smashing the Twilight's flailing form against a tree. Her sharp yelp of pain was naught but an appetizer to the dastardly trio before they moved on to the main course of her quiet sobs of hopeless despair.

Spike's conscious mimicked the emotions displayed by his memory-self, his veins burning as enraged rivers of adrenaline-infused blood pumped through them. He ripped out entire bushes from their roots as he slashed his way through the dense foliage obstructing his path, caring for nothing but the salvation of his lifelong companion as he burst through the final wall of plant life separating him and the ponies.

"HEY, LEAVE HER ALONE!"

The three offenders turned away from their distraught prey, their cold gazes instead coming to a rest at the huffing dragon a couple of feet away. They snickered amongst themselves upon remembering their last encounter, and a look of pride overcame the blue filly that had tortured Twilight and him in the past when she recalled her monumental role in the destruction of his far-fetched fantasy.

"Aw, check it out girls, the little freak thinks he can tell us what to do." The white colt basically spat out his taunt through his cackling lips, "Didn't you learn your lesson last time?"

Spike's conscious brought forth the agony-laced memory he had experienced the previous night, the first memory he had managed to recover, and he cringed internally as the onslaught of unstable emotions it wracked his hyperactive mind. However, memory-Spike simply let a face of unknowing confusion dilute his previously rage-riddled expression.

"What are you talking about? I've never met any of you three in my life!" The aggravated response Spike's memory-self had used only gave birth to a plethora of new questions, forcing them all into the dragon's conscious mind.

'Never seen them before? How many memories did I manage to block out...and which one is this one?'

"Ha, leave it to the pathetic little lizard to forget anything that happens to him, ain't I right Glamour Shot?" Jab after merciless jab came from the white colt's hurtful words as he turned to the blue unicorn filly.

"So, what are you gonna do huh? You're still as useless as you were the last time we met, so how do you plan on saving your little marefriend?" That was the one and only taunting insult that truly managed to cut through Spike's amnesia-like haze of forgetfulness on that day, for it aimed not for his mind, but for his heart.

Spike's conscious could feel the lingering pain and disturbing confusion still attached to the memory, the emotions he had felt on that forgotten day, and Spike had enough reason to believe that his past-self was in a situation much like the one he was in the present.

'I must have already blocked off my memories by then, but the pain I felt when she said that...I might have been able to sever the memories of my past, but the emotions they carry are something I could never truly let go of.' Spike's conscious began to dissect the raw information he was extracting from his dreams, piecing together the fragments of his shattered mind to complete what they once were, slowly becoming whole again.

Glamour Shot's horn lit up in an aurora that matched her deep blue coat after she finished her insulting exclamation, channeling her magic to levitate Twilight's sobbing form and dangle her upside-down mercilessly as they broke out into their discordantly cacophonous snorts and cackles of corrupt humor.

Spike felt the sensations of the past repeat themselves as he looked on at the twisted spectacle the oppressive children were putting on, the boiling blood burning through his veins. The air he breathed in was thick and searingly hot, filling his lungs with a blazing burn that was dwarfed by the inferno of ire that had exploded within his mind. The purple drake's slitted emerald eyes locked-onto Glamour Shot's laughing form, boring into her skull with their spiteful gaze as the fury within him reached its apex, raging within his young body as it sought out an exit. Spike heaved in a gulp of smolderingly heated air, channeling every last ounce of the enraged suffering trapped inside of him and releasing its unbound power as an emerald jet of blazing fire.

"AHHHH!" Glamour Shot's magic died away as panic dominated her corrupt mind, drowning her cruel joy underneath the desperate drive to survive replacing every other thought she might have had. The green flames creeping up her legs cared not for her pleas or screams, simply consuming her thrashing body more and more by the second, not stopping until it burned its way to the base of her precious horn.

Spike's stared on with his widened emerald eyes, guilty panic intermingling with the fire swirling in their reflective surfaces for but a second before he allowed his instincts to kick into overdrive. He ran with a speed he hadn't known he possessed, catching the falling Twilight in his arms before she could suffer the blunt impact of hitting the ground.

The white colt and the green filly that had accompanied Glamour Shot to pick on Twilight backed away from their burning friend as she flailed helplessly out of her desperate panic, their eyes simply staring at the flame-consumed filly in dreadful anticipation of the bloody, charred corpse she would be left as.

It was a sight that never came.

Emerald smoke began to float away from the filly's body, slowly slithering its way into the sky in a single file before dispersing randomly among the winds, leaving behind an unharmed filly trembling out of the fear still coursing through her veins, but that was a trivial piece of information compared to what she had become. Instead of frying her flesh, the purple drake's flames had managed to transform each and every strand of hair on her body into the smoke already lost to the wind, leaving behind nothing but the exposed pink skin underneath.

"Hahahaha!" Both Spike's conscious and his memory-being couldn't help but burst out laughing at the awkward sight of the nude filly, cutting through all of the lingering tension in the air with his mirthful chortle, and Twilight joined him not long after that, the salted rivers running down her cheeks long forgotten.

The now hairless, itchy, blank flanked filly simply stared at the alien body she called her own, prodding at her smooth skin with a trembling forehoof. Her face had an unbelieving smile blessing it out of the surprise that she was still alive, but it was quickly replaced by the shock caused by her unappealing appearance, shock that quickly transitioned into untold misery at the loss of her recently-earned cutie mark. However, the newest emotion became the predominant one, strangling each and every other one in her mind as it consumed her even faster than the emerald dragon fire had; this was the curse of uncaring, spite-laced hatred.

Her burning golden eyes locked their gaze on the chuckling victims of her taunts.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH, I'M GOING TO KIL-" Her rage-induced threats died in her throat the moment a yellow aurora trapped her in its grip, stopping her just a couple of scant seconds away from letting her complete her infuriated pounce on the purple dragon.

Glamour Shot's screams had managed to attract the attention of the Royal Guard, whom closed in on her ear-splitting wails of fear as soon as they could to try and diffuse what was going on, and the death threat that she had blurted out was more than enough evidence that they needed to restrain her until a thorough investigation could be made.

The two other members of their devilish trio scampered off in hopes of avoiding getting caught up with the police, but they too were captured shortly afterwards by other guards heading towards the clearing they were in. Their smug expressions crumbled under the childish fear overcoming them as they were carried away, pleas for forgiveness ringing out in the still gardens.

Glamour Shot wasn't as compliant as her "friends", flailing in the telekinetic grasp of the guard that had managed to stop her from getting her vengeance as she spat forth insults and promises born of her undying hatred, never stopping on her way to a juvenile detention center. Those hateful words, however, fell on deaf ears.

"Hey, Spike."

"Huh?" Spike turned to the soft voice speaking in his ear just in time to receive a heartwarming smooch on his cheek, prompting a burning blush that felt even hotter than the flames he had summoned earlier. Twilight's youthful giggle at the goofy expression on his face was a symphony to his delicate ears, lasting no more than a few precious seconds before she continued speaking.

"Thanks for saving me back there, I don't know what they would have done to me if you hadn't come along." Twilight nuzzled herself just underneath his chin, her velvety mane stroking gently against his smooth scales in an act of affectionate companionship that they both found enjoyable.

"Uh, sure thing Twilight, you know I won't let anyone hurt you. They'll have to go through me first." Spike puffed out his chest to punctate his macho-dragon statement, the silly sight only serving to bring forth another bout of heavenly giggles from the lavender filly.

"I just have two things I wanna say, Spike." The purple drake let his chest shrink back to its normal size before he responded.

"What's on your mind?"

"When did you learn to breath fire?" Gleeful excitement laced Twilight's young voice when she asked her question, the kind only a surprised filly could hope to use.

'Wait a minute...I clearly remember my first time breathing fire was after accidentally drinking from a hot sauce bottle...wasn't it?' The newest development in his dream memories only complicated matters further for Spike, seeing as how he not only had memories missing from his past, but that he now had contradicting realities within his mind.

Spike's memory-being on the other hand simply gave off a surprised gasp as his mind finally got up to speed and processed that he had finally given off his first flame. The purple drake began to hop around as he rejoiced the monumental moment in his life, an unmatchable smile on his face threatening to split it in half.

"I haven't breathed fire before, Twilight! This was my first time!" The past Spike could barely contain himself long enough to make the revelation to his best friend, the childish excitement still coursing through his entire body.

"Well congratulations, Spikey-Wikey!" Twilight giggled through her cheer at the use of the pet name she had given Spike, finding it almost as adorable as the happy little dragon himself.

'Did she just call me that? No way.'

"Oh, and one more thing, Spike." stated Twilight after calming down from her gleeful state.

"What?"

"You're still carrying me." Twilight's blushing form broke out into her incessant laughter once again after a wave of embarrassment flushed Spike's already pink cheeks, and he followed suit not long after she began, laughing away the tension of the day's unpleasant encounter with the devious trio.

Happiness Spike had always known but never discovered overcame his conscious as the memory began to fade away, the laughter of the past echoing into the darkness as he slipped into a slumber that would go on to be much more restful than the last.

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Twilight's nose twitched sporadically as an enticing scent drifted into her nostrils, reeling her in from her dreamless sleep by causing her stomach to protest the delicious smell's unending teases. Her amethyst eyes slipped open to take in the first rays of the day's dawn, the sun barely peeking over the mountainous horizon, but they snapped to attention when a thought entered her hazy, sleep-addled mind; she hadn't started breakfast yet.

The lavender mare bolted upright in bed, her ears perked and her eyes peeled as she scanned the room she was in, overlooking the fact that Spike wasn't in his basket as she tried to see if there was an intruder in her bed chamber. As she daintily stepped down the stairs leading towards the library's main lobby, her imagination filled her adrenaline-fueled with various scenarios depicting thugs raiding her kitchen.

All of those paranoid thoughts, however, were put to rest when her glimmering eyes fell not upon thugs, but the purple dragon she had lived most of her life alongside with, whom was busy pouring some creamy batter over a pan on the stove while plucking a lilac's petals and spreading them into the mixture.

"Good morning, Spike." Twilight's greeting was accompanied by the warm smile she wore whenever she spoke to her lifelong companion, a smile that Spike couldn't return at the moment due to the immense shock coursing through his body. He spun around to face the source of the sound that had startled him out of his concentration, relaxing upon seeing the gentle expression of his caretaker.

"Good morning, Twilight. Are you hungry?" Spike busied himself once again with the cooking batter on the frying pan in front of him, a look of well deserved rest blessing his features.

Twilight's stomach decided to save her a breath and complained again in response to Spike's question, much to the dragon's chuckling amusement as an embarrassed blush spread on her cheeks.

"I'll take that as a yes then." A lilac pancake flew into the air after Spike spoke, flipping graciously as the undying smile on his snout continued to exist.

"So, Spike, what's the occasion?" Twilight's eyes followed the delectable morsels he was preparing as they defied gravity, nearly distracting her from the evolving conversation, "Don't take this the wrong way, but you aren't usually so cheerful about getting up early in the morning. But hey, don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see that you're feeling better."

A soft sigh born of Spike's content mood escaped him as he set down the fresh batch of pancakes on an alabaster plate that he then put on the dining table before answering Twilight's question, "Well...honestly, I don't know. I just feel like having ourselves a good home-cooked breakfast would be a great way to start off the week, and I felt like I owed you considering how you did all of my chores yesterday."

"That's very thoughtful of you, Spike. You truly are a gentledragon to the tip of the letter." Spike barely managed to restrain the blood rush trying to overcome his cheeks after Twilight gave him her heartfelt compliment; he did enjoy being praised every now and then, especially if it was praise coming from his lifelong friend.

Both library-dwellers took a seat on the floor cushions surrounding the circular dining table, sitting across of each other as they busied themselves with the stack of steaming pancakes laying before them. Twilight's violet aurora gripped the maple syrup bottle and began pouring the thick liquid on her breakfast, all the while observing the forlorn look on Spike's face as he absentmindedly studded his share of pancakes with some sapphires. To Twilight, he seemed lost within his thoughts, something very uncharacteristic of him considering his happy-go-lucky personality.

Spike, however, was utterly oblivious to the visual examinations as he delved deeper into the debate taking place within his mind. His curiosity and his sense of disregard were waging a war with each other as they attempted to figure out whether or not they should ask Twilight about the strange visions of the past he was receiving, ultimately settling on an indirect approach to the situation to make the upcoming topic of conversation seem less out of context. An inward grin of self-satisfaction grew in Spike's head as he formulated a manipulative plan that would suit his current needs.

"Is something on your mind, Spike?" Twilight's concerned tone drifted into Spike's ears from her place by the sink as she deposited her empty plate inside, snapping him out of his extensive mental scheming.

"Not really, I was just thinking about that report on teleportation runes that you were working on. By the way, do you need me to send it to Princess Celestia?" asked Spike, his plan playing out perfectly.

"By Luna's moon, I completely forgot to write it yesterday!" Twilight scrambled out of the kitchen without so much as a single backwards glance, but she didn't forget to express her gratitude before disappearing into her bedroom, "Thanks for reminding me, Spike!"

"Perfect, now all I have to do is wait until she finishes it and sends it and then I'll ask her, and I'm talking to myself again aren't I?" Dragon claw met dragon face before the purple drake both belonged to wandered off to find a book that could burn some of the time he had.

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Everything had gone according to Spike's predictions; Twilight spent the entire day upstairs as she perfected her neat horn-writing to make up for its slight tardiness.

Flashes of a disorderly mane falling to partly conceal two piercing amethyst pinpricks that could barely be considered to be pupils, situated above pearly whites grinding together, sped through Spike's head when the word "tardy" came to mind.

'At least she isn't going crazy over stuff like that anymore.' Spike nearly chuckled at how ironic it was that Twilight was one of the most intelligent and organized ponies he knew yet she was fragile enough that a simple late assignment would break her rationality in the past. Instead, he simply flipped to the next page of the book on mental disorders he had cradled in his dexterous claws as he snuggled himself deeper into one of the library's couches, hoping to find something relevant to the connection between his dreams and his memories.

'It is common for an individual who has suffered from a traumatic event, be it physically or emotionally jarring, to repress any and all memory of the said event in an attempt to shield himself/herself from the damage it may cause, possibly going so far as to "lock away" the emotions connected to it as long as the memory is maintained in its repressed dormant state. In rarer cases, some patients have experienced extensive memory loss concentrated not only on the traumatic event, but to anything that vaguely resembles the root problem, causing amnestic gaps that stem indefinitely through the patient's mind.'

Lightbulbs went off in Spike's head as he made the connections between the symptoms described in the book and the once he was experiencing, silently thanking the library's extensive collection on medical disorders. Still, there was one symptom he hadn't come across in the book yet, and he continued reading until he found it.

'However, complications arise when some of the rarer individuals experience not only memory loss, but memory substitution. These special cases involve the patient creating entirely false realities within their minds in an attempt to ward away any suspicion drawn towards the blanks in their memories, and these fabrications have a tendency to hinder their rehabilitation when the patient becomes too attached to the substitutions, refusing to accept that they had never taken place.'

'Let's see, I think that what I've been seeing in my dreams are memories that I've blocked off, so check. I've been feeling...weird around Twilight ever since these memories started coming back, check on the repressed emotions. Now all that's left is to figure out whether or not I'm making up fake memories when Twilight comes downstairs. By Celestia's beard, I'm starting to sound like a total nutcase.'

Spike shook his head to escape the dense pool of thoughts flooding his head as it tried to process everything that he had discovered recently before walking over to one of the various bookshelves in the library to return the book he had used to its rightful place.

With nothing left to do but wait for Twilight's return, Spike started to pace around the library aimlessly, a persistent habit he had picked up from the lavender unicorn herself during the many years they shared together. He continued to walk around the comfortably calm home, doing nothing other than ignoring the questions he couldn't answer in his mind as he breathed in the familiar scent of sandalwood for a couple of minutes before the door to the master bedroom swung open.

Twilight strode down the stairway with a prideful look of satisfaction plastered on her face as a wax-sealed scroll hovered beside her in a violet aurora. She trotted over to Spike before asking him for a favor that he had heard countless times from her ever since they moved to Ponyville.

"Hey Spike, can you please send this letter to Princess Celestia for me?"

"No." Spike's flat tone of voice betrayed the mischievous smile on his face.

"Okay, tha- WHAT!?" Twilight gaped at Spike's rejection, shocked by its sheer unfamiliarity.

"Hehehe, I'm just kidding Twilight, sheesh." Spike chortled as he picked the sealed scroll out of the air and blew an emerald ember on it, turning it into a green gas trail that went on to fly out through a nearby window.

"Spike, that wasn't funny." Twilight fumed at Spike's own brand of humor, yet she could still feel the relief in her mind upon seeing that he was still his old, sarcastic, self.

"Pfft, says you."

'C'mon Spike, now's your chance!'

"Anyway, Twilight, can I ask you a question?" Spike's emerald eyes followed the equally colored smoke fly through the sky on its way towards Canterlot as he began to smooth the conversation into the path he wanted it to take.

"Sure thing, Spike. What do you want to know?" Twilight's minuscel annoyance at his prodding humor disappeared the instant she acknowledged that her lifelong companion needed her assistance, not willing to let pointless trivialities affect her judgement.

"When was the first time I breathed fire?" Spike had two choices that could answer his question already in his head, but he wanted to get the surefire truth instead of taking a gamble with his fractured mind and forgotten memories.

Spike's innocent question prompted a nostalgic giggle from Twilight as she walked over to one of the nearby couches, petting the lofty cushion near her to offer the little drake a place at her side before she began speaking.

"That goes back to our days together in Canterlot, Spike, back when I was in my teenage years and you were barely ten years old." A shadow of long-abandoned hurt crossed her smiling face as she delved into the rough patch of the memory she was recalling.

"It was just like any other day, really; I was catching up on my studies underneath a tree in the royal gardens, far away from everyone else that could disturb me...everyone but a trio of spoiled bullies. They came up to me and started to call me names, prodding at me with their hurtful taunts up until one of the two fillies, the blue one I believe, actually levitated me off of the ground and threw me against the tree I was reading under. It was really painful, she nearly broke one of my legs with that little stunt of hers." The frown that had begun to mar her divine features as she retold her side of the story was utterly obliterated by the heartwarming smile that swooped in to replace it, prepping her for the next page of her tale.

Spike was mentally comparing everything Twilight said with what he already knew, getting a perfect match with his dreams so far, but his analysis was put to a halt when he was pulled into the mind-numbing embrace of his lifelong companion. It was just as inexplicably wondrous as the last one he had received, letting the heat of her snug body seep into him, warming him to his core before she continued her tale.

"But, a certain little dragon had other plans. I still don't know how you managed to find me on that day, but you burst through the dense plants and confronted the three bullies head-on, disregarding any and all fear so that you could stand up for me." Spike couldn't hide the embarrassed blush spreading on his cheeks upon hearing about his involvement in the story, nuzzling deeper into the lavender-scented fur of his caretaker in a futile attempt to hide himself.

"They tried everything they could taunt you with to make you back down, but you didn't shy away in the slightest of forms. After seeing that they couldn't hurt you with words, one of the fillies picked me back up again and dangled me upside-down to try and get you mad, which it did. The thing is, they underestimated you, so you really scared the living Tartarus out of them when you fired your first jet of dragon breath at the filly and caught me in your arms after she lost control of her magic. But don't worry, your fire didn't do anything other than "mail" away all of her hair."

Twilight couldn't restrain a chuckle from escaping her once she brought up the image of the shivering pink pony that had once been her tormentor, and Spike couldn't help but chime into the laughter himself even if he had already had his share of laughs at the entire scenario within his dream.

As the retelling of that chapter in their lives came to a conclusion, their conversation turned the page to begin the next. Minutes turned to hours as times long gone were revisited in the solace they shared with one another, misadventures ranging from the theft of Princess Celestia's personal chocolate cake stash to the week-long "gender-bent" incident at the castle caused by one of Twilight's minor surges. They were tales both of them knew by heart, but it was comforting to take the time and revisit the simpler times, to remember the roots of their undying friendship.

They regaled each other with their memories through the entirety of the day, lost to the throes of nostalgic bliss even as the sun began to settled behind the mountainous horizon.

Spike looked up to Twilight as she spoke, hearing everything she had to say but failing to listen completely as he lost himself in the amethyst pools she called her eyes. At that very moment, he simply failed to care about not being able to understand why he felt so blissfully unusual around the lavender mare that had been at his side since the day he was hatched, shutting down all of the assumptions and guesses he tried to make as he reveled in the new lucidly euphoric sensations rocking his body. He was just about to snuggle himself against her warm coat again, yearning for the affectionate contact, but a burp followed by a wisp of emerald smoke condensing into a scroll snapped both him and Twilight out of their respective actions.

The scroll was enshrouded in a violet aurora is it was levitated in front of the unicorn mare, whom went on to break the seal and unroll it to be able to read the message inscribed within. Her nostalgic smile transitioned into one of mild surprise at the contents of the scroll, prompting Spike and his unquenchable curiosity to ask her a question.

"What does the letter say, Twilight?"

"Princess Celestia wants us to go to Canterlot."

Eternal Echoes

Chapter 4

Eternal Echoes

"Notes, check. Pastime reading material, check. Spike,"

Twilight's amethyst eyes drifted to her left to find a rather groggy-looking Spike, whose own emerald eyes were partly concealed by his heavy eyelids as he tried to snap away from the sleep still lingering in his system threatening to overtake him, and the sky chariot's soft, velvety cushions were proving to be of no help to his meager effort at all.

"check." A nearly imperceptible scribble was heard as Twilight checked off the final box on her checklist, just scant seconds before the pegasi guards pulling the chariot took off from her library's front lawn and steered onto a course leading to Equestria's mountainous capital city, Canterlot.

A large, drowsy yawn at her side drew Twilight's attention once again, and she found Spike looking as sleep-addled as ever looking at her with a questioning gaze that only complemented what he was about to ask.

"Twilight, why do we have to go see the Princess so suddenly?"

The studious mare sighed as she shook her head before repeating herself to Spike once again, "Princess Celestia wants me over at Canterlot so that she can tutor me on sealed teleportation spells during her break from all of her usual bureaucratic duties, Spike."

"Okay, but did we have to take the earliest sky chariot she could send? I mean, come on, we didn't even get to eat breakfast before we left and we won't land for three hours." Spike's complaint was accompanied by a pout as he felt his stomach protest the neglect it was being subjected to.

Twilight zipped her travel bag open before fishing out a nutritious granola bar she had packed for herself and a moderately sized emerald for her whining companion, whom proceeded to gnaw away at the green crystalline treat the second it fell into his claws.

Twilight on the other hoof idly nibbled at her treat as she turned to the nearest window and pulled aside the silky blinds to gaze at the eternal sun rising on the mountainous horizon, a sight that prompted innumerable memories of her youthful days at the castle to rise to the forefront of her mind as a warm smile spread softly on her lips. She hadn't seen her beloved mentor in months due to their respective duties wedging them apart, but the bond they shared never faded away thanks to their frequent correspondence via D-Mail, courtesy of Spike.

That train of thought eventually lead her into the territory of her number one assistant, her lifelong companion. She couldn't help but wonder what had been going on in the head of her draconic assistant those past few days, he had undeniably been put through a rollercoaster of emotions. The night of his rejection had seemingly...broken him, yet the following day he arose just as he did every other morning, never once mentioning the incident with Rarity, and then he seemed elated yesterday for reasons she couldn't even begin to fathom.

'I guess this is just something he needs to sort out on his own. Still, I wish I could do something for him instead of just worrying.'

Spike however was oblivious to anything other than the emerald he was gnawing away at, satisfied with doing nothing but enjoying the slightly sour taste up until he turned around to ask Twilight an idle question, a question that died in his throat as soon as his bright eyes fell upon her pensive form. Through the lucidity tinging his eyes he saw the sparkle of her purely cleansed mane as the dawn's first rays drifted upon it, the early morning's sun naught but a shining halo eclipsed by her lavender expression of serenity. She was the epitome of beauty to his draconic heart, whether she or anyone else came to realize her inner perfection was meaningless for that eternal second, all that mattered was that he finally began to understand.

'Why haven't I ever seen her like this before? Have I been so blind that I refused to see what I have always had in front of me just so that I could chase something I could never have...something I never truly wanted?' Spike let down all of the barriers he had shrouded his fragile mind behind for so long, taking the courageous plunge into what he had feared to face in the past without a single backward glance, and with the confrontation of terror came fruitful liberation for him, 'I'm such an idiot...a heartstruck idiot too naive to deserve anything from her.'

Spike couldn't shake himself away from his revealing introspection, its reach had extended far too deeply into his consciousness to be stopped now, so he went along with the second best thing to do when he couldn't quell his ravenous mind. He draped his blanket over himself and let himself sink into the velvety cushions of the swaying sky chariot, drifting off to a sleep that would offer no sanctuary from the lavender thoughts speeding through his hyperactive mind

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Celestia's sun was already well on its way to reaching its apex in the sky by the time the royal chariot touched down just on the outskirts of the Canterlot Castle, and the bumpy landing was more than enough to rouse Spike from his rejuvenating slumber, much to his subtle disappointment.

Before she could do so herself, the sky chariot's door next to Twilight was opened by one of the many stone-faced Castle Guards, whom simply went on to ask that she gather her belongings before leaving. So, with the aid of her violet magic, the librarian cleared out anything she had brought from the chariot's interior before hopping off of the vehicle, being followed shortly afterward by a wobbly Spike.

The lifelong companions hastily made their way towards the massive gilded doors that marked the entrance to the castle's central reception lobby. The room itself was as elegantly decorated as the building's exterior, emanating an aura of refined aristocracy that wasn't exactly easy to overlook, but even the masterfully crafted decor didn't stop the duo's gaze from lingering on the being settled behind the reception desk.

Their best guess was that it was a pony, but there was no way of achieving absolute certainty due to the individual's interesting choice of clothing. Its body was completely concealed behind a cloak bearing the celestial sun emblem, hiding the wearer's form completely as it draped from head to hoof, and the facial opening seemed to incessantly be shrouded by the shadow it cast.

Twilight nearly had a heart attack when its head snapped up from the forms it was revising with an unnerving speed, staring blankly at the lavender mare before it for scant seconds before moving on to observe the dragon at her side. Something felt abnormally wrong as the deafening silence dominated the room, highlighting the unnatural gaze the cloaked creature cast their way for what seemed like an eternity before it broke the tension with a stiff bow out of respect towards Twilight's acclaimed rank in Canterlot's society.

"Follow me, Lady Sparkle." The cloaked being trotted down a hallway without another word, apparently oblivious to Twilight's protests at being called by her formal title. Twilight tried to bring up some idle chatter with the weird individual leading the way, but her attempts were either ignored or dismissed every single time, so she relented and simply kept quiet as she followed along.

Their small posse came to a halt in front of the Royal Archives' doorway, and the receptionist turned to face the guests of the castle before speaking, "Princess Celestia awaits your appearance within. Tarry no longer than need-be, Lady Sparkle."

With its job done, the intriguing creature hidden behind the cloak trotted back to its post at the castle's entrance without so much as a courteous goodbye, leaving Twilight and Spike to their own duties. With a flash of her horn, the doors to the archives creaked open to reveal the Goddess of the Sun lounging in front of a crackling fireplace, whom cultivated a regally warm smile upon turning to see her precious student and her charge.

"Ah, Twilight, it's so good to see you again."

"The same goes to you, Princess Celestia. It's been far too long, hasn't it?" Twilight trotted up to her mentor to give her a friendly nuzzle, an act that she understood helped her mentor feel less like a ruler and more like a common pony, a friend even.

"Of course it has." Celestia then turned to address the silent dragon watching their little exchange from the background, "And hello to you as well, Spike. You haven't grown up and crushed Ponyville again, have you?"

Spike chuckled at the Princess' rare brand of humor before responding, "Not yet, Princess."

"So, Princess, what is it you would like for us to do first? I've brought over all of my research notes in case we might need them." Twilight was as eager as ever to experience the tutelage of her Solar Ruler once again, letting the excited sparkle of curiosity tint her amethyst eyes.

"It would be best if we started out by reviewing what you have learned so far, don't you agree?" Celestia knew full well the answer she would receive from the lavender unicorn, and her suspicion was only confirmed when she nodded her head as a response.

Spike tried to follow along with what their conversation had evolved into, but his honest effort became a futile one when the phrase "quantum teleportation physics" became the central topic. So, seeing how he was of no use to their little lecture, he was left to wander the seemingly endless aisles of bookshelves that made up the Archives to burn off some of the abundant spare time he had.

The Archives themselves were very much akin to a labyrinth, considering how the extensive corridors comprised of bookshelves seemed to stem off in innumerable directions. In fact, the maze was a structure so massive that Princess Celestia had various maps and checkpoints installed within its reaches after an incident with a griffon embassador losing his way whilst recovering a document. These informative markers, however, were useless to Spike thanks to the extensive time he spent traversing the dimly lit aisles while playing hide-and-seek with Twilight when they were younger.

Spike slapped a claw against his aching forehead as his subconscious unleashed even more of the repressed memories trapped behind the remaining barriers he had set up as a child. They were nothing but lost echoes of indecipherable voices and technicolor blurs that painted a canvas of nonsense, all of them save for one.

Spike's emerald green eyes locked onto what seemed to be an exact copy of himself fading into existence, standing no more than a couple of feet ahead of himself. A closer examination, however, revealed that his "echo" seemed to be semi-transparent and looked much younger than he currently was, a lot like the Spike he had seen in the first memory he recovered.

Spike vaguely recognized the soft tune his echo was humming as it began to make its way down a corridor leading to the Equestrian Tax Laws, and he felt compelled to hum along as he followed the ethereal dragon. Wherever the echo would set foot there would be a faded footprint in the dust waiting there for him that accommodated his tiny feet perfectly, only backing up the conclusion Spike was drawing up in his mind that he was reliving one of his memories in the waking world. Spike nearly bumped into his past self when it suddenly halted its march to turn and go down a dead-end aisle, one that eventually took him and Spike to the section on the griffon/pony trade deficit records from the Pre-Celestial Era.

Simply being in that area of the Archives managed to bore Spike for some odd reason he couldn't understand, but that boredom was eradicated the second his echo grabbed a semi-transparent book from the endless batch and smiled upon opening it before fading away from existence, leaving Spike alone to his machinations in the dimly lit corridor.

With his curiosity reignited, the purple drake scrambled up to the spot he had seen his projection select a book from before he forgot where it was. Waiting for him, stuffed snugly among the economic records of the Discordant Eras, was what seemed to be a journal of some sort.

Spike wasted not but a second to snatch away the intriguing book hidden away next to the boring tomes, immediately noting that it seemed to have been preserved by the immensely intricate spellwork used to enchant the bookshelves, seeing how it had no apparent damage.

"Huh...I wonder what's in here." Spike opened the journal delicately to avoid damaging it in the slightest of forms, skipping ahead to the latest entry. His heart stuttered to a stop as his breath caught in his throat; it was a personal diary, but it wasn't just any old diary, it was his.

Today is the day, Mr. Diary, today I'm finally going to confess to Twilight, and on Hearts and Hooves day no less! I decided to write out my feelings to her since I'd probably start to stutter like I usually do. You know that, right Mr. Diary? Anyway, after today, me and Twilight are finally gonna be together! And then we will get married, and buy our own castle, and go on adventures like we've always wanted to! Well, see you later, I'll tell you all about it when i get back, okay?
Bye Mr. Diary!

That was it. The entries ended there, everything after that was blank, forgotten.

Spike tried to hold back the burning streams of salt running down his cheeks, he tried with all of the might he could summon, but they would not be denied their liberation any longer. One after another, they pattered onto the dust-matted floor, their monotonous pattern a testament to his bleeding heart's overdue suffering. Fate had slapped him across the face with its cruelty, leaving a burning mark that would mar his being for years to come, yet he felt the faintest hints of a smile tugging at his lips. His eyes scanned his latest entry once again, whipping his heart more and more, letting the repressed venom of despair seep out through its wounds as his smile defied his pain.

He hugged the journal to his aching chest, sitting back on his tail as he began to rock back and forth in time with the patter of his tears. He had finally accepted who he had once been, and the sting that came with his freedom went ignored as he sobbed to himself in the dark labyrinth that had gifted him the key to the shackles of repression he had forced upon himself.

Spike arose as a new dragon from the silent depths of the mazelike Archives, his head high and his steps confidant. The diary was freed as well, deftly hidden between two randomly selected books as he approached Twilight and Celestia.

"Twilight, is it okay if I head over to our room? I feel kinda tired and I'd really like to catch some shuteye." Spike's request effectively snapped the duo of intellectual mares out of their lecture, and the sudden silence that followed for a split-second was more than enough to make him feel awkward for interrupting them.

"Go on ahead, Spike, I'll be there as soon as I finish up my lesson with Princess Celestia. Also, don't forget to put those books back from where you got them before you leave." Twilight leaned forward and pulled her lifelong companion into a parting hug as she spoke, a sight that brought a wayward smile to the Solar Goddess' muzzle as she looked on at their familiar display of affection.

"Sure thing, Twilight." Spike wriggled out of the warm physical contact to drop off the random books before sneaking away with the journal still cradled in his claws, "See you later!"

"Bye, Spike!" Twilight's farewell echoed throughout the otherwise silent corridors of the archives as she called out to her charge, whom scurried off to the tower they used to reside in back when they were naught but hyperactive children. The lavender mare turned away from the Archive's entrance only to find her mentor smiling at her with reminiscence painting her bright features.

"Spike's really growing up to be quite the model dragon, isn't he, Twilight?"

"He really is, Princess. Just take yesterday for example; he woke up before me, the early-rising bookworm, just to make us both a nice breakfast." Nostalgia smoothed its way into Twilight's smile as she looked back on the times she had shared with her precious assistant, "He's really been nothing but the best friend I could ever ask for over all of these years."

"I'm glad to hear that you two never drifted apart, it would have crushed me to see such a pure friendship die off."

"Me too, Celestia...me too."

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Lost hopes, forgotten dreams, introspective revelations, every last one of them was compressed into the form of a single journal. Pages upon countless pages were filled to the brim with Spike's deepest and most personal of all secrets, simply waiting for the one responsible for their creation to glance upon their forgotten inscriptions, and his emerald eyes obliged them more than willingly as they scoured page after page of long-lost memories. Photographs of both times new and familiar to him would occasionally accompany one of the private entries, and they all shared one thing in common as they displayed him at his lifelong lavender friend's side; the radiant smile born of heartfelt love blessing his snout. Meticulously designed drawings lined the pages of his personal diary as well, their aesthetically appealing displays almost always depicting Twilight exclusively.

For every entry of past experiences Spike read, a fragment of his fractured mind was restored at long last, piecing together his true personality whilst filling in blanks in his head he had never realized were there in the first place. However, with every joyous memory he managed to recover, nightmares of repressive apprehension managed to snake their way into his subconscious as well, giving birth to the chaotic soul-crusher known as doubt.

That endless source of negativity, however, had barely began its destructive march to the forefront of his mind, where a bout of introspective revelation was taking place. Realization came swiftly to the dragon as the false realities he had created for himself died, understanding that what he felt for the lavender unicorn depicted in his dreams was not a mere crush or an unsubstantial infatuation. This was pure devotion for her, for the way she denied vanity's hold on her ago, for every seemingly worthless act of affection she shared with him, for every second she took out of her life to help those around her; her naive personality struck a chord in Spike's heart that no other had ever struck before.

There was naught but one con he could pin on her, the one thing that crushed him every time he was reminded about its reality, and that was the heart-wrenching fact that she had yet to be his special somepony.

"And she probably never will be." All the happiness Spike had managed to accumulate began to bleed out, slowly dying away as doubt finally found its undeserved place at the forefront of his mind, tearing down everything he had built up.

"I mean, how could she ever love a...sick freak like me? I'm just some messed up dragon...Rarity said it, those three little jerks said it, and I've never even heard about a dragon and a pony actually falling in love with each other." Spike tossed aside his journal as he descended into his self-conscious pit of despair, curling up into a whimpering ball as the painful introspection continued to gnaw away at him, "She'd never see me that way...never accept me as the unnatural freak I am."

'Should I at least give it a shot?' Defiantly spitting in the putrid face of self-doubt arose confidence, cutting through the numbing fog of uncertainty.

'Don't be stupid. She will never come to see you in the same light as you see her.' Spike's fragile mind was split by indecision, one half belonging to aspiring faith while the other was corrupted by the all-consuming doubt.

'How would I know that? I've never tried it before.'

'What, didn't Rarity make it clear to you? She said in her own words that dragons and ponies aren't meant to be together as she rejected you.'

'But this isn't Rarity we're talking about, it's Twilight!'

'Now tell me, what difference does it make? They're both normal ponies, and you're just an abomination of a dragon.'

'You want to know the difference!? The difference is that I ACTUALLY love Twilight, and I won't let my past mistakes hold me back any more! I love her too much to let her go!'

Doubt remained silent, leaving Spike's exhausted conscience to cool down from the heights of righteous devotion it had managed to reach, and the deafening absence of sound was broken only by a dry chuckle the downtrodden half of Spike's mind gave off before it spoke for the last time on that day.

'...Good job kid, now all you have to do is tell her that, face-to-face.'

Spike had won through his perseverance, beating his fears back into the depths of his unexplored ego as the shock of having his own rebellious mind trick him into confessing all that he had learned through his introspection to himself, finally cementing the foundations of what he had already known.

Tired of all the soulsearching pains and experiences that had wracked his recently reconstructed mind on that day, Spike walked over to his fallen journal and hid it underneath the guest bed he would be sleeping on for the night, seeing as how he had managed to forget his trusty basket back at home. He tried to clear the slate of his mind for the night so that he could rest peacefully, but the nagging feeling of insecurity born of the prospect of having to confess refused to leave his conscience at ease.

With a frustrated huff directed at his inability to set aside his ill-conceived insecurities, Spike hopped up onto the lofty bedding Princess Celestia had set up for him and curled up underneath the warm shield provided by his fuzzy blankets, slowly slipping away into the world of dreams...into the hell of nightmares. They came mercilessly, spawned by fears he never knew he had hidden away, lashing out at him with their daunting scenarios. Whether it was Twilight's outright rejection or him becoming an utter outcast of Equestrian society, each and every last twisted figmentation beat him into the ground, fracturing the wavering confidence he was trying to preserve. Fear snaked its way around his neck and put him in a suffocating vice grip, digging its doubtful fangs into his weary heart to pump every last vein in his body to the brim with apprehensive chaos, outright destroying any sense of aspiring faith he once held true.

Spike bolted upright in his damp bed as he was forcefully ripped out of his nightmarish terrors by the sound of the door to the room he and Twilight were staying in being shut. The very mare that had taunted and scolded him naught but seconds ago in the horrific figments he had conjured up in his sleep stood a couple of feet away from him, examining his heavily breathing form as cold droplets traveled down his forehead. Twilight set down her research materials near the door as she made her way over to her precious assistant, lifting a hoof to try and press it against his forehead only for him to recoil away from it before it even managed to touch him, causing a worried frown to creep onto the young mare's expression.

"Is there something wrong, Spike? You've been really jumpy lately, and you're not nearly as talkative as you usually are either." Twilight's amethyst eyes peered into the deeply conflicted emerald pools of the reserved dragon, compassionate care tinging her tone as she spoke, "You know that you can talk to me about anything you might have on your mind, right?"

"Uhm, n-no, Twilight, there's nothing wrong." Spike's feeble attempt at deception was easily recognized by the librarian, whom went on to fix him with a commanding stare that refused to cross the border into being considered oppressive.

"Spike...don't you trust me?" Her words dug deeply into the drake's heart as it churned with guilt; the "trust" card always managed to cut through anything he could try and shield himself with, "You're not even willing to give me a chance to try and help you?"

"N-no, Twilight! It's nothing like that, I swear!" Desperation laced his losing tone as the walls his fear had established began to crumble under the force of her desire to selflessly assist him.

"Then why are you trying to hide what's been troubling you all of this time instead of letting me be there for you? Please, Spike, I love you too much to just stand by and watch you suffer like this." Twilight could feel her sparkling eyes beginning to burn as tears of silent desperation threatened to escape their prison as she let one of her forehooves rest on his shoulder, looking at him straight in his trembling eyes.

Her empathetic words echoed in Spike's mind, drifting down to the darkest reaches of his subconscious mind, banishing the reluctance stopping him from expressing what his fears told him to repress. He tossed aside his insecurities, ignored the tainted begging his cowardice threw his way, and slapped doubt across the face as he finally gave up his resistance for a moment and asked the one question that had been the sole reason for the damage that had been done to his mind over the last couple of days.

"Twilight," Spike could feel the all too familiar sting of fresh tears burning his shaking eyes as the age-old pain that had been allowed to fester withing his subconscious mind finally found a way out, paving the way for the one question responsible for the misery he had been forced to live with for most of his oblivious life, "am I a...f-freak for loving a p-pony?"

Shock tainted the realization burning brightly in Twilight's wide eyes as she finally understood his burden, and she wasted no time before lunging forward and enveloping Spike in her warm embrace, trying to purge him of his grief by nuzzling against his smooth scales, "Spike...don't you ever dare so much as think that you're weird because of your emotions. You're just different, it could happen to anyone else."

"B-but Rarity said that everyone was taught that loving another species is w-wrong and that it could never happen, that it's just not natural." Once opened, the floodgates that had held back Spike's dreading questions could not be sealed again, revealing everything he had hidden within himself to Twilight, everything but his confession.

"Don't listen to her, Spike, don't try and hide who you are just because somebody else doesn't agree with a part of you. How would Rarity know anything about what is right and wrong? How could she be sure that her way of seeing things is the only possible way." Twilight ignored the newly arisen anger beginning to build in the back of her head so that she could remain purely focused on the tearful dragon nuzzling against her quickly moistening chest. Try as she might, however, Twilight couldn't have hoped to expect what Spike was about to ask her.

"How can you be sure, Twilight? Would you have done things differently if a dragon who treated you as if you were the best thing to ever come into his life asked you to love him back?" He couldn't help himself, he couldn't stop the vague confession from slipping past his lips as the slated rivers continued to slither down his cheeks, and he absolutely couldn't put together the peace of mind to even care about the mistake he had just committed as he let himself be consumed by the moment.

Twilight froze up as Spike's question rang incessantly within the unexplored depths of her vast mind, stirring up jumbled blurs and distorted voices incomprehensible to her waking conscience, all of which shared a sense of past familiarity. Thoughts she hadn't known she had sprang to the forefront of her mind as an influx of indescribable sensations coursed through her still body. The lines she spoke next were not meticulous inventions of her ingenious head, but raw creations of her virgin heart.

"Spike...I'd love him for who he is, regardless of what he is. I'd let him know just how much I love him everyday, and tell him I'll dream with him every night. And, most importantly of all, regardless of whatever tries to stand between us, I'd never leave his side as long as he wants me to be there for him."

Spike's emerald eyes slowly climbed the warm chest of his lavender love to meet her own amethyst gems and lock with them, a contact beyond the physical that drove his beating heart mad as it pumped furiously in his own chest. He wanted shout out of joy at her acceptance of his unnatural way, but he simply couldn't bring himself to break the thick silence between them as their shared trance stretched on. Neither one of the lifelong companions knew what they were doing in that single moment of lucidity as they began to close the distance between them, letting their desires dictate their actions for once in their orderly lives.

'Is this really happening? N-no, I'm dreaming again, there is no way Twilight would eve-'

Spike's denial-laced doubts were all wiped away from existence as Twilight's soft lips met his own in an act of intimacy neither had come to share before, letting their wide eyes drift shut as they let the alien bliss snuff out their tedious worries. It was no display of infatuate lust or pitiful desperation; it was a pure share of affection both had yearned for longer than they could hope to remember. It was an act that felt as gentle as the finest pegasus down bits could afford, warm like a crackling fireplace on a cold Hearthwarming's Eve, and it refused to allow Spike to be dragged back down into the depths of doubtful reluctance as it comforted him with its embrace; each and every euphoric trait letting the content drake know that it was Twilight he was sharing that special moment with, just like they had shared many others under a different light.

Blissful silence filled the wordless void as the lifetime companions separated from their unfamiliar union, their shining eyes speaking the words neither the dragon nor the mare could bring themselves to say. The only sound that dared disturb their quiet shelter was the rustling of warm bed sheets as Twilight settled in next to her lifelong companion and newfound lover, wrapping her forelegs around him as she pulled him up against her tenderly beating chest, the constant lullaby of her heart paving the way to the Dreamscape as their eyes drifted to a close.

"I love you, Twilight."

His simple confession was unnecessary, for their actions had already spoken of their new union, but it had been denied its expression for far too long. Twilight's head ached painlessly somehow as it was pushed to the limit with alien emotions she had never come to acknowledge before, and although she spoke without meaning to, she could never bring herself to regret what she had said.

"I love you too, Spike."

And that was it, the night's embrace could be denied its newest charges no longer, and so the mare and the dragon slipped into the liberation of their dreams. Twilight, however, remained true to her word as she delved into memories of times long gone to view her past with her lifelong companion in an entirely new perspective.

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A horrendous cackle pierced the night's fresh silence just beyond the pane of glass overlooking the new couple's bedroom as they slept, its ear-grating malice unheard by all but its creator. A being astride a grey cloud and hidden behind a flowing celestial cloak being rustled by the nighttime gusts let its freshly used camera swing on its neck as a devious grin born of unbound malevolence spread its cracked lips.

"Now this is a glamour shot."

Perspective

Chapter 5

Perspective

Twilight found herself wandering the dimly lit halls of her subconscious mind in a introspective quest of her own, contemplating the innumerable bookshelves surrounding her as she ventured deeper into her self.

The librarian turned backwards to inspect something she felt something pressing lightly against the back of her neck, finding to her great surprise two plush dolls resting on her back. The larger one depicted an alabaster alicorn with a chromatic mane that contrasted drastically to the purple dragon sitting next to it. Twilight, not one to dwell on the creations she subconsciously brings forth in her dreams, did nothing more than smile at the silent plushies before she continued to tread the corridors of her conscience's library.

She didn't know why, but she couldn't shake the feeling of unfamiliarity that began to consume her as she trotted onward, the shadows of unknowing creeping up on her from the dark recesses of unexplored hallways. Her head began to throb painlessly once again as she walked, incessantly pulsing just behind her skull as she grew lightheaded, but a shake of her head cleared away the jumbled mess gunking up her thoughts.

Twilight didn't know when it exactly began, much less why it happened in the first place, but the library cataloging her conscience began to shift drastically around her as she continued her never-ending forward march. Books escaped their shelves and flapped away into the cyan sky that was once the roof to the library, slowly morphing into beautifully feathered birds in their flight. The bare mahogany bookshelves themselves groaned lethargically as they twisted and turned until they were glorious trees lined with bright emerald leaves, rustling an imperceptible melody. The lavender mare stopped for a brief moment to observe the ground, where the filthy dust lining the floor began to sprout into soft green grass that tenderly caressed her hooves as a gentle summer breeze blew through the exact depiction of the Royal Gardens of Canterlot, bringing with it the scents of flourishing life and the distant sounds of children at play.

Familiarity arose in Twilight's heart the second the youthful laughter reached her sensitive ears, the joyous giggles growing louder and louder as she approached a peaceful clearing among the dense foliage of the mystifying gardens. There, secluded from a world that refused to understand their difference from the common aristocratic rabble, their humble natures and individuality, frolicked a purple dragon hatchling and a young lavender filly.

Twilight's arrival at the young companions' secret oasis garnered no attention from the children of her memories, as if she were nothing more than a silent ghost observing their role-playing game. Spike was righteously suited with a set of metallic bracers, armored leggings, matching boots, and a chestplate depicting the Celestial Sun emblem; he was a shining mimicry of a Royal Guard clad in his silver armor. Filly Twilight was the polar opposite to the guardian dragon; her ebony satin cloak with its hood tucked away boasted its intimidating features as another summer wind blew through the clearing, the silver trimmings lining its edges guiding the viewers eyes to the necrotic skull emblems emblazoned on the areas her cutie marks should be, and the onyx tiara with a scarlet bloodstone gem centered on it completed the notoriously infamous appearance.

Nostalgic reminiscence graced Twilight's expression as the euphoric sensation brought about by her beloved foalhood memories blessed her hyperactive mind. She recalled the specific memory unfolding before her with all the clarity of a perfect diamond; it had been a relatively peaceful summer when she and Spike had come up with the idea of challenging one another with a role playing game, and she was more than happy to experience the unique thrill of being the antagonist for once. All in all, it was a day she never forgot considering that it took a personal visit from the Sun Goddess herself to convince them to retire to the embrace of slumber for the night, and even then they continued to spar all the way to their tower.

"I'm gonna get you, Shadow Queen!" Spike's righteous exclamation snapped Twilight out of her nostalgic musings, herding her attention back to the battle taking place before her.

"So, you want to play the hero!? Very well, but how do you plan on getting past my shadow bolts!?" Filly Twilight's faux malevolence was intertwined with her rhetorical retort, betrayed slightly by the childish excitement tinging her tone.

With their taunts spoken and the ever present silence of their secluded clearing present, Spike charged forward with a war cry that pierced the noiseless void, stomping his way towards the makeshift wooden platform he and Twilight had attached to a tree. The lavender Queen of Destruction let loose a barrage of pitch black lighting spells that honed in on the dashing dragon to render him immobile, all of which he successfully managed to evade up until he was caught off guard by a stray bolt that had collided against his side, leaving him helplessly paralyzed on their battlefield.

"Ha, you lose, Sir Spike! Now the world shall be mine forev-AHHH!"

Time seemed to slow at that very moment, letting the dread sink into the enigmatic minds of all whom witnessed the unfolding catastrophe; the flimsy platform supporting the unicorn filly crumbled to pieces under her weight, sending her on a one-way trip to the Afterlife as she plummeted towards the unforgiving ground with enough force to snap her neck should she fall headfirst.

Unknowing horror flashed across both of the Twilights' features as Death's plans were put into effect. Behind the immediate shock of witnessing the tragic event before her, the Twilight looking on as everything happened couldn't hold back the torrent of stupor-induced questions that flooded her strained mind. Something was horribly wrong with what she was seeing, something she couldn't yet explain; she remembered nothing about her fall, nothing about the life-threatening scenario she was suddenly thrust into in her past. Her inquisitions, however, went ignored for the time being as she oversaw a reality she had yet to discover.

"TWILIGHT!" Lungs that had yet to produce their first bout of emerald flames strained painfully as the young drake they belonged to released a shrill cry of dominating fear. His emerald eyes followed his best friend's form as she plummeted to her demise, the very site forcing his underaged body to push itself past its limitations. In a moment of adrenaline-infused determination, Spike overcame the stunning spell's effects through sheer willpower and bolted towards the screaming filly. Mere seconds before her life's tale came to a gruesome end, the sprinting hatchling hurled himself underneath his lifelong companion, grunting out of his breathless pain as he took the brunt of the impact in exchange for her survival.

Traumatic tears of dread streaked down the little filly's clenched eyes of amethyst as sobs wracked her trembling body, the memory of her near-death experience being burned permanently into her subconscious mind as she slowly broke down into a heap of ragged breaths and sniffles. Fear dominated her mind, snuffing out everything she loved as her terror towards the world around her pierced its corrupted roots deep into her very being; nothing in the world was right anymore, nothing could ever hope to share the burden she was now forced to carry in her mind.

Little Twilight was wronger than she had ever been in the past.

The huddled lavender unicorn flinched as she felt two small arms wrap around her neck, pulling her into her winded draconic savior's embrace as his soft sob answered her own. He understood her pain, knew the burden of terror weighing down on her for he too had nearly lost everything...nearly lost the one filly he loved the most in his entire life, in every sense of the word.

In that moment of joined suffering, filly Twilight understood. She understood that she would always have someone there at her side to keep her safe of the terrifying trials the world would put before her, to selflessly share her pains in her most desperate of times without so much as a second thought, to love her unconditionally in a world that refused to understand them; Spike would never leave her side, never give up the fight if it meant it would keep her out of harm's way, and she needed to be strong for him as well.

Cheeks stained with tears born both of crushing despair and uplifting joy nuzzled against each other in a shared moment of affection, letting blushes bloom to life through their heat. They spoke to each other through the subtlest forms of contact, be it a comforting hush nearly imperceptible to one another or a gentle purple claw stroking a mane of violet, simply laying amidst the secluded clearing as their sobs died down to give birth to a peaceful silence.

Seeing that the worst of the day was over, Spike and Twilight pulled away from each other to look into each other's slightly reddened eyes, neither of them willing to break away from the hug just yet. Swallowing her dying fears and her lingering pains as a sniffle escaped her, Twilight broke through the silence first.

"T-thank you, Spike...you saved my life you know?" The little unicorn swooped in underneath her lifelong friend's chin to nuzzle into him once again, relishing the feeling of safety she found with him before she continued, "You're the best person to ever come into my life, Spikey-Wikey...I love you."

Twilight, the mare of the present, looked on as the duo of companions shared their sacred moment, feeling somewhat privileged to be able to relive such a critical moment of her young past, even if it was a moment she was only now remembering. From her spot at the oasis' edge, she could see everything going on between her past self and the young Spike, the defeated fear and the blooming friendship. Something flashed over the purple drake's expression when the filly nuzzling against him finished her heartfelt testification, something the older mare had been seeing very much from him the past couple of days back in the real world; pained apprehension.

"I love you too, Twilight, even more than I let on most of the time." A smile grew on his face even though secluded pain swirled behind the surface of his teary eyes, " You mean more than the world to me, and if you weren't here to tell me that tomorrow can always be better, I'd give up hope on everything."

Both Twilight's felt the familiar sensation of a warm blush tingle their cheeks as Spike's kind words of love touched their reclusive hearts, planting the seeds of something neither one of them fully understood at their young age. Spike leaned back into the hug, tightening his grip on the little filly as they simply basked in the aftermath of the day's events, the last tears of unknown pain and unbridled joy being shed.

The lone tear streaking across Twilight's cheek as she saw the two little companions fade away began to shake violently as a quake began to build up underneath her hooves, ravaging the peaceful serenity of the oasis as the memory itself degraded. For no more than a second, everything stood still after the earthquake reached its end, not a single soul making a sound other than Twilight and her frightened breaths. Then, before she could comprehend what was happening, everything around her burst apart and dissolved into a chromatic downpour falling infinitely with nothing but her screams of terror filling the void of nonexistence.

One by one, the multi-hued droplets swirling in a vortex around Twilight began to reshape themselves as if they had a mind of their own; pinks turned into wide heart-themed banners and ribbons that strung themselves up upon the walls formed by the whites, which then went on to form square tiles underneath the lavender unicorn that finally gave her some footing. The remaining colors went on to recreate a scene Twilight herself was well acquainted with, including various fillies and colts wearing wide smiles as they exchanged letters and personal gifts with one another; all around her was the classroom that she had attended for so many years during her foalhood before going on to train personally with the Princess of the Sun herself, and there huddled up in her favorite corner, far far away from everyone else and their judging eyes, lay a lavender filly lost in the world created by the book cradled in her hooves.

She vaguely recalled the date itself, considering that every Hearts and Hooves Day went the same for her during her time at Canterlot; she would arrive at her appointed classroom with a good pastime book to find that it had been transformed into a ballroom-like chamber filled to the brim with heartstruck colts and fillies, all of which didn't even take the time to feebly taunt her as they usually did, too distracted by their love affairs to care. Then, after her teacher would give the final "okay" and leave the foals to their devices, she would trudge over to her trusty corner and delve into the world of literature to numb the pain of society's rejection towards her. Never once had it been any different, she never got a single card, never even got the tiniest of hints that anyone ever found her interesting.

All she could ever remember from her Hearts and Hooves Days back at Canterlot was that they always went the same, with her seeing nothing other than the vivid pages of her beloved books and the reassuring expression of her loyal draconic companion whenever she reached the top of her tower to sleep of the day's disappointments. She learned how to tune out that part of her past, eventually, seeing how it held nothing but a lesson she already learned and pains she no longer felt.

Twilight could have never guessed she would strike a gold mine hidden somewhere in the deepest caverns of that very same torturous past, but she was about to receive an opportunity most would never even get the chance to experience for themselves in their entire lifetimes, all thanks to the one thing that garnered her all of her arcane fame.

Unicorn horns, as every educated unicorn themselves should know, are used to bind their owner to the collective arcane fields surrounding them at all times, allowing them to harness and refine as much of the infinite raw energy existing within them as they can. Little more is known about the abilities horns posses, leaving many of their abilities undiscovered, and it was one of those abilities that had granted Twilight her immense memory-dream lucidity. As the horn remains innately connected to the residual magical fields in the world, it manages to register the physical plane itself to a certain extent, capturing nearby sights and sounds overlooked by the unicorn and engraving their information into the wielder's subconscious mind. Said information, however, is far too delicate to be processed by a unicorn's mind immediately, remaining locked away in the wielder's mind until it is discovered, and Twilight had just stumbled upon a sensory snippet herself.

"Come on, Spike, you can do this. Just walk up to her and give her the letter."

Twilight jumped at the sudden appearance of a purple baby dragon at her side, his high-pitched voice catching her attention instantly as it snapped her out of her introspection towards her past. He seemed so young to her, more so than he was in the memory about the incident at the Royal Gardens, and a soft pink envelope rested between his claws as he stared intently at the lavender filly Twilight herself had been looking at not too long ago.

'When was this?'

She had so many questions she wanted answers to, their collective need to be answered pulsing against her skull as she tried to clear her mind to concentrate on the newest scene unfolding before her. Assumptions towards who Spike planned to give his card to were everything she could base her answers of at the moment, and that only left her as the possible recipient for what she could only guess was a love letter. Although she was abashed by the sudden realization that someone actually planned on doing something for her on Hearts and Hooves Day, a fact that crushed any self-degrading doubt lingering in her past memories, the newest revelation only brought forth yet another question.

'What happened...why didn't he give me the letter?'

The answer she so desperately sought for this specific question, however, was one that brought no sense of accomplishment with it once it was given to her.

She could do nothing but watch as a trio of foals she knew all but too well blocked off the little dragon hatchling's path just as he began to make his way towards the oblivious lavender unicorn in the corner of the room, the very sight of their malicious expressions and sadistic grins instigating a burning glare that would have been able to bore holes into their heads through her pure ire if they weren't just figments of her memories. Twilight was forced to watch them taunt her lifelong friend mercilessly and incessantly, shattering each and every innocent hope and dream he had conceived up to that day with their devilish jabs, setting the seeds for psychological fallout with every sharp syllable they spat at him.

They were the ones responsible for the damage done to his fragile mind, responsible for the thorny roots of apprehensive doubt that plagued his subconscious up to that very day. She marveled through the ill-conceived, stinging pang of guilt that struck her for having overlooked such a monumental problem in his life, and it only worsened when she thought about just how long he had to have been repressing everything.

Twilight couldn't think at the moment anymore, too absorbed by the sight of the dragon hatchling she had called her friend her entire life was levitated and left helpless by a blue aurora that went on to hurl him out of the classroom before shutting the door behind him, locking him out. The white colt of the impish trio shredded his heartfelt letter, an act that caused Twilight to try and shock him out of unrestrained anger to no avail, the thunderbolt simply phasing through his body before he and the two fillies walked away from the scene of the crime.

Resisting the urge to make glue out of the troublesome threesome, Twilight broke into a mad dash towards the doorway separating her and the abused dragon hatchling, not willing to acknowledge that she would be unable to do anything to change the past even if she tried to do so. Just as she was about to reach the sealed doors, however, the floor underneath her shattered into a million pieces, sending her tumbling into the darkness of nonexistence once again.

They ambushed her unrelentingly, the memories, the visions of a past she thought would be best to be left behind to make way for the future. It was always Spike at her side, watching over her just as protectively as she liked to believe she looked over him, but with this new chance to look closely at the tiny details in a new light came a disturbing realization she had so obliviously overlooked in the past.

They were drifting apart...slowly, subtly.

Years of her life flashed before her in what seemed like minuets, but that was more than enough to notice every tiny change that took place between her and her companion. Whether it was Spike finally asking her to quite calling him by his pet name, or his request to have a bed to himself, the affection between them began to waver and die out little-by-little. Twilight, although she chose to ignore the unheard whines of her subconscious to avoid acknowledging the rift forming in their relationship, suffered on the inside each time an act she had grown so attached to was forcibly ripped away from her.

She buried hopes and dreams she didn't even know about before they had a chance to flourish, locking away her affectionate self to numb the pain of those very same affections being denied, just like Spike had.

'We've been doing the exact same thing all this time...locking away who we truly were because we were afraid to take the plunge into the unknown, keeping up a lie that granted us a false of closeness with one another.'

Her internal musings put together the pieces of the puzzle as she floated in the empty void of nothingness left behind after her nostalgic journey was completed, clarifying what she had come to understand from her experience.

'I've always held Spike in my heart...I guess I was just looking at how I saw him from the wrong perspective all along. What we share isn't mere friendship; this is the sole reason I never sought out anyone else, the source I draw my strength from to make sure nothing would ever stand between him and I, this is something more...'

'This is love, at its finest.'

Beginnings

Chapter 6

Beginnings

Warmth, the wonderful sensation wrapped around Spike's cold-blooded body like a blanket, keeping the little dragon in a subdued state even as the early morning rays lit up his sealed eyelids. Spike sensed the slight discomfort caused by the celestial rays, and snuggled closer to the source of warmth, letting out a blissful sigh as soft fur caressed his smooth scales.

'Wait...fur?'

Spike's mind began to start up again as he pondered the, albeit comfortable, un-familiar sensation that wasn't usually there in his mornings. Slowly, his emerald eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the sudden brightness, and he found himself staring at a lavender chest, rhythmically rising and falling in time to its owner's breaths.

'Oh, its just Twili...TWILIGHT?!'

Spike tried to jump away, in shock of waking up next to his love, but accidentally managed to brush Twilight's inner thigh slightly with his foot, prompting a light moan from the mare as she tightened her grip on the little dragon, pulling him closer to her chest. At that point, Spike was starting to feel a little lightheaded from all the blood that had found its way to his head and his cheeks were basically radiating heat.

'Did I just touch he-NO!' Spike was berating himself internally because of the thoughts running through his head, 'Don't you DARE go there, stupid brain.'

As Spike continued to try and block off the stream of images flooding his mind, Twilight began to rouse from her sleep, awoken by Spike's nervous shifting. As her amethyst eyes slowly opened, she took into account all the memory induced dreams she had been wading through the past night, and a loving smile spread across her muzzle as she saw the little purple dragon of her dreams, whom had a blush so hard that it seemed to stretch down to his neck.

Twilight couldn't help but feel different around Spike at the moment, like if there was something missing, and the moment she realized what it was that was missing, she leaned down and pecked the distracted drake on the tip of his snout, effectively snapping him out of his thoughts and back into reality.

"Good morning, Spikey." Twilight didn't even know when she created the pet name for Spike all those years ago, but it rolled off of her tongue like as if it was made of the finest silk bits could buy, adding to the currently building blush on her giggling face.

"G-good morning Twilight...uh, do you remember anything from last night?", asked the red faced purple dragon as he clutched his tail between his claws, his eyes silently pleading for a 'yes'.

Twilight smiled at the recent memory, the night that they had both shared their first sign of true love for each other, it was a memory that would never leave her mind, and she was glad for that.

"Well, that depends Spike," toyed Twilight, "was it something like this?" at the end of her question, Twilight leaned forward and caught Spike on the lips, just as he had opened his mouth to ask her what she meant, and his eyes widened in surprise at the, usually reserved, mare's boldness. The rest of his thoughts were washed away as he began to fight back Twilight's broad tongue with his own. Even though Twilight's tongue was larger, Spike's was more nimble and was able to wrap around Twilight's, tugging and coaxing the wet muscles together. The fight for oral domination broke off after about a minute, and only because the new couple had almost fainted by the lack of oxygen from not pulling out of their kiss earlier.

Spike had completely lost his ability to speak at all momentarily, and all he gave to answer Twilight's question was a slow nod as his eyes focused on any object directly in front of him.

"So, Spike, what do you want to do today?" inquired the bookish mare.

"Whuh?"

"I asked you what you wanted to do for today, my lessons with Princess Celestia aren't until the late afternoon, and we agreed you would choose what to do today back in Ponyville." reminded the mare to her little assistant-turned lover.

'Oh crud, think Spike, think think THINK!'

Spike racked his brain for anything that they could do for the evening. His ideas varied from going over to a coffee shop to some other stray thoughts that he would never see himself actually blurting out. In the end, Spike settled on something calm, slow, and familiar to the pair.

"How about a picnic in the gardens, Twilight?" offered the little drake, "We can go over to that little clearing near the statues that we would always go to when we lived here."

Twilight's eyes lit up as the idea instantly struck her fancy, and she began drawing out a mental checklist for all the stuff they would be needing for the evening.

"That's a great idea, Spike, it really has been a while since we've gone there." praised the lavender mare, with a nostalgic smile on her face.

"How about we swing by the castle's kitchen and pick up what we'll need?" said Spike, seemingly starting to get over the events that had recently happened a few minutes ago.

"My thoughts exactly," replied the mare as she started to get off the bed they had been laying on, with Spike following closely behind, but as she was about to open the bedroom's doors, the dragon spoke up once again

"Hey, Twilight, you might wanna..." Spike ended his suggestion by gesturing to the side of his head in a stroking motion, and Twilight didn't know what he was talking about until she saw herself in her vanity mirror, where a bed-maned mare looked back at her, the sight causing her to blush and giggle simultaneously, with Spike joining in not long after.

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The lifelong-companions made their way through the elegant foliage of the Canterlot Gardens with nothing but a white and red checkered blanket and a picnic basket filled to the brim with treats they had ordered within the castle. If anything even thought of ruining their evening, it wasn't showing. The cyan sky was dotted with spongy clouds, the birds flew in between the blooming trees, and a gentle summer breeze blew through the trail the pair was currently taking.

Spike led the way towards the clearing they planned to use as their picnic spot, and the drake couldn't keep the smile on his face from growing wider as memories he already knew came rushing back into his head in a tidal wave of nostalgia. His thoughts also mingled with what had happened last night and that morning, but they were mostly questions.

A seedling of fear began to sprout inside of Spike's mind as a dreadful thought created itself.

'What happened...does she actually love me back, she said she did, but did she just feel sorry for me, or did she just do it for the fun of it? Does what we did mean anything to her?'

'Don't think like that, you know where it'll get you if you do.'

'But what if it meant nothing to her!'

'Would Twilight mess around with stuff like this? Would she actually do that to you?'

'Well...maybe...I don't know, and that scares me even more! I need to know!'

'ASK HER THEN!'

'I can't jus-'

'YES YOU CAN! YOU'RE JUST BEING A COWARD LIKE ALWAYS! If it wasn't for Twilight hitting it off yesterday, you would have probably never done anything!'

'HOW CAN YOU BE SO SURE ABOUT WHAT I'D DO!'

'BECAUSE, I AM YOU'

Spike's mind, once again, won out the argument and left Spike scared and slightly confused, similar to the state he was in once all of his raw emotions were injected directly into him through his memories.Twilight took notice of the slight trembles traveling throughout Spike's body, so she sped up slightly to walk right at his side before she began to speak in her compassionate voice.

"Spike, is something bothering you again?"

"Well...something is on my mind, but I'll just ask about it later, for now lets just get ready to set up because we're almost there." replied the drake in a soft tone, and, just like he had said, they approached a clearing in the garden's blooming maple trees, where a small pond was situated in at the center.

The two friends made their way over to a particularly large tree, and sat under the natural canopy created by the dense treetop leaves. Spike spread out the blanket and Twilight levitated out a scented candle that she then placed out to the side of the blanket. After they finished setting up, the friends began to take out the treats they had gotten from the castle's kitchens.

Twilight offered Spike some of the chocolate-coated strawberries that she had brought with her, but he declined them nicely and instead got busy eating some sour strips he had brought along. Truthfully, the foods they chose weren't exactly made to be eaten for breakfast, but neither the mare nor the dragon cared as they enjoyed eating their treats, while their sides were pressed together with one another.

"You know, Spike, I really missed doing this, we haven't really gotten any chances to do stuff like we used too since we moved to Ponyville." said the lavender mare, looking over at her draconic lover.

"So did I, Twilight, so did I." returned the purple dragon.

The sun began to rise even higher into the sky as the companions ate their picnic treats in a comfortable silence, nothing was heard save for the chirps of the birds and the splashing of a few fish in the pond. Spike was beginning to lose his resolve at holding back the question that had been gnawing away at his mind since they started their trek towards the clearing they were currently in. Spike couldn't take it any longer, he had to put his fears to rest or enact his worst nightmare.

"Twilight?" struggled to say the purple dragon.

"Yes, Spike?" responded the mare he was about to question.

"W-what are we now...I mean, like us."

"Well," started a blushing Twilight, "what do you want us to be."

"No, Twilight, I mean why now, why during all of this time didn't you say anything, were you ashamed of liking me? Do you even like me?"

Twilight fixed Spike with one of the stares that let the drake know that what he had just asked was something that a smart dragon like Spike shouldn't be asking, but a frown nonetheless found its way onto her muzzle.

"Spike," said Twilight with a few tears welling up in her amethyst eyes, "how could you say something like that? How can you even begin to think that I would be ashamed for loving you, and even go so far as to think that I don't even love you?"

Twilight repeating exactly how paranoid and unexpected Spike's words were stung him horribly, and he quickly tried to rectify things by going over and pulling the mare he had just hurt badly into an affectionate hug, and he started apologizing into her ear in a hushed whisper.

"I-i'm sorry Twilight, it's just that I am scared, I'm scared of how much it would hurt if you were to leave me alone. If it stung pretty badly with Rarity, who was nothing more than a silly crush, I j-just don't want to feel what it would be like if you would do the same thing she did, I couldn't stand to watch the love of my life walk away from me. It's dumb of me, I know, but it scares me nonetheless."

Twilight could hear the repent dripping from Spike's voice, and an undertone of fear still lingering in there as well. The mare pulled back from the hug a little so she and Spike could see each other face-to-face.

"Spike, how many times do I have to tell you that what you think is not stupid? I'm glad you're actually talking to me about this instead of suppressing it all, just like I had.

At the final part of Twilight's statement, Spike lit up in surprise at the mare of his dreams revealing her situation, which greatly resembled his own. Twilight noticed the surprised look on Spike's face and began to explain in deeper detail with a blush on her face, but in a serious tone.

"Yes, Spike, I've always loved you, even when we were younger, but as we grew up, I couldn't help but feel like we started to grow apart, drifting away from how playful and loving we used to be and into something more official-like, and I hated it. I hated our slow separation so much that it drove me to the point of locking away my affectionate side and covering up my memories with the illusion that we had always been the way we were. I suspect that something similar happened to you too, right?"

Spike simply stared in amazement at the mare of his dreams as she puzzled together all of her thoughts and experiences in such a fluid manner, much quicker than he had, and was surprised even further as Twilight guessed exactly what he had done all those years ago.

"Yeah, I-I did. I just thought I was a freak for the way I loved you and I completely replaced my thoughts and memories with things I never said and stuff I never did. D-do you really mean what you say, Twilight, do you really love me the way I love you?" asked the insecure dragon, not expecting Twilight's next line.

"No." stated flatly the lavender mare.

"WHAT!" screeched out Spike at Twilight's sudden change of tone.

"I love you even more than you love me." giggled Twilight at the expense of her little dragon lover, causing his mouth to hang open for a few seconds before he spoke again.

"HEY, that wasn't funny, only I can pull stuff like that off." said a smiling Spike.

"So, Spike, now its my turn to ask an obvious question you had already answered before," said Twilight, leaning forward so that they could lock eyes again, "do you love me?"

At the end of her question, Spike took Twilight's cheeks in his claws and planted a soft and loving kiss on her lavender lips, similar but different to the others. The kiss this time wasn't a battle for oral dominance, it was slow, careful, and tender, as if anything harsher than that would wreck both of the partners. Spike's sour flavor from the candy he had eaten mingled with the chocolaty sweetness in his loved one's orifice, giving them both a balanced blend of the taste in their mouths as they slowly stroked their tongues against one another, and lingered long after the two lovers parted away and looked each other straight in the eyes.

"Do you need to ask?" said a grinning Spike.

"Fine, I guess I'll let you slide this time, Spikey-Wikey." said Twilight in a playful tone as she began to giggle at Spike's pet name.

The newly self-declared couple sat by the candle's soft glow as the sun began to descend from its spot in the sky and give way to the late-afternoon's vibrant display of violet colors, neither the dragon or the mare could tell how much time was spent there or how it was spent, as long as they were together, they were happy.

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A cloaked pony slammed open the doors to the Canterlot Times Tower as she stormed her way past the objecting workers and photographers that had shunned her years ago. She didn't care what got in her way, be it a table or an accountant, she would toss it away but with a flash from her blue horn.

She almost tore the doors to the director's office off of their hinges as she bucked them open, a devious smile that had refused to leave her face since last night was still spreading it.

"Glamour Shot!" roared out the infuriated earth pony director, "I thought I told you that I didn't want to see you in this building ever again!'

"Shut up, Press," snapped Glamour Shot, "shove that little temper of yours up your flank and just look at these."

The cloaked mare pulled out a manila folder from her saddlebags and floated it over to the shocked director's desk. Press took a look at the folder first and then it the cloaked mare, fighting the natural urge to look inside at whatever it was he was given. In the end, his curiosity won out and, with a snort, he opened up the folder to find photos of Twilight Sparkle, savior of Equestria on three separate occasions, making out with a dragon that Press was almost sure he had seen before, and his jaw almost dropped off from his head.

"H-how much do you want for these?" asked the brown earth pony.

"Oh, not much, just an eighth of the spoils." replied the cloaked mare, with satisfaction leaking into her voice.

"Only an eighth, don't get me wrong, this is good for me, but why?" asked the perplexed director.

"Lets just say that..."

The cloaked mare accented her statement by giving a pause as her hooves pulled back her hood, revealing the bald pink mare underneath, with an evil glint in her golden eyes and a grin that sent chills through the brown earth pony's back.

"This is personal."

Runes And Ink

Chapter 7

Runes And Ink

A lavender mare, with a purple dragon seated on her back, galloped through the Canterlot Castle's corridors with a panicked look on her face. Twilight swiftly rushed past any servant or guard that would get in her way, the latter breaking their instructions of idly standing at attention in order to try and figure out what the purple blur they had just seen was.

Spike had, after a few bad thoughts making their way into his head, agreed to mount Twilight so that she could reach her current objective quicker while not leaving him behind. He didn't exactly regret his decision at the moment, although he was beginning to feel a little off-balance from all the sudden jerks and turns Twilight was executing, still, it was fun.

'Oh no, what if she doesn't want to teach me anymore?! What if she gets really annoyed at me for making her wait?! Maybe she'll banish me to the sun and never let me get ou-'

Twilight cut her panicked monologue off, knowing she was already in the 'Banishment' phase of her paranoia and not wishing to go any further than that, especially not anywhere near Spike again, or Princess Celestia. Even though her panicked thoughts were cut-off to a certain extent, the mare kept her speed at a dash, not wanting to tarry any longer than she already was. Evidently, the new couple was enjoying themselves so much that they almost forgot about the evening classes Twilight was supposed to be taking with Celestia that same day.

As the speeding mare rounded a corner, she caught sight of the alabaster and gold-trimmed doors, bearing a celestial shield emblem, that marked the private training room that she was scheduled to use. Twilight began to slow down as she walked past all the elegant paintings and carvings that decorated the hallway and made her way towards the room's entrance, weary of whatever was waiting on the other side.

"Twilight?" began the royal alicorn, currently seated on a floor cushion she had asked to be brought in, looking up from her book to look at the lavender mare in question, whom looked ready to break down as suggested from her trembling eyes.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Princess Celestia." apologized the librarian, "I bet I just had you there waiting for me for, what, about an hour?"

"Please, Twilight, its just a slight tardiness." chuckled the celestial mare, "I was a bit surprised, yes, but I should have expected this, it has been a while since you last visited. By the way, my faithful student, where were you this past hour?"

Twilight blushed ever so slightly as she recalled the heartwarming evening she had spent with her newly declared dragon lover, whom was currently climbing off of her back, and a smile spread her face before she answered her mentor's question, not in full truths out of her shyness on the subject, and Celestia being the ruler of the entire continent didn't exactly make things easier.

"Well, Spike and I decided to take a stroll in the castle's gardens along with a picnic we had. I guess we must have lost track of the time because the sun was already beginning to set by the time we noticed what time it was, and I started to make my way over here not long after that." explained Twilight with a forlorn look on her face as her mind replayed the past events.

Celestia noticed an unfamiliar look in her student's eyes as she retold her afternoon's events, but let it go as she heard Twilight finish her short tale.

"Ah, its nice to see you two spending some time together like you used to, it wasn't too long ago that a little dragon and filly ran through these old halls, much like you two did today." said Celestia with her own nostalgic grin spreading across her muzzle.

Twilight sighed internally, thankful that her mentor could understand her situation, like she always does, but was snapped back into reality when her teacher began to speak again.

"Twilight, would you please step over towards that pedestal?" the royal mare gestured towards a small marble stand, on which a reddish-orange spherical gem currently lay idle.

With a nod, the perplexed mare began to trot over to the stand, an inquisitive look took over her expression as she looked at the fine gem, one a certain 'fabulous' unicorn mare would be willing to die for.

"Uhm, Princess?" began the lavender mare.

"Yes, Twilight?" returned the alabaster alicorn.

"I thought we were going over teleportation runes, what are we going to need a gem for?" asked Twilight with curiosity welling up inside of her.

"Well, my student, I believed that it would be a benefit to learn other, easier, enchantments in order to better understand the process' needed when inscribing a teleportation rune onto objects. Can you tell me which kind gem that is?" Celestia once again gestured towards the pedestal on where the gem lay, prompting Twilight to double her efforts on discerning which type of gem it was.

Just as Twilight was beginning to panic slightly from not knowing what gem was put before her, Spike spoke up for the first time since they entered the room, a critical eye for gems by natural instinct and years of working with a designer mare, which only further honed his eyes, told him exactly which gem Twilight was trying to name.

"That's a fire ruby, Twilight, just like the one I gave away back when I went through my 'greed phase'." answered Spike for the lavender mare, leaving her grinning sheepishly, and Celestia with a praising smile.

"That is correct, Spike, the fire ruby has extremely enchantable properties due to its crystalline infrastructure," began reciting the wise alicorn, "the most powerful of enchantments that this gem can increment are those that are related to fire, hence the name 'fire rubies'."

"Wow, I didn't know that fire rubies were actually that useful when it came to enchanting." said Twilight in awe as she reviewed the gem with an even more critical eye than before, now noticing the inscriptions made throughout the outside of the sphere, almost too thin to notice.

"As you've probably already noticed, I have already prepared this fire ruby with the runes it needs. The gems you will be using are located over in that chest over there." said Celestia as she pointed towards a small wooden chest in the back of the room.

The trio of life-long friends made their way over to the chest and, upon opening it, discovered two more fire rubies within, each as beautiful as the first she had seen, but lacking the runes placed on them. Celestia frowned as Twilight levitated the two gems out of the container and hovered them near herself. Twilight noticed the frown on her teacher's face before she could mask it again, and asked, "What's wrong Princess Celestia, are the rubies flawed?"

"No, Twilight, its not the state the rubies are in, its how many rubies there are. That chest had three rubies this morning after I finished stocking it and left to day court, it seems many things are just disappearing today." answered the royal mare.

"What do you mean by 'many things are disappearing', Princess?" inquired the librarian mare with a small frown on her face.

"Well, to start off, my receptionist has been missing all day, I believe she was the one who escorted you to the archives yesterday." said Celestia with a thoughtful tone to her voice.

Twilight simply nodded in unison with Spike, clearly remembering the cloaked pony that received them yesterday, and beckoning the Princess to continue her tale of what she had lost during that day. Her uncharacteristic rant strayed to stuff like cloud cake and her favorite throw pillow, though she believed Luna was behind those two, until it came back to the fire rubies they were currently about to start to use.

"Anyway, I believe we can still continue with our lesson even though we're missing a third practice gem." concluded the alicorn.

"So, how do I inscribe the gems with the fire rune, Princess?" asked an eager Twilight, horn glowing faintly.

Celestia began to demonstrate the inscribing process starting from the basic engraving and working her way up to the point of actually enchanting the crystal. Once the fire ruby was put through the full incantation process , it began to glow softly in a red hue, signaling that the lesson was a success.

"Now, Twilight, I want you to activate the flame spell within and toss the crystal over to the other end of the room, okay?" instructed Celestia as she set up a barrier that only allowed objects to exit it, but not enter it.

With an understanding nod, Twilight slightly pulsed her magic, activating the rune set on the crystal as it began to blink in a brighter light. The blinking grew in brightness as it became more repetitive, even after Twilight hurled it to the opposite end of the room. As the crystal gave off almost continues light, it exploded, burning the chest that had been unlucky enough to be in the blast radius and charring the far end of the room, leaving Twilight and Spike wide-eyed at the destruction the crystal was capable of.

"You see, Twilight, this is why fire runes aren't commonly used in everyday situations. They are unstable in most forms, never truly able to be calculated exactly, and have cost many lives to those heedless enough to ignore the warnings given to them. I have taught you this rune so you can identify where they are and escape from it if need be." said the solar alicorn as she suppressed a shudder at the thought of Twilight coming close to an active flame rune.

"Thank you, Princess Celestia, I'll make sure not to mess with stuff like this if its that dangerous." honestly stated Twilight.

"Thank you too, Twilight, it really has been a little slow here at the palace. You and Spike are pretty much the only other people I can talk to even if it is mostly over a lesson, other than Luna of course, but I can only talk to my own sister so much before neither of us has anything left to say." chuckled Celestia.

Spike let out a long yawn and his eyes half-lidded themselves at the late hours the dragon was still up at, and he started to wobble slightly back and forth, slipping away from the waking world. He snapped back to being fully awake when he began to fall backwards, but was caught in a violet aurora as Twilight levitated him onto her back, her own eyes showing signs of drowsiness.

"I think its time for Spike and I to go to bed Princess, have a good night." said the, now bleary, lavender unicorn.

"Good night my faithful student, may Luna bless you with her sweet dreams." well-wished the royal alicorn as she began to show Twilight out of the training room, leaving the new couple to themselves as she made her way towards the Solaris Wing of the castle.

Twilight began to trot slowly towards her tower, more than content with the way she spent her day. She turned her head a little so she could look at the half-awake drake resting on her back, a lazy smile growing on her lips as she watched him snuggling against her mane. The mare reached the doorway to her room, gently pushing the aside the gilded doors with her telekinesis, and made her way towards her bed. Twilight levitated her companion onto the plush bed, joining him not a minute later, and wrapping her hooves around him much like the way his claws wrapped around her waist. The mare let out a yawn before speaking to her lover.

"Good night, Spike-Wikey, hope you have some great dreams."

"Are you sure I'm not dreaming already?" rhetorically asked the purple dragon with a playful grin.

"Spike, that's very corny." mock-complained Twilight with a tired smile.

The new couple drifted away into the dream world through a fit of giggles and a small, albeit loving, smooch. If one were to look at the bed the couple rested on, they would see a lavender mare and a purple dragon wrapped together in a loving embrace, both wearing peaceful smiles from the dreams of what the future could hold for them.

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At the same time, elsewhere...

A bald mare, still wearing her cloak without the hood on, stormed into the printing area of The Canterlot Times Tower, pure annoyance plastered onto her face. Glamour Shot nudged past the ponies that were currently managing the printing machinery, disrupting their careful work, as she made her way towards a brown earth pony that was currently holding a newspaper in his hooves and drinking from a cup of coffee on the table next to him.

"Press!" roared out the bald mare, "Why the hell haven't you put up the photographs yet!

The earth pony stallion looked up from the newspaper he was holding to stare directly into the aggressive mare's golden eyes, which were almost radiating her annoyance and anger at the situation currently taking place. With a sigh, Press put down his newspaper and began to explain in a matter-of-fact way.

"Well, Glamour Shot, the damned printing machines messed up the first batch of newspapers, some idiot put way too much ink into them," explained Press with an annoyed look on his face, "I guess that's what I get for putting a guy named Ink Stroke in charge of the ink supplies, he always did have an obsession with the black fluid."

Press suppressed a shudder once he remembered what he had seen when he left Ink Stroke alone with the ink tanks, the circles with X's in them just wouldn't come off from his private lounge. Glamour overlooked Press' problems, obviously not interested in anything beyond why the paper hadn't been released yet, and just snorted in annoyance at the tardiness of her plans.

"How long will it be until the papers are ready, Press?" asked in a stern and commanding voice the bald mare, her eyes boring into the brown pony's mind.

"W-well, it all depends on how quickly we can clean up the ink overflow, we've only been able to print a few newspapers so far, we think we can be able to fully release the papers tomorrow in the late-afternoon." answered Press, his willpower crumbling under the harsh gaze of the cloaked mare's eyes.

"Make sure of it, Press, or you'll find out that what I did to this place the last time I was here is nothing in comparison to what I could do if I really put my mind to it." threatened Glamour Shot, a sinister smirk building on her muzzle, "Besides, we wouldn't want those photos I took of you at the Hearth Warming Eve party leaking out into the public, you know, the one where yo-"

"NO!" screamed the earth pony with an expression of sheer terror on his face, "ANYTHING BUT THAT, PLEASE, I'LL DO WHAT YOU ASK, BUT DON'T LET ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THAT!"

Glamour Shot seemed to feed off of Press' negative emotions, her eyes shimmering with cruel intent, and her mouth a horrifying depiction of what was supposed to be a smile.

"Good boy, now, I'm going to need five of the newspapers your printing, right now."

The earth pony scampered off, searching for what the bald mare had asked from him. Once the stallion returned, he found that Glamour Shot had prepared a letter that seemed to be addressed to the delivery center in Ponyville, and had prepared five separate shipping boxes.

"Uhm, what do you need these for Glamour, I mean come on, the paper is getting released tommorow?" asked the curious earth pony director, earning a slight glare from the cloaked mare.

"What does it matter to you, you twit, it is as I've said before, it's personal." snapped Glamour Shot, causing Press to shudder in fear at her tone of voice, one full of hate and devious satisfaction.

After the bald mare finished addressing each package, she levitated them onto her back and began to make her way out of the tower, leaving the earth pony director with his instructions and nothing more, and began to make her way towards the Canterlot Delivery Center in order to drop off her packages, each designated to a specific mare. Once Glamour Shot finished her delivery, she began to trot towards the train station.

She could have just taken the packages herself, but the teleportation spells the unicorns of the Canterlot Delivery Center knew could teleport the packages and the letter to Ponyville long before she ever could.

"Heh, oh well, I guess plan B is the way I'll go. If I can't watch her get ruined her here, I'll watch her downfall at her hometown." cackled the now fully concealed pony as she climbed aboard the midnight train headed towards the little town of Ponyville.

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A groggy dragon and unicorn mare walked through the expansive corridors of the Canterlot Castle, each bathed in the soft morning glow. Twilight had insisted that Spike should ride on her back since he seemed to still be sleepy, but the drake said that he was okay and didn't want to be a pain, prompting yet another lecture from his companion on how when he asked for stuff he wasn't 'Being a pain'.

"Twilight, how long are we going to be staying here? I don't mind being in Canterlot, but I'm just curious." asked Spike, who was beginning to lose the 'Early morning' look from his expression.

The mare looked over to her right to answer her draconic lover's question, her face showing signs of well-rest.

"Well, I guess today is our last day since I only planned to stay here until I learned the teleportation runes and go do something together, but we already visited the gardens and had a picnic, so I think we'll be leaving around eight tonight."

With a nod to ensure his partner that he understood, Spike continued walk alongside Twilight towards the royal dining room, whose scarlet double doors came into view not long after. A sight of the Celestial Sisters greeted the rare couple as they entered the dinning room, each sister already engaged in their meals.

The dining room was entirely different to the rest of the castle, instead of overpowering the occupants with a sense of ethereal beauty with magnificent marble carvings and paintings, it was decorated to look as if it were a cozy log cabin. It was a rectangular room stretching out from the doorway to the circular window on the other end of the room, a fireplace crackling softly in the left side of the room with pictures of the royal sisters and Twilight with her friends perched atop of it.

"Good morning, Twilight and Spike, how did you two sleep?" asked Celestia in a motherly tone.

"Very well, Princess Celestia, I haven't slept that good in years," answered Twilight before adding to her statement, "thank you by the way, Princess Luna."

The thanked mare jumped a bit at the sudden shift in conversational partners before responding to the thanks she was receiving, restraining the Royal Canterlot Voice through much practice.

"Ah, tis not a deed that deserves such gratitude from thou, Twilight."

Celestia looked at her sister with a slightly amused smile, "Luna, you are speaking in the old ways again."

The moon mare's eyes widened slightly and her cheeks flushed in embarrassment at how out of place her speaking dialect was, prompting a rare giggle from her older sister.

The royal sisters and the rare couple each continued to eat their breakfast, or dinner in Luna's case, trading stories of how their time apart has been, although Celestia already knew about most of their adventures since Twilight still sent the occasional friendship report.

The conversations kept up even after their breakfast, or dinner in Luna's case, was finished. The catalyst to put a stop to the groups tales was a wide yawn from the lunar princess, reminding everyone that it was getting a little late.

"Forgive me, but it seems as if I have past my regular sleeping hours," pardoned Luna as she stood up from the dining table, "I bid you a good day."

"Good day, Luna."

"Good day, Princess"

The lunar mare exited the dining room, leaving Celestia, Twilight, and Spike to the day's activities. In all reality, if she could have stayed, she would have, but when sleep calls, you answer it.

"So Twilight, do you think you are rested enough to try out the teleportation runes." asked Celestia, already knowing what the mare's response would be by the sparkling look she gained in her amethyst eyes.

"Of course, Princess Celestia!" exclaimed Twilight cheerfully until she caught on onto how loud she sounded, "Uhm, I mean, yes I would, Princess."

"Come along then, I've postponed day court until later and we should have enough time to prepare the runes in the training room."

At end of her statement, Celestia stood from her floor cushion, beckoning the other two to do the same, and began trotting to the training room that they had used the previous evening. The servants in the halls bowed in respect towards their celestial monarch as she walked past them, making Twilight and Spike feel a little weird at the silence that ruled the hallways, the only sound being heard was the occasional chatter with the Princess and the mare's hoofsteps along Spike's footsteps.

Upon entering the training room from yesterday, the unicorn mare and young dragon discovered that the room had been restored to its original state, the burn marks scrubbed away and the destroyed furniture replaced. The only difference being that instead of fire ruby spheres in a chest, there was only one amethyst disc placed on the same marble pedestal.

"Princess, are we only going to be performing this once?" asked the bemused lavender mare.

"Of course, I planned to perform this in three trails like yesterday, but by the incredible progress you've already made, I believe you will be able to perform the enchanting process in one try." complimented and answered Celestia, causing Twilight to blush at her mentor's praise.

Though there was only one gem to inscribe, the process took much longer than the rest due to its complexity and the fact that Celestia had to describe the engraving process in extreme detail. The end result yielded a constantly glowing purple disc, but the glow was much softer than the fire ruby's and was easy to overlook in the light. Twilight levitated her finished project closer to her face in order to inspect it more closely before asking her mentor a question.

"So how do I use it, Princess."

"Ah yes, Twilight, this is where our lesson changes a little bit." said the celestial mare, earning a look of curiosity that she very much knew from Twilight, "This change will take place because the rune is activated by visualizing a place you want to go to, just like the teleportation spell you know, thus you, or any other unicorn that knows the teleportation spell, cannot use the gem because you would activate the spell in its place."

"Then how do we test it, Princess?" inquired the lavender mare.

"The answer to your question stands right beside you."

Celestia punctuated her statement by gesturing a hoof towards the onlooking draconic assistant, gaining yet another set of perplexed expressions.

"Wait, you want me to use it?" asked Spike in a confused manner.

"Why yes, Spike, you are the only one here who doesn't know the teleportation spell." answered Celestia.

"But I'm not a unicorn, Princess, obviously," began Spike while tapping his forehead, which lacked a horn like always, "how am I supposed to use it."

"Indeed Spike, you aren't, but you aren't exactly a non-magical creature either. Specific dragon species hold a better grasp on magic than others, you happen to be one of the strongest of these species. The 'Greed Phase' you went through was an example of your instinctual magic abilities, and the way you needed to be hatched was another. By natural causes, one of the dragon partners let loose a discharge of magic into the egg, beginning the hatching process, and your case was only slightly different. When Twilight lost control of her magic back when she was a filly she found you as an outlet for most of the excess flow, in fact, she may have even provided you with more than enough for your birth since you grew to a giant size." explained Celestia in full depth.

"So, I can use magic!?" excitedly asked Spike, staring directly at his claws.

"Soon, Spike, maybe sooner than most due to the magical overload Twilight infused you with at birth, but for now your dormant magical abilities will allow you to activate the teleportation rune."

Once the informational lecture was concluded, Celestia levitated the amethyst gem into Spike's eager claws. Spike clasped the gem in has claws and awaited instructions from Twilight's mentor, while Twilight herself was watching with extreme intrest from the sidelines.

"Now Spike, please close your eyes, next visualize where you want to be, somewhere you know, finally, put yourself into your internal visualization." Instructed the royal alicorn with a voice that cleared out the drake's mind from any obstructions to his task.

Spike did exactly what the celestial mentor asked, and the gem escalated in brightness for each step the dragon finished until finally, with a deep purple flash with green outlines, Spike teleported onto Twilight's back, the lavender mare jumping at the sudden contact.

"That. Is. AWESOME!" exclaimed the grinning purple drake, holding out the gem to look at it in an awe inspired way.

"That was really neat Spike, I'm proud of you." praised Twilight before turning her head around to nuzzle him affectionately.

"Indeed, it would seem as if you inherited Twilight's knack for spellcasting through your birth transfusion after all," added Celestia with a warming smile, "another great thing about the teleportation rune is that it can be reused infinitely, all it requires is a short amount of time to recharge itself."

As if responding to Celestia's statement, the enchanted amethyst began to dimly glow again, showing anyone watching that it was prepared for use once again. Spike, seeing that the gem was ready again, repeated the instructions he had received earlier in a matter of seconds, and teleported across the room to the doorway, waving at the two mares.

"Still awesome!" yelled out Spike from across the, rather large, room.

"If you like it so much, go ahead and keep it for yourself." offered Celestia upon seeing how much the little drake liked the gem.

"Wow, thanks Princess." said Spike, barely controlling himself from teleporting once again.

"Yes thank you, Princess Celestia, I'll make sure to teach him ways on how to use the rune more easily, just like you taught me how to use my spell." said cheerfully Twilight, excited for a chance to educate someone on magic and even more that it was her lover that would be her trainee.

Celestia smiled at Twilight's statement, seeing how deeply she rubbed off on her student. It was a smile that slightly shrank as she noticed the sun's position in the sky, signaling her that day court was due to begin shortly. With a sigh, Celestia spoke again to the lifelong friends.

"I regret having to say this, but day court is about to begin, I'll leave you two to yourselves for now."

"Aw, and we were having a good time," said Twilight with a small pout before nuzzling her mentor, "good luck Princess, Spike and I will probably be leaving soon, so I guess this is goodbye."

Celestia's smile further weakened at Twilight's revelation, but she answered in a warming tone nonetheless, "Ah, that's too bad, I guess I'll write to you soon then, or I might visit if the opportunity shows itself. I'll miss you."

"Me too, Princess, me too."

After the solar goddess left to the Royal Throne Room, Twilight made her way towards her room to pick up her belongings with Spike riding on her back, having teleported himself to his current seating place. The couple didn't really have much to pack, Twilight only had her pass-time book that she hadn't even begun reading, and Spike had his diary along with his newly gifted teleportation gem, the latter still being held in his right claw.

"Hey, Twilight." called out Spike.

"Yes, Spikey?" asked Twilight by using Spike's pet name.

"Can you, like, make something to hold this for me?" asked Spike, lifting up the gem to punctuate his question.

"Hmm, give me a second,"

Twilight levitated the gem towards her, along with a few bits from her money pouch. The bits formed a circle around the amethyst, and Twilight began to use a heat spell, melting the golden bits into their liquid form. The golden flow enveloped the gem and started to mold around it, fashioning itself into a wrist guard that bore the circular gem on its topside. Spike watched in awe as Twilight finely crafted the golden accessory , which began to make its way towards the drake's right claw.

"Darn, it fits too big Twilight." stated Spike as his hand went through the wrist guard's loop without any contact at all.

"Oops, here, let me fix that." Twilight's horn enveloped Spike's wrist guard in its purple aurora again, placing a spell on it that caused it to shrink its size to condition itself to the dragon's wrist.

"Whoa, I didn't know you could do that, Twilight." said Spike, turning his arm sideways in order to inspect how well it fit him, and the right word would be 'Perfect'.

"Yeah, you'd be surprised at what I picked up from Iron Smithy, and the conditioning spell was taught to me by Celestia." explained Twilight, proud at her various sources of magical knowledge, "Do you like it?"

"Twilight, I love this." answered Spike, teleporting to Twilight's side with his new golden wrist guard, giving her a hug.

"Even more than me?" giggled Twilight, earning a playful grin from Spike.

"I wouldn't trade you for the world, Sparky." Spike lost his self restraint as he burst out laughing from the look Twilight got on her face, before she broke out into a fit of giggles.

The newly founded couple continued their teasing for a while longer, losing themselves in the games they had long suppressed, until the sun began making its way lower in the sky. Twilight and Spike exited the castle and began walking towards the train station. They noticed that the news stands were being updated at an awfully quick speed, but just overlooked them and kept walking. The mare and dragon caught the train scheduled to leave for Ponyville at seven. The train ride was one of laughter and cheer for the dreams of their future, ones they hoped to enact soon.

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A cross-eyed pegasus mare made her way towards the Ponyville Delivery Center, her unreadable expression shining along with the hours of twilight.

"Well, its time for the late evening mail run." chattered the grey pegasus to herself in an uplifting mood, happy to do her job for the community.

The blond-maned pegasus mare pulled out her key from her otherwise empty mailbag, which bore a set of bubbles that matched those on her flanks, and tried to put it in the delivery center's keyhole. 'Tried' Being the key word in this statement, as she continually jabbed a spot above the keyhole with the key.

"Aw, come on, dumb key."

After the twentieth jab, the key found its rightful place and unlocked the door, granting the grey pegasus entry. Upon entering, the aforementioned mare found a pile of letters and packages in the 'outgoing' box.

"Wow, must be my lucky day!"

Newsflash

Chapter 8

Newsflash

Perched atop a fluffy alabaster cloud in the heavens of the sky laid Rainbow Dash, snoozing away without a single care in the world as she was bathed by the magnificent beauty of the twilight hour's pastel rays. She was lost in the subconscious machinations of her mind as they crafted her perfect reality within the confines of the Dreamscape, a skybound world fueled by the drive to win in which she was the top mare, bursting through the chromatic array of clouds that dared to try and hinder her supersonic flight. Her cyan wings fluttered lightly as her dream-self executed maneuvers that would be impossible in the waking world.

Her splendid nap had gone uninterrupted the entire day, something that was about to change...really soon.

Ditzy Doo corkscrewed awkwardly through the air in a manner that would lead many to ask themselves how she was even able to keep herself in the air, in dutiful search for the first of the five mares the express packages in her trusty mailbag belonged to. Originally, she had set out towards the confectionary-themed candyland of Sugarcube Corner first, considering it was the closest residential building one of the packages was addressed to, but her priorities shifted when she spotted the unmistakable rainbow-colored mane of Rainbow Dash on a nearby cloud cluster.

The mailmare set herself on a coordinated crash course with a spot directly next to the sleeping speedster, intent on landing gracefully next to her old schoolfriend. It was a plan that was, you guessed it, doomed from the very beginning. Ditzy's unique pair of golden eyes messed with her depth perception, making it seem as if Rainbow Dash was slumbering on a spot a little to the left of her landing point, and it was something the wall-eyed pegasus realized only after she had slammed straight onto the cyan mare's stomach.

Dash's magenta eyes snapped open as she was forcibly ripped away from her dreams by the shockwave of pain spreading throughout her entire body, her hooves immediately flying to clutch her soft underbelly as she bolted to a sitting position, unknowingly tossing Derpy off of herself and over the cloud's edge. A pained groan escaped her throat, using what little air she had left in her poor lungs.

"Damn it, that hurt!" Rainbow's brash voice echoed throughout the relatively empty skies above Ponyville as she screamed at nopony in particular, "What the hay hit me?"

She didn't even need to hear a confession as the perpetrator ascended into her field of vision, the sheepish smile on her grey muzzle more than enough to let her know that she was behind her rude awakening.

"Uhm, h-hi, Rainbow Dash."

"Ditzy, why in the name of Luna's moon did you go and hit me on the stomach?" Slight irritation laced her tone of voice as The Dash spoke, but she could never bring herself to be truly angry at her old friend, both out of understanding sympathy towards her optical illness and her inability to help herself from being softened up by the almost childlike joy the mailmare seemed to carry herself with.

"Well, you see, I was flying like this," Ditzy's hooves began zooming around wildly in front of her as she depicted her tale through her surprisingly skilled appendages, somehow miming a corkscrew at the climax of her presentation, "and then I tried to land on a cloud that turned out to be your belly, and then you accidentally threw me off of the cloud and yelled, and then I came up here and you asked me why I hit you, and now we're here...talking about stuff that already happened."

"Okay then...did you wanna ask me something, or were you just swinging by?" The urge to return to her interrupted nap was gradually gnawing away at Rainbow's patience, and she had to keep herself from yawning in her old friend's face. Ditzy's unusually aligned golden eyes widened in surprise at how easily her job had slipped her mind before she steeled her expression into that of a loyal member of the workforce, one that backfired humorously on her.

"Oh, yeah!" The bubble-flanked pegasus reached into her mailbag and pulled out a small rectangular box, one that looked exactly like the other five in her bag, and passed it over to the rainbow-maned mare, "Special delivery from Canterlot."

Rainbow Dash, in every single sense of the word, destroyed the feeble packaging hiding the package within its confines, leaving nothing behind but a pristine newspaper rolled up with a string holding it closed. Her sight impairment combined with her point of view made it nearly impossible to get a good look at the newspaper once Rainbow opened it, but curiosity drove her to try her best. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof skimmed the newspaper with lazy disinterest painting her features, a look that was wiped clean off her face the second her magenta eyes found the main article and the story behind it. Ditzy craned her neck to read the page the blushing cerulean pegasus was on, her childlike curiosity peaked by her friend's unexpected reaction, but her worthy effort was shattered when Rainbow Dash blasted away from the cloud and tore through the sky in a split-second.

The lofty cloud was scattered by the rainbow pegasus' hasty exit, leaving Ditzy to hover in the air on her own with disappointment tinging her exuberant happiness. The grey mare shook her head to clear her mind of any lingering distractions to assume the role of Ponyville's steadfast mailmare once again, a renewed resolve to complete her task coursing through her as she flew towards the confectionery wonderland of Sugarcube Corner.

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"Aaannnddd, done!" Pinkie's exuberant voice nearly blended in seamlessly with the telltale ding of one of the various pastry ovens lining her home's kitchen. She slipped on a couple of hoof-mittens she pulled out of seemingly nowhere before retrieving a piping hot tray from the sweltering heat within the cooking appliance, upon which rested a shapely apple pie birthed by the union of Pinkie Pie's mastery over the confectionary arts and the ancient recipe the Apple Family had spent generations refining until sweet perfection was achieved. Two members of that very same family oversaw the creation of the steaming apple-scented pastry, one younge and orange and the other lime-green in her twilight years.

"Not bad at all, if Ah do say so myself, Pinkie." Applejack's compliment was more than well received by the bubbly baker as she inspected the external appearance of the fresh pie with critical green eyes.

"Now now, ya'll can't just judge an apple pie by its looks, especially not an Apple Family apple pie. Lets all just have ourselves a seat and dig into this here pastry and see if looks is all its got." said the elderly mare, slowly making her way towards one of the restaurant's booths.

Granny Smith proceeded to cut up the pie in thee equal pieces and distribute them, but just as Applejack was about to eat her slice, the lime mare slapped her hoof with on of the spoons on the table, a stern expression, that was not usually seen, on her face.

"Where are your manners, missy, we pray before we eat our meals, you should know that already." Granny Smith's voice was coated in an undertone of disappointing created to lecture her granddaughter.

"Ahm sorry Granny, it must have slipped my mind, I'll start us off." apologized the orange mare with a slightly downtrodden look in her face.

Pinkie had heard about religious groups, but she never really paid them any mind due to how secretive ponies were about them, never really exposing their beliefs to the public. It was a bit of a surprise that Applejack's family belonged to one of those religions, so she had to mouth along the prayer since she didn't know it.

At the end of the small ritual, Granny Smith took a small bite from her slice of pie, taking in every delicate detail from the pie.

"Ah gotta admit, this here pie is pretty well made, heck, I'd believe it was baked by Applejack there if you hadn't told me it was you." praised the elder mare to Pinkie Pie, prompting a smile from the latter.

"Thanks Granny Smith, I tried my best with this one."

The smiling party pony and the two apple mares dined on the pie pieces that were given to them, enjoying the silence that shrouded their meal. As the group finished their meal, a knock sounded from the doorway to Pinkie's residence, and the pink pony sprung into action, bolting to the door. Pinkie opened the door to find Ditzy Doo with a package in her mouth, that she spit onto the ground in order to speak.

"Special delivery from Ca-" Began the mailmare, only to be interrupted by her client.

"From Canterlot, right?" asked Pinkie, with a knowing smile on her muzzle.

"Uh, yeah, how did you know?" asked a bemused Ditzy.

"My Pinkie Sense told me an hour ago that I would get something from Canterlot, it also said that Applejack would get something too. Isn't she?" answered and asked Pinkie.

"What ahm I gettin' from Canterlot?" Applejack had joined Pinkie at the doorway upon hearing her name, curious about the whatever it was she was receiving.

"Yeah, here, I've got another package, this one is for you Applejack." answered Ditzy, happy that two of her clients were found in the same place, before pulling out a package identical to the other two she had already taken out.

"Well thank ya kindly, Ditzy, y'all have a good day now." said Applejack before taking her package back inside with her.

"Bye, Ditzy, it was nice to see you again!" exclaimed Pinkie before taking her package inside and closing the door behind herself.

'Darn it, Ditzy, you should have asked them what was in those packages!'

After Ditzy mentally berated herself, she took off into the sky again, catching sight of a fluttering yellow pegasus in the distance who was tending to the park's tree nests, and clumsily making her way over to her next client.

Back inside of Sugarcube Corner, Applejack and Pinkie began to unwrap their respective packages, only to find that they each had an identical sheet of newspaper. Upon reading the paper, Pinkie's eyes lit up with a glint of childish excitement, and Applejack just deadpanned at the newspaper, until she heard Granny Smith call out from behind her, causing her blood to freeze in fear.

"What are y'all readin'? Can ah please see yours, Applejack." softly asked the lime mare, and Applejack could do nothing as her body seemingly moved on its own and hoofed over the paper to her grandma. Applejack shuddered in fear at the look growing in her grandma's eyes as she silently read the newspaper, a look that she had only seen once before, and that look was the only thing that stayed constant even as she ripped the paper to shreds.

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"There-there, don't worry little birdie, your wing will just take a few days to heal itself, just remember to eat plenty of seeds and don't overexert yourself, okay?" Fluttershy tended to the injured bird, nursing it back to health.

The bird chirped in response to his vet's question, prompting a warm and motherly smile from her before she descended back onto the floor and put her saddlebags back on. Fluttershy began to make her way back towards her cottage, content with her day's work, but was stopped short when Ditzy landed straight in front of her, causing her to jump inside a hollow tree, her head peeking through the entrance.

"O-oh my, you sc-cared me Ditzy." stuttered softly Fluttershy, with a look of sheer terror slowly fading from her expression. The sight causing Ditzy to gain another sheepish smile on her face.

"Hehe, sorry Fluttershy, I forgot that you get scared easily." nervously chuckled the grey pegasus.

"Its okay, Ditzy, just let me get out of this tree."

Fluttershy began to squirm inside the tree trunk, having some difficulty on getting out. Ditzy saw her problem and went forward to pull her out. With a pop, Fluttershy squeezed out of the tree and toppled over Ditzy, causing them to roll over a few times until they stopped at the bottom of the small hill. The pegasi giggled for a while before Ditzy spoke up again.

"Ah, here you go Fluttershy, before I forget."

The mailmare pulled out yet another package from her trusty mailbag, and hoofed it over to the shy pegasus vet. Fluttershy carefully opened up the box, as if it were made of peanut brittle, and found a newspaper inside. The yellow mare opened up the newspaper roll and began to read the main article, but as she read on her cheeks became a deep shade of crimson and her heartbeat began to pick up to try and make up for all the blood that had made its way to her face.

"Hey, what does it say Fluttershy." asked Ditzy, desperate to know what all her clients had been receiving in the papers so far.

"Uhm, oh my, its nothing I mean, EEP!" Fluttershy's will broke under the pressure and embarrassment of the situation, and she took off with speed she didn't know she had, headed straight to her cottage, sputtering apologies for leaving so suddenly along the way.

'DANG IT, I really want to know what was in that newspaper!'

Ditzy considered opening the final sealed package, but it was an idea that she quickly crushed with her sense of morality. With a slightly frustrated huff, Ditzy took off once again, and began to make her way to her final stop for the day.

As she flew through the sky, she could make out a blur in the distance, and from the direction it was coming from, she could tell that it was one of the final trains from Canterlot. Ditzy sifted her gaze back to the carnival-themed building that marked her final client's residence.

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Rarity was lost in a whirlwind of ribbons, gems, and chromatic threads of silk as she weaved together a magnificent dress on one of her maniquies, a dress that the designer still looked at as if it were an old piece of cloth. The white mare had been able to clear up most of the guilt from having to put a stop to Spike's dream and was mostly back on her regular schedule again. Still, she couldn't help but feel a little creeped out from the little dragon's affections, as flattering as they were;

"He'll get over me someday, they always do" mused the designer to herself, "But, it was a little more than weird that he believed that a pony and a dragon could actually fall in love, I'm surprised Twilight never taught him about this sort of things. Its just not right, ponies are destined to be with ponies, and dragons with dragons, there is no grey area."

Rarity found that her monologues usually helped her alleviate the trace amounts of guilt she still had in her, so with her head clear again, she returned to her fine stitching.

The Carousel Boutique's door bell rung out as a slightly frazzled Ditzy Doo entered the establishment, holding a package in her mouth. The pegasus mare's curiosity was driving her to the point of desperation, so she wanted this package to be opened, immediately. Ditzy put down the package in front of the designer mare and began her delivery protocol.

"Special delivery from Canterlot."

"Oh, from Canterlot? My, who could have sent me something."

Rarity began to open the package with her telekinesis, with Ditzy craning her neck to an absurd degree as she tried to read the article.

'A newspaper, hmm, maybe my latest summer line has caught on, or maybe I came out as designer of the year, or may-'

Rarity's internal conversation was cut short as her eyes fell upon the images in the newspaper, images of a certain lavender bookworm and her dragon assistant in a full-blown make-out session. Rarity's eye began to twitch at the intake of information.

'Spike a-and Twilight are...are..'

Rarity's eyes rolled into the back of her head and, with a forehoof pressed to her forehead, she fell backwards, unconscious. Ditzy only had one second to think about helping the white unicorn before her desperation got the better of her and she snatched up the newspaper and her crossed-eyes began to take in what the article held. Unbeknownst to her, her crossed eyes didn't allow her to see the reality behind the images she thought she was seeing. With a shrug and a bemused expression on her face, Ditzy spoke again,

"What, its just Twilight and Spike hugging."

Homecoming

Chapter 9

Homecoming

The Ponyville Express began to slow down from its current high speed, the smoke trail from the exhaust pipe beginning to die down, as its designated stop for the night came into view. The small town of Ponyville had already settled down for the night, the only signs of life being the softly flickering candlelight in a few houses, and the occasional trotting pony looking up into the star dotted heavens.

Twilight was currently running a hoof through Spike's soft spines, the latter sleeping peacefully as he snuggled up into his marefriend's chest. The lavender unicorn noticed that the train had begun to descend in its speed, and with a touch of her magic pull away the small blinds on the window to allow her to confirm that they were, in fact, arriving at Ponyville. With a soft smile she leaned her muzzle down a little bit so that she could whisper into her draconic assistant's ear.

"Spikey, wake up now, we're here."

Spike obviously didn't acknowledge Twilight's voice asking him to wake up, instead, he proceeded to wrap his arms around her neck and pulling her into a sleepy hug, nuzzling the fur on her chest with his snout as he mumbled out something vaguely representing the lavender mare's name. For Twilight, having Spike do that to her was making it increasingly difficult to accept the idea of getting out of bed herself, but she had to or they would just go and kick them out anyway. She spoke again in a slightly louder voice, but still soft, and added a small nudge into the mix with her hoof.

"Spike, we're at Ponyville already, wake up."

"Whuh...Twilight are we at Ponyv-", began Spike while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, only to be interrupted by his own yawn, "sorry, uhm, so we're at Ponyville already?"

Twilight pecked the little dragon softly on the lips, snapping him away from his sleepiness, before she answered his question with a small nod.

"Yes, the train should stop any minute now, so don't forget to pick up any of your stuff before we leave."

Spike gave a little salute with his right claw before activating the teleportation gem again, landing on a spot next to the table where his diary currently rested.

Twilight had, through refined willpower that only Spike or her mentor could ever hope to break, stopped herself from reading the drake's dairy while he was asleep, finding it very intrusive and disrespectful to her little dragonfriend. Spike grabbed the private book in his claws and walked back over to Twilight, snuggling back into his original position except that he now hugged the diary to his chest.

'I wonder what he's keeping in there, maybe I should have looked in the-'

'No, that's Spike's book, he's never opened it around me or anypony else so it must be private.'

'Private? For Celestia's sake your both dating, nothing is private to either of you.'

'No means no, I'm not looking in there until he tells me I can.'

With her resolve steeled, Twilight took a moment to enjoy the warmth that mingled in between herself and Spike, feeling the inhales and exhales of her little dragonfriend. The moment lasted a couple of minutes before it was interrupted by a the chiming of the train's whistle, signaling that it had reached a full stop.

The couple reluctantly got up from their resting spot and began to walk out of the train along with another few ponies that had taken the same transportation as they had. Spike looked around the town, as if expecting something to pop out from one of the alleyways, which was highly probable due to the record the town had running for weird antics, but nothing really seemed out of place except for a black pony that had gotten of the train wearing an insane asylum jumpsuit, even that wasn't really shocking compared to what could have happened while they were gone.

Twilight walked towards her tree house, a feeling of slight nostalgia and warmth upon remembering all the memories that had been made in that house, their house. She looked over to her left to look at her dragonfriend, whom was currently kicking around a small pebble with his forked tongue sticking out a little in concentration, and pleasant thoughts began to form in her head, much like her time in Canterlot.

'I really am lucky to have someone as sweet and caring as Spike by my side, now even more than ever. He has always been there for me, filling up a hole of loneliness that I didn't know I had, and I'll never leave his side, just like he never left mine.'

Twilight enjoyed her thoughts, they gave her a sense of tranquility at knowing that she would never truly be alone in her life, knowing that there would always be someone there to comfort her, all of the things she could ever want from someone being compressed into one little dragon.

The pair reached their residence with smiles blessing their faces, happy at all that had been spoken the past days and for what would be spoken for the rest of their days. Their expressions turned into ones of surprise as the door slammed shut right after they entered the tree house, sending them into the darkness. The lack of light was quickly banished as a pony that wasn't supposed to be in their house lit a few candles on the wall, and quickly began to make its way over to the direction in which the surprised mare and dragon were, a sharpened blade held in its forehooves as it balanced itself on its hind legs.

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"I swear, these damn motels aren't worth the bits I pay for them."

Glamour Shot paced around the shabby room of the Golden Sun Motel, the name being entirely misleading in the quality of the rooms they provided. Her temporary residence was a square, white, and red floored room with nothing but a double-bed, a slightly cracked vanity mirror, a dresser, and a bathroom to fill it in. The reason she decided to stay there at all was because of the view she had over Ponyville, the library being the target of her predatory nature.

"Oh well, it'll be worth it to watch that slithery freak's and his slut of a care-taker's lives take a turn for the worst. Hahaha, yeah, now where the hell is that fat brown pony of a director, he was supposed to take the last train just like those two."

As she looked out of her window she spotted a huffing earth-pony running through the empty streets of the little town, his brown sides bulging out at the heavy intakes of breath he was taking. The aforementioned stallion made his way towards the receptionist's desk and asked if somepony named 'Glamour Shot' was staying there. The cashier just nodded and pointed towards the door that belonged to the mare in question. Press almost tore down the door with the panic he had to get inside, and the sight within the room did nothing to alleviate his fears. Not. One. Bit.

The bald mare, donning a blue nightgown, stared at the pony director with a death glare that almost caused his heart to stop, her golden eyes burning into his soul as soon as he locked his with them, and he wasn't able to look away, even as the devilish mare began to speak in a cold voice laced with anger.

"Press, could you please tell me...why your fat flank wasn't here on time!"

Press shuddered at her shouting, even he wasn't sure why he feared her, she just had a way of intimidating him, and the blackmail threats weren't exactly making the situation any easier.

"L-listen I can explain! I thought I had seen that idiot who messed up the newspapers by the train station and I followed him around a bit until I chased him into an alleyway and then he just disappeared!" Press' voice was pleading for understanding, he would get none.

"What do you think I am Press, stupid? I know that he was locked away in Canterlot's insane asylum, nopony ever gets out from there."

"B-but, but I swear I sa-"

"SHUT UP PRESS! I don't care if he was there or not, I could have needed you to follow the two targets around in case they went somewhere other than the library!"

The cashier poked his head through the door, trying to stop all the commotion that was going on, "Hey, keep it down..or...I'll.."

The bald mare had broken eye contact with Press and instead focused all of her burning gaze at the juvenile pony that had interrupted her berating, causing his words to die away as his blood began to freeze up, metaphorically of course. Glamour Shoot then slammed the door on the cashier's face, earning a muffled groan of pain from the other side of the entrance, then, she turned her gaze back to Press.

"Now, Press, I don't want my plans to go sour because of you bucking stuff up, don't let it happen again. Okay?"

Her question came out more as a command than actually expecting an answer, yet she earned a furious nod from the, rather large, stallion.

"Good, now you settle down on the floor, I need you up at dawn in order to catch sight of those two."

Glamour Shot completely ignored the pout Press gave after she said he had to sleep on the floor, not caring for anyone else but herself as she turned off the lantern on the dresser and tossed herself onto the bed, laying in a position that took up all the space.

'Hehehe, I'm going to enjoy watching those two crumble.'

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"Yeah, I know, but you were really creepy when we got here." said Spike before returning to furiously munch away at his slice of cake.

"I wasn't creepy, silly, I was Pinkie." Pinkie said in a matter-of-fact way, a pile of dishes that all once held pastries on them to her right.

"We know, Pinkie, but you really scared us when you came running our way with that thing." stated Twilight while gesturing to a rather large knife, currently coated in icing, before getting a forkful of her slice of vanilla cake, "By the way, how come none of the other girls came to this 'Welcome home from Canterlot party'? It is pretty late, but they're usually still up for one of your box socials."

"Wwweeelll, I was going to invite Applejack, but Granny Smith took her home after she got a meanie-face, I couldn't find Rainbow Dash in her usual sleeping spots, Rarity had passed out and Ditzy is taking care of her, and Fluttershy just squeaked whenever I knocked on her door." Pinkie listed off the reasons for why none of the rest of the group joined them at the party, a slight frown on her face at her other friends not being there, it was a frown that was completely obliterated when she remembered about what she and Applejack had received.

"Now, Twilight, it's my turn to ask you a teeny question, okay?"

Twilight just showed her approval at the question that had yet to be asked with a nod as she took in another forkful of cake.

"Did anything, interesting, happen at Canterlot?" Pinkie added a set of waggling eyebrows to her question, causing the dragon and librarian to begin choking on the food that was going down their throats.

"W-what do you mean Pinkie?" asked Twilight, knowing full well what Pinkie meant, meanwhile Spike just gawked at her.

"You know, the stuff from the photos." said Pinkie with a sly grin.

"What photos?" Spike voiced both his and Twilight's thoughts upon hearing the interesting piece of information that they held no clue about.

Pinkie just deadpanned and shook her head a little as she headed over to a cupboard in the kitchen and pulled out the roll of newspaper that she had received earlier that day.Twilight simply stared at the pink mare as she pulled out the article from its hiding spot.

'Why was her newspaper in my cupboard?'

"This newspaper, sillies, didn't you know about these?"

Pinkie pointed at each of the embarrassing photographs that had been taken, all of them depicting Twilight and Spike in their first act of intimacy, causing the depicted couple's cheeks to almost melt off of their crimson faces.

"Who took these?" said a flustered Twilight, taking the newspaper into her telekinetic grasp, floating it closer to look for the photographer's credit, with Spike reading the article along with her.

"What, don't you like how you came out? I personally thought the pictures weren't that bad."

Twilight and Spike both froze at Pinkie's statement once they processed what she had said, putting down the newspaper to just stare at the pink mare with slightly agape jaws, with Spike regaining his speaking abilities before the lavender mare.

"You don't mind that this is kinda out of the blue, or even that I'm a dragon and Twilight's a pony?"

"What's the problem with you being a dragon and Twilight being a pony? My mommy always told me stories of her wild party days when I still lived with her, and they were freaky, but the good freaky, not the icky freaky. One thing she never told me about though was a dragon and a pony being in a relationship. You guys must be even wilder than she was!"

Pinkie began to bounce around the bewildered couple, oblivious to the seriousness of the situation she found herself involved in.

"Pinkie," began Twilight, barely able to speak from embarrassment, "I'm happy that you're okay with this, but could you please keep this a secret."

Pinkie stopped her bouncing as she turned dead serious, reciting the Pinkie Promise ritual with her hooves, "I Pinkie Promise not to tell anyone, in any way, about your relationship Twilight."

"Thanks Pinkie, I knew I could trust you." Twilight smiled at Pinkies cooperation with the situation, happy that she could keep it quiet for now since she saw that the newspaper was from Canterlot and wouldn't reach Ponyville until a week or so. Pinkie began to make her way to the door with Twilight and Spike following closely behind, but she stopped and wheeled around in a span of a second, startling the odd couple.

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot that Applejack had gotten one of those smoochy newspapers too, so you might want to talk to her too."

Twilight thanked Pinkie for the extra information and began to walk with her to the entrance of the library, but, like before, Pinkie spun around wearing a smile that just screamed 'I REMEMBERED SOMETHING' without having her say a word.

"Ooo, wait a minute, have you two you know..." Pinkie ended her question by clopping both of her hooves together three times, causing Twilight's already furious blush to intensify, but Spike didn't exactly catch on until he noticed Twilight's face and he did very much the same thing.

"N-no, Pinkie, we haven't." Twilight felt like she was going to pass out from all the blood in her face.

'Yet.'

'Oh come on, not now brain, this isn't the time or the place for that.'

'Yes it is, Twilight, you're in your own house with your dragonfriend and Pinkie is about to leave, and judging from the blush on Spike's face he has been thinking of that as well.'

'Well, you've got a point, the conditions are ri- WAIT I'm busy talking here, just go away.'

'You don't want to talk, you want to pick Spike up an-'

'NOT. NOW.'

"Ha, then that means I'm still the wildest one here. Because, this one time, it was super cold and Gummy was looking for someplace warm since his blankets didn't protect him from the chilly weather, so he crawled onto my bed and then moved in between my legs to get warm and the-" Pinkie's perverse tale was cut short as Twilight zipped her mouth shut and began to levitate her towards the door.

"T-that's nice Pinkie, but Spike and I really should get to bed right now, you can tell me about your story later, bye." Twilight was struggling to keep her mind focused on her magic as her mind conjured up images that were really drawing her attention.

"Okie-dokie-lokie, I'll see you guys tomorrow, goodnight!" Pinkie yelled back as she bounced away towards her house, leaving behind two incredible blushes and one unicorn that was beginning to lose her grip on her self-control.

Twilight looked back at Spike, closing the front door, and she couldn't help but feel her willpower melt away at how cute he looked with the blush overtaking his face as he looked down at the floor, fighting an internal battle much like Twilight's. The mare lost all control at that moment, and a switch flipped inside of her that made her begin to follow her instincts rather than what she knew.

"So, Spikey, we are pretty dirty from the day we've had, how about we go take a bath?" asked Twilight in a tone of voice she didn't know she had, causing Spike to inexplicably shudder.

"Sure T-Twilight, do you wanna go first or..do...I?" Spike's speaking volume lowered as he noticed a sharpened look in Twilight's eyes, one that was causing feelings he hadn't felt before to run through him. In a second, Twilight picked Spike up in her telekinetic hold and floated him onto her back.

"I think the bath would be a little more...enjoyable, if we both took it at the same time, no?" Twilight's instinctual gaze was causing the little dragon's mind to race at speeds unknown to him, leaving behind only a jumbled mess of thoughts. Spike tried to utter a 'yes' put only got a jumbled mess of sputters and stutters.

"Hmmm, I'll take that as a yes, Spikey," Began Twilight as she started to trot towards their bathroom, an enticing smile on her face as she spoke once again before heading into the bathroom and closing the door,

"This'll be a night neither of us will ever forget."

Urges

Chapter 10

Urges

A/N: Saucy Scene up ahead, I'll put a red line to separate it from the rest of the story in case you don't want to read that kind of stuff. Still, it is a very light scene.

The billowing steam flooding from the warm bath began to die away, revealing a purple dragon with a furious blush and a lavender mare with a sultry look in her eyes, unable to stop herself. Twilight began to walk towards the warm tub silently, Spike shaking slightly in nervousness.

"Uhm...T-twilight what's going on?" asked the purple drake as he was deposited inside the pleasantly heated water, his golden wrist guard being removed and put on the sink by a purple aurora.

Twilight's body refused to listen to her commands to stop and instead opted to widen its smirk.

"It's just a nice, warm, and enjoyable bath, Spike."

The lavender mare's muscles tensed as her body prepared to leap into the tub and begin enjoying herself with the bath. As the mare was about to leap, she noticed a slightly uneasy look in her dragonfriend's emerald eyes, the sight snapping her out of her unrestrained trance.

'Was I just about to do that? No, not like this. Spike must be incredibly nervous about the way I'm acting, and I promised myself I would never do anything he didn't want me to do.'

Twilight's seductive smirk turned back into the warm smile she always wore, and her eyes lost their sharpened look once they returned to the soft amethyst pools they were supposed to be. Spike visibly relaxed a bit upon seeing that the weird look on his marefriend's face disappeared, but what he didn't understand is why he felt slightly disappointed.

The lavender mare climbed into the bathtub, sighing as soon as her hooves touched the warm water, her thoughts being cleared of any tension they once held.

The bathtub itself was fairly big, being able to hold Twilight and Spike with a little extra room to spare. The couple was currently on separate ends of the tub, leaning slightly against the edge as their bodies sank further into the relaxing bath, the blushes on both of their faces still there, albeit a bit smaller.

Twilight pulled out a few shampoo bottles from the cabinet under the sink and began to pour a little bit on her wet mane, before looking at Spike with a slightly teasing smile before she spoke.

"Could you please help me with my mane, Spike?"

The dragon being questioned couldn't utter out a response as Twilight began to spin around so that her back faced Spike as she sat down, so he settled on giving a nod that no one even saw. He wadded his way through the water before coming to a stop behind his caretaker, beginning to lift his claws and start scrubbing Twilight's silky mane softly with his claws.

Twilight let out a sigh as Spike started to lightly scrub her scalp, enjoying the tending she was being given, and released a small groan of satisfaction as her dragonfriend began to subtly add a massage to her neck as he continued his scrubbing. Over time, Spike began to concentrate more on his massaging rather than the bathing, bringing more content sounds from his companion, and to say that he enjoyed them would be a horrifying understatement.

Twilight began to feel warmer all over her body, even warmer than the water she was sitting in, and slight shivers ran throughout her body at the pleasant feelings.

"Ooo, Spikey, when did you learn to do that?"

Spike didn't answer, too lost in his work to notice what she said, and simply put in even more effort. To him, every little groan he could get out of his lavender marefriend was fuel that drove his his skilled claws to increase their work.

Twilight's groans turned into little moans, and she began to feel funny, as if every little touch she felt was like a soft cushion being pressed against her.Ultimately, she decided that she should return the favor for Spike, so she lifted her little dragonfriend in her magical hold again and turned around to grab him in her hooves and pull him into an affectionate hug. Twilight then began to stroke his spines softly, coaxing out some sighs from the purple dragon as his eyes drifted shut, enjoying himself just like she had a few moments ago.

"Do you like that, love?" Twilight was practically cooing her question out, earning a lost nod from Spike as she continued to stroke her hoof through his head. Said hoof began to move down from the dragon's top spines and onto the ones running down his back until they stroked passed his tail spikes, causing the tail they were on to extend itself a little, before returning to the top to repeat the cycle.

The tub's water began to cool a little as the couple continued their light ministrations, eventually causing them to shudder a bit from the cold and to break away from each other momentarily.

Twilight levitated over a couple of towels for Spike and herself, but the couple instead wordlessly opted to dry each other off, blushes still burning hot on their cheeks.

"Thanks Twilight, my spines were a little sore from the day, but you pretty much cleared them up." said Spike with a smile on his snout.

"Your welcome, Spike, but you really outdid yourself with that massage, I bet they would let you join the spa if you were to ever try and sign up." Twilight's words were nothing but the truth, her back felt rejuvenated and all of the day's stress was gone.

"Maybe I will, but then I wouldn't be able to be around you." apparently the bath had reverted Spike from his nervous self back into his playful side.

"Good point, you wouldn't last five minutes." Twilight went along perfectly with their little game, her words bringing mock anger from her little dragon.

"Hey! I would!" Spike protested as he fastened his teleportation wrist guard back on.

"Tell me about one time since we admitted our feelings for each other that you haven't been at my side."

Spike lifted his claw with his index finger raised, his mouth slightly agape as if he was about to say something, but no words came to his mind since he couldn't find a single memory of not being at Twilight's side since his dream came true. In the end, he settled on crossing his arms and huffing out a 'Fine' before walking out of the bathroom, a smile still tugging at his lips even though he lost the playful argument, and Twilight followed closely behind him.

The couple entered their homely bedroom, one that they've known since they moved to Ponyville, only to find that it somehow felt different than a few days ago. To Twilight and Spike, the basket seemed farther then ever from the star riddled bed, it seemed like the basket didn't even belong there as anything more than a object that held good memories, not someplace to sleep.

Spike only had one reason to approach his old makeshift 'bed', he put his claws under his little mattress and searched around for something. Twilight watched with a craned neck as Spike pulled out his diary, excited at the idea of her dragonfriend sharing his private book with her.

The purple dragon teleported onto his new bed space with his diary still held firmly in his claw, and he began to pat the spot right next to him, beckoning Twilight to get onto the bed and lay down next to him. The lavender mare put critical interest into the book that Spike had brought along, never having seen it before other than a glimpse at the castle and looking at it from a horrible angle on the train.

"What kind of book is this one, Spike?"

"Well...its my diary," Twilight's eyes widened slightly at her suspicions being confirmed, but Spike just rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile as he spoke again, "I found it back at Canterlot."

"I never knew you kept a diary." Twilight was restraining her curiosity from getting the better of her, just like her lust almost had a few moments back.

"The funny thing is that neither did I, I had forgotten all about it back when all of my memory suppression began.As you and Celestia studied at the archives on the first day we arrived at the castle, I started to walk around the aisles of bookshelves, eventually coming across this little thing."

Spike gestured towards the book he had put down, not exactly small enough to be called 'little', and picked it back up again.

"I wrote down a lot of things here when I used to have it, most of the pages I haven't even read yet, so I was wondering if you wanted to read along with me."

The little dragon already knew the answer to his question, because the moment he mentioned he wanted her to read along, Twilight's amethyst eyes lit up in excitement.

"I'd love to, Spikey."

With that said, Spike opened up the book to the first entry, having skipped to the middle the last time he had read, and began to read about how his day had been and what he had done. As the entries progressed though, Twilight and Spike noticed that the little dragon's writing had begun to detour from how his actual day had gone, being filled up with more and more thoughts on a certain lavender unicorn mare. There were multiple well drawn sketches, a few of wedding scenes depicting Spike in a tuxedo and Twilight in a bridal dress, those pictures brought out 'awws' from the lavender mare and hot blushes from Spike as he quickly tried to turn the page, only to be stopped by a glowing horn.

The couple had read quite a few entries by the time they reached a page that stood out from all the others. This entry took up both pages, which seemed to be in pristine conditions, a poem on the left page and a painting on the other. The painting was masterfully drawn, as if the drake had spent weeks drawing it out and coloring it in with the oil paints, depicting Twilight in deep purple royal regalia with her wings spread out and a crown resting on her horned head as the sun set behind her.

You see yourself with no might

You see the day as being perfect at sunrise

But if you were to see through my eyes

You would see the perfection that is Twilight

Spike was snapped out of his reading by a tear falling on his shoulder. He looked back to find Twilight with watery eyes and a wobbly smile only for a second before she leaned forward and caught the drake's lips in her own, causing the book to fall out his claws and onto the plush bed. Twilight broke away from their embrace in order to sniffle out a few words.

"I-I love you Spike, you've been the best friend I could ever have so far in my life, and now we get to try out what we've always wanted to do, but never could."

Twilight leaned back in again, but this time took hold of her dragonfriend in her forehooves as she rolled onto her back, still keeping the lip-lock in effect. Once she got into her position, Twilight parted her lips and turned her head slightly to the right as she she slid out her tongue, prodding lightly at Spike's teeth. The dragon took the hint and opened up his mouth in a similar fashion to his marefriend, letting her wet muscle in to caress against his, small traces of sweetness still lingering from the pastries they had eaten with Pinkie.

The couple's breathing started to pick up as their lips continued to massage against each other, only to be sped up further as Spike brought one of his claws up to his mare's mane, and the other up to her ear, gently rubbing the smooth skin. Twilight broke away from the kiss slowly as a hearty moan made its way through her throat, one that died away in a gasp as Spike shifted himself higher and began to nibble lightly on her sensitive ear.

Spike didn't exactly know what was going on, since the whole bathtub thing was entirely misleading to him, or how he knew that if he nibbled on her ear she would like it. One thing he was sure about was that he liked the sounds Twilight was making, so he decided to hand over control to his instincts for the time being.
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Twilight could feel something dribbling down her thighs and onto the bed sheets, the feeling made a fresh blush come to her face, but also began to demand more. She started to rub her hooves down Spike's sides, causing him to shudder, before she pulled him down gently. The dragon was finally able to look at his marefriend in the face since he started his ministrations, and could see that behind the warm look in her eyes, was a spark of the same look he had seen when Twilight urged him into the bathroom's tub. The look aside, he could smell something funny in the air, something strong and, weirdly, enticing, urging him to seek out its source.

"What is it, Spikey? Do you smell something?" Twilight's voice was its usual playful self, but it was now intermixed with an undertone that told Spike she knew exactly what he was looking for. His head began to seek out the smell, lowering down from his marefriend's face and trailing down until it reached a spot right between her slightly parted hind legs, causing his heart to almost burst out of his chest.

His eyes sat upon Twilight's glistening marehood, the delicate folds covered in the fruit of Spike's efforts, and he couldn't move away his gaze, even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to. The smell was more concentrated now that he was facing directly where it was coming from, intoxicating him into further losing himself in his urges.

Twilight looked closely as Spike began to lean a little closer to her, the feeling of wonderful anticipation causing her to fidget with her fore hooves a little, until, finally, the drake took a broad lick, slightly parting her folds as he took in some of the strange fluids, causing a yelp that quickly turned into a throaty moan to escape the mare.

Spike thought that the fluids he drank up would taste weird, knowing where they were coming from, but quickly found himself relishing their bittersweet flavor, so he dove back in for more. The dragon now had his snout slightly past his marefriend's folds, teasing the sensitive pink flesh within, as he lapped up everything that came out from her and became even further drunken by the large amounts of the musky scent he was breathing in.

Twilight had her eyes sealed shut, concentrating on the the new feelings that her dragonfriend was putting her through, enjoying every last second, even as a tight pressure began to build in her belly.

Spike began to notice that if he licked higher than where he currently was, Twilight's moans would get louder than usual, so he shifted his head a little higher and concentrated on a little bump he had found.

Twilight's moans became screams that threatened to wake up the neighbors as Spike wrapped his forked tongue around her little nub, and she began to pound the bed with her fore hooves as the pressure building inside of her reached a point that was almost unbearable, and then, it all broke loose as Spike finally pushed her over her limit.

"S-Spike!"

Spike felt something warm begin to dribble out of his marefriend's folds, so he desperately suckled away at them, trying to catch all of the sweet tasting treat he was nourishing on at the moment. Twilight's flow began to slow down in sync with her breathing, and she just stared down at her lover, a goofy grin on her face.

"Heh...now...now it's...your turn, Spikey."

Spike's eyes widened at the lavender mare's statement before he was enveloped in a purple glow that put him leaning back against a few pillows. Twilight approached her dragonfriend, kneeling down so that her head rested on Spike's chest. The mare began to make her way up his chest in a trail of smooches, licks, and the occasional light tug with her teeth, and she began to use one of her hooves to rub little circles in Spike's soft belly.

Twilight reached the dragon's lips again and started another lip-lock, finding that her taste still lingered in her lover's mouth, as she began to lower her rubbing hoof a little by the second. The lavender mare pulled her tongue away slightly to lull Spike into a false sense of security, and, just as the little drake began to push into her mouth, she lowered her hoof completely and began rubbing up and down right between Spike's legs.

Spike jerked forward at the sudden rush he got from Twilight's touch, a feeling that he very much wanted to feel more of, and more is what he got. Twilight's hoof began to trace up and down Spike's enlarging member, feeling the ridges that it had on its side and coming off from the pointed tip, causing Spike to start moaning out her name as soon as they parted lips.

The drake managed to will one of his eyes open, only to see Twilight staring directly at him with a smoldering look in her eyes and a slightly open mouth. Just as it dawned on Spike on what she was about to do, the lavender mare leaned her head down and sealed her lips halfway down his member and began to bob her head up and down, still looking at Spike in the eyes.

Spike was beginning to lose himself completely, his claws moving seemingly on their own to the top of Twilight's head, pushing her down slightly. The mare didn't need to be hinted twice as she took the rest of the dragonhood in her mouth, swirling her tongue around its sides as it prodded her throat slightly.

Just as the pressure was beginning to build up in Spike, Twilight pulled away completely from her partner, causing all that the dragon had built up to die down, much to his chagrin. He was about to ask what had happened until he saw that Twilight had placed herself on her back again, her hind legs spread, and her marehood completely exposed to the little dragon.

Spike began wobble over to his marefriend, his current situation not making it easy to walk, and just looked up at her with eyes that were full of silent questions. Twilight took notice of her dragonfriend's eyes and, with a slight nod, began to speak in a voice devoid of the undertone it was carrying a couple of moments ago.

"It's okay, Spikey, I'm sure I want to go through with this. Do you?"

Spike couldn't pass a response out through his lips, so he just decided to nod his head, as he began to position himself at her entrance. The little drake grabbed Twilight's forehooves in his claws, as he looked up and received the final okay from Twilight.

With a deep breath, Spike began to push himself inside his marefriend, finding no problem sliding in due to the excess amounts of lubricants on both of them and the pointed tip of his member, moaning in time with her as her inner walls began to clench around him. After going in for about three inches, Spike pulled back out until only the pointed tip stayed inside, and then pushed back in again, a bit deeper than last time. He suddenly hit a small amount of resistance in his path, and a small grunt of pain escaped Twilight's lips, causing Spike to cast a worried glance up at her.

"What's wrong, Twilight? Did I mess something up?"

"N-no, Spike, this is just a part of how it goes on the first time. Now, you're going to have to push past that little spot, so pull back and then push back in. Hard."

"But, that'll hurt you, Twilight."

"It's okay, Spike, just be sure to push quickly and don't stop if I say anything, okay?"

Spike was still unsure about what was going on, but relented with a nod and and began to pull back out. As soon as he was out of her, Spike rammed himself back into Twilight, breaking past her barrier and deeper into her. The lavender mare let out a yelp of pain, a stinging sensation on her inside bothering her, but it began to melt away as Spike began to get a rhythm with his thrusts, replacing the pain with the pleasure that she earned through it.

Twilight's breathing began to pick up its pace in time with her dragonfriend's constant prodding, her inner walls beginning to convulse slightly at the feeling of being full. Nothing could escape either of the partners lips other than their moans and yelps of pleasure, and nothing really needed to be said.

Both companions began to feel the familiar feeling that they had gotten a few moments ago, the feeling of pressure building inside of them, getting stronger for each time Spike slid in and out of his lavender love, adrenaline fueling his muscles as they were pushed past their limit.

Spike's grip on his marefriend's hooves tightened as the pressure that had been built up inside of him finally found an outlet, being pumped into the currently, slightly, thrashing librarian mare's womb, warming her up from the inside out. At the end of his peak, Spike collapsed onto Twilight's stomach, causing a little of his seed to gush out of her, feeling tired out all of the sudden.

Twilight levitated Spike off of her belly and floated him over to her hooves, snuggling with him as she pulled over the dry side of the blankets on her bed before whispering into his ear.

"Thanks, Spikey, that was fun."

"Yeah, fun."

"What? Is something on your mind?"

"Nah...well yeah, it's just that...aren't babies born by doing the things we just did?"

"Well, in other cases, yes, but I doubt I could get pregnant from you without any magical assistance. Why, do you want a baby already." Twilight took on her playful tone again, teasing at Spike.

"No! Well, maybe. I don't know, Twilight, why do you put me on the spot like this?"

"Hehehe, relax Spikey, I was just kidding. Mostly."

"Well, I'll think about it, okay?"

"You mean it?"

"Of course, Twilight, would I kid about something like this?"

"Yes."

"Good point, well goodnight Twilight, love you."

"Goodnight, Spikey, I love you too."

And so, the mare and the dragon fell into sleep once again, deep in thought about what today had held for them, and what the future might hold. Their dreams were littered with wedding chapels, cribs, and lots of familiar ponies, it was what they wished for, and what they hoped to have.

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Meanwhile, at Canterlot Castle...

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY AREN'T HERE!"

"Miss Dash, please keep your voice down, and I have already told you, Miss Sparkle and her dragon assistant have already left for Ponyville a couple of hours ago."

"Man, that is so not cool, I had to fly all the way over here and it just turns out that she already left."

"Yes, that's correct, would you like to fly back to Ponyville, or should I arrange for a guest room at the castle."

"Yeah, get me one of the guest rooms, my wings are still sore from that rush over here."

"Very well then, I'll be taking my leave."

"Well...this sucks."

Confrontation

Chapter 11

Confrontation

The bustling residents of Ponyville looked on with mild curiosity in their eyes as a mare clad in a concealing, full-body cloak sauntered down Mane Street with a chubby brown earth pony nopony in town had seen before at her side. The naked one of the pair seemed to try his best avoid eye-contact with any of the curious spectators, choosing to instead hold an unending staring contest with the ground he was treading instead.

As was expected of some of the gossip mares watching the unusual duo in their hometown, various juicy rumors were integrated into the community's collective grapevine, ranging from the lascivious story of the Cloaked Mistress and her groveling assistant to the horrific tale of a horrendously scarred pony from the depths of the Everfree Forest.

"Listen up, Press." Glamour Shot refused to tear her gaze away from the the path directly in front of her to look at her unwilling associate, so he took the initiative and turned to look at the vague, shadow-cloaked facial features she wore as she spoke, "I'm going to need you to shadow Twilight and Spike today. Follow them anywhere they go without alerting them of your presence and report back to me immediately after they've returned to the library or if you hear so much as a hint pointing towards them having plans about leaving town. Understood?"

It wasn't as if he truly had a choice in the matter, so he gave her the response she wanted with a nod of his head before returning his gaze to the road underneath him. Under any other circumstances, Press would have simply blown off Glamour Shot's "request" to aid her and returned to basking in the riches of his latest newspaper issue, but blackmail was one twisted ace up her sleeve that she could use at any time to destroy his hard-earned reputation among the Canterlot Elite. So, to keep his name clean, he'd have to bear through the humiliation of being her subservient servant until she got her petty revenge.

With her orders clearly stated and duly noted, Glamor Shot tuned out the world around her and retreated into the tainted haven of her mind, plotting numerous contingency plans for the worst of possible outcomes. Of course, she didn't plan on failing, but no one ever does.

Ponies started to lose interest in the pair of newcomers in their humble town, returning to their day-to-day tasks or their open gossip circles. With the stares of the commoners no longer upon her, Glamour Shot picked up her trot's pace to try and reach the library in the distance as quickly as she possibly could without standing out like a sore hoof. She was so focused on keeping her sights locked onto the tree-turned-building that she nearly failed to perceive a large gasping noise nearby before an energetic pink blur flew into her line of sight, it's wide blue eyes radiating with childish excitement of the likes she had never seen before.

"Hi there! I'm Pinkie Pie, but you can call me Pinkie for short because it can get pretty annoying having to say somepony's whole name every time you see them. Oh, now that we're talking about names, what are yours? You must be new here because I know everypony in Ponyville, but I don't know you two, which is why I asked you for your names. Are they something dark and scary, like the clothes you're wearing, or are you a fashion designer like Rarity?!"

Glamour almost swore she popped an eardrum just by listening to the pink earth pony's incessant hyperactive babbling, or maybe it was just the screams of her cringing cerebral cells trying to comprehend her quick speaking speed. All she did in retaliation was don a fresh glare of annoyance at the poofy-maned mare, hoping she could somehow will her out of existence, but Press decided to simply speak in her place instead.

"Uhm...my name's Press, Paper Press." The brown stallion's voice sounded far meeker than a stallion's voice should be, an effect brought about by the fear that he had spoken out of line considering how he wasn't given permission, but it was somewhat alleviated when Glamour Shot kept her unnatural silence.

"Do you work with writing stuff? What stuff do you write?" Pinkie shifted her divided attention solely onto Press, considering how the shady mare at his side had refused to speak up so far. She'd make her crack soon enough, no one can deny Pinkie, no one.

"Actually, yes. I am the director for the Canterlot Times newspaper company." The faintest of proud smiles grew on his muzzle as he reminded himself about his stature in the world, forgetting just for a second that he was nothing but a quivering slave to the malicious mare beside him.

"Wowza, you must be like richer than Richie Rich huh?" Pinkie's exuberant eyes then bolted over to the cloaked unicorn at the director's side, completely oblivious to the frightening expression hidden behind the veil of darkness cast over her face "What about you? What do you do? You never really gave me your name."

"The name's Shadow Streak, Miss Pie. I've come to this little town of yours to relax and enjoy the sights for a couple of days, considering how my hometown of Trottingham doesn't really offer much to see." Glamour Shot's intricately weaved alias gave up no signs of its truly deceptive nature, easily fooling the gullible confectionare questioning her. There were so many things that she had learned on her own under the Royal Palace's roof, so many skills that she managed to leech off behind everypony's backs, and years of lying about her reformed state of mind to the very Goddess of the Sun was more than enough to perfect her potential to deceive others.

"That's one ultra-nifty name, Shadow. Is there anything I can help you two out with? I'm always looking to make new friends so it wouldn't be a problem at all to lend you a helping hoof." Glamour's annoyed frown pulled up into a smirk as Pinkie offered her a perfect opportunity to simplify her job.

"As a matter of fact, Press here was looking for the library in this town. We heard it was carved into a tree, and he's been dying to see it for himself. Isn't that right, Press?" The bald unicorn turned to peer into the chubby stallion's eyes, not even giving him the illusion of a choice.

"Y-yeah."

"I know where it is, two of my bestest friends in all of Equestria live there! Come on, Press, let's go visit the library." Pinkie started to drag away the director before he could realize what was going on, only looking back to wave at the heavily cloaked pony, "Bye, Shadow Streak! I'll catch ya' later!"

"Not unless I catch you first..." murmured Glamour Shot to herself as she turned away from the pair of earth ponies, starting to make her way back to the motel with her plans already set in motion. Things were just going too well for her as of late, but it never hurt to have some eyes and ears scoping out her targets closely, just in case someone decides to stick their nose where it doesn't belong.

'That lardball of a stallion is gonna get himself in some deep shit of he doesn't learn to keep that big mouth of his shut instead of giving away his name and job to everyone he meets.'

The busy ponies of Mane Street had completely lost any and all interest towards the cloaked mare wandering the town at that point, making her return trip to her temporary residence all the easier thanks to the absence of curious ponies trying to get a closer look at her. She decided to leave the young cashier at the motel's entrance alone for the day, not in the mood to screw around with his lack of courage, simply walking up to her room's door before levitating the key to unlock it. Just as it did yesterday, the cheap room behind the doorway greeted her with its lack of finesse. She, of course, ignored the motel room's unappealing furnishings and instead moved over to the window overlooking the quaint town, pressing a sole hoof against the cool glass pane as she glared at the library in the distance.

"Soon you two will feel how it feels to be shunned by everyone around you, Twilight and Spike, you'll both learn how it felt to be an outcast of society itself, against all of your desperate wishes."

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The early-morning sun's golden rays filtered into the Golden Oaks Library, blanketing the scholarly abode in its warm glow whilst it lit up the scene of a lavender unicorn organizing a pile of books being levitated at her side as a nearby purple dragon busied himself with whipping up the their breakfast.

Whereas Twilight focused her attention on enforcing the Dewey Decimal System over her rebelling literary kingdom, Spike lost himself to the throes of the culinary arts as he tackled the stove, oven, and toaster simultaneously to turn raw ingredients into a glorious meal for his mare and himself. With the final platter set at the dining table, the firebreathing drake stuck his head out through the kitchen's archway and called out to the busy unicorn.

"Hey, Twi, breakfast is ready. Come and get it before it gets cold."

Twilight slide the final book held in her telekinetic field into its rightful place in the bookshelf before sighing in relief that her morning chores were done before making her way towards the kitchen. Mischievousness snuck into her smile as she thought up a way to break free from the lingering lighthearted stress clinging to her, the plans for the day ahead had put the lightest of strains on her head.

"Don't worry, mom, I won't let the food go bad."

Spike just stuck out his tongue as the ultimate comeback to his marefriend's playful teasing, knowing all too well that she didn't mean anything by it.

The circular dining table boasted the platter with morning foods stacked on its smooth surface proudly, its variety ranging from buttery pancakes to fresh french toast, the very sight of such a banquet instigating hungry groans from the oddball couple's stomachs. With matching sheepish smiles, the library-dwelling duo took their seats at the table and began their much awaited breakfast, slowly but surely chipping away at the hearty foods.

Silence was the last thing they wanted to hear, so the mare and the dragon kept it at bay with their casual everyday chatter, mainly conversing about some chores that would need to be caught up with considering their absence for the past couple of days. Eventually, however, their conversation drifted towards their plans regarding getting Applejack to keep quiet about the newspaper article she received.

"So, when do you think we should go?" Spike downed an entire glass of orange juice right after speaking, waiting to hear Twilight's plan of action.

"I'd prefer to visit her as soon as we possibly can. We're going to have to ask her to keep a tight lid on this before she lets it slip somehow, considering her near-inability to lie convincingly should anyone ask."

"You can say that again."

With their main objective for the day set, breakfast continued without any further topics of urgency to truly delve into. After making quick work of the dishes they had accumulated, the library-dwellers made their way to their home's main entrance. Before Spike could cross the threshold to begin the grueling walk to the outskirts of town, the violet aurora of his marefriend's all too familiar magic surrounded him and gently placed him on her back.

"Thought you might wanna hitch a ride." Twilight turned her neck slightly to look at the purple drake with her deep amethyst eyes, "The walk to Sweet Apple Acres is pretty long, after all."

"Thanks, Twi. You know, you really spoil me." Spike snuggled contently against the freshly washed mane of his special somepony, the familiar scent of lively lilacs seemingly imbued permanently into those velvety tri-colored strands.

"C'mon now, Spike, give yourself some credit. It's not like you haven't spoiled me with those masterful little claws of yours lately." The library faded into the background as Twilight started down the road leading her to what she expected to be an awkward conversation at best, the reality of the best possible outcome still being somewhat negative not marring the smile on her muzzle in the slightest.

"Yeah, I am great, aren't I?" Smugness unbefitting for the young dragon accompanied his equally boastful smirk as he spoke.

"Yeah-yeah, leave all the egotistical stuff to Rainbow Dash, Spikey, it's not your thing." It was a loveable quality that fit her chromatic friend seamlessly somehow, but she couldn't possibly begin to imagine Spike pulling off the "awesome" look of bravado successfully.

"Pfft, says you."

The rare couple continued their playful banter to keep themselves entertained as they made the trek towards Sweet Apple Acres, tossing teasing remarks back and forth between themselves. Through what little observation they managed to conduct on the surrounding ponies, the mare and the dragon deduced that their relationship had yet to reach the public eye, much to their silent relief. They planned on revealing their unique courtship to their close friends someday, but the newspaper article had succeeded at doing the one thing they wanted to avoid at all costs; it had scandalized their union in favor of the bits it would line the company's pockets with, leaving them to fend for themselves against the scrutinizing gaze of the merciless public.

The gates to the Apple's property came into view, looking about as well kept as they were the day the pair had first made their appearance in the little town. The sound of apple trees being bucked rebounded throughout the orchards, drawing Twilight closer to it, thinking that Applejack would be the one at work. She was wrong.

"Hey Big Mac, how are you?" Twilight's demeanor was cheery even though the source of the noise didn't belong to the mare she was looking for,

Big Mac simply looked at the pair with his stotic face, much like the guards of Canterlot, but his eyes roved over the two visitors, causing them to feel a little uneasy.

"So, uhm, is Applejack around here, we kinda need to talk to her." Twilight was really feeling freaked out by the look on Mac's face, one that somehow looked restrained, but his eyes showed some of the hidden emotions, causing the mare to shudder.

Big Mac just gestured towards his residence, not a single sound escaping from his muzzle, and Twilight just uttered out a goodbye before making her way over to the red workhorse's home. A elderly mare waited at the house's entrance, a look that Twilight and Spike had never seen before on her face currently taking it up. It was one of indignation and disgust, the sight alone banishing the couple's uplifting attitude.

"Uh, is something wrong Granny Smith?" Spike spoke up since Twilight didn't seem to be able to get over the cottonmouth effect that had suddenly overtaken her and rendered her speechless.

"Why of course there's somethin' wrong, I'm lookin' at it right now." Granny's voice had lost all of its elderly softness, instead, it was portrayed as an abrasive snarl-like tone that was accented by the insult she slithered into her answer.

The words that had originated from the elderly mare's mouth snapped Twilight out of her trance, confusion and a slight bit of anger injecting themselves into her senses.

"Hey, why would you say something like that!"

"Don't you raise your voice at me, missy, you and your little dragon feller ain't got a lick of the right to speak up to me in mah own house." Granny's voice only seemed to grow colder the more she spoke, her statements prodding at the couple.

"But, you haven't even given us a reason as to why your speaking to us like this, you've never insulted me or Spike before, and I don't see why you're doing so now." Twilight's voice was still slightly loud, but noticeably lower than before,

"Mah reason is that you and that lil' lizard of yours have come her to mah house to try and corrupt mah granddaughters with your unholy ways." Granny shifted her stance into a slightly defensive posture, accenting her speech.

Twilight stepped back a little at Granny Smith's choice of words, an equally undignified expression on her face mixing itself with her confusion.

"Unholy ways? What in Equestria are you talking about Granny."

"Don't you talk to me as if ah was your friend, ah am Granny Smith to you, and by your 'unholy ways' ah'm referring to you two an' what you've got going on!" Granny Smith took a step forward as her voice raised itself to a shout.

The couple froze at that second, their minds flooding with annoyance and larger traces of anger then before.

"That's what this is all about, it's all about who I chose to spend my life with?!" Twilight's voice doubled up on itself, ruffling the lime mare's mane a little.

"NO, this here is about unholy transgressions, and you happen to be commitin' the worst possible one!"

"Why is it unholy, answer me that Granny Smith!?" Twilight basically spat out the Apple mare's name as she continued the ongoing debate,

"Listen here, you she-devil, these are our traditions, ah don't need to have a reason to follow what ah believe in, and if Applejack won't listen to how stupid she sounds when she tries to belittle how heinous what it is you are doin', she'll stay locked up in her room until she does!"

Twilight's heart sank at Granny Smith's revelation, she had Applejack trapped in her bedroom until she would cooperate with her, and her anger flared that much more.

"LISTEN TO YOURSELF! You've locked your own granddaughter in her room, against her will, only so she would agree with what you are saying!"

Granny Smith's next move couldn't have been foreseen by Twilight or Spike once she enacted it. The lime mare raised her right foreleg and slapped it across Twilight's face, causing the mare to tumble over to the side with Spike following suit. The lavender mare had to restrain a telekinetic pulse that tried to fire itself out of her horn by instinct, as much as she didn't want to. A gash had been left on her cheek from the pointed edge of the hoof clipped her, and stung painfully as she lifted her head off of the ground along with the rest of her body.

"Get out of mah house, you sorry animals, better yet, leave this town for good. I don't want you anywhere near mah family from this point on, if you do, you will pay for your defiance."

Granny spoke with eerie malice to the couple, not a shred of remorse in her voice, and her threat was anything but hollow, being accented by Big Mac coming from the orchard with a small glare on his face.

Twilight turned her head to look at Big Mac, then back to Granny Smith before shaking her head slowly and speaking.

"I'm not going anywhere, Granny Smith, as long as I can live here, I will, and nothing you do will change that."

"We'll see about that." The lime mare threatened subtly.

The lavender mare spat at the elderly pony's hooves before turning around and making her way back into town, while Spike just returned the Apple's glares with one of his own before eventually turning around on his marefriend's back.

Applejack looked on from her bedroom's window as her best friend trotted down the path to Ponyville, tears matting her face at how useless she was in the whole situation, not really having the courage to do what Twilight had just done. Her hoof touched the smooth glass as another tear dripped from her face and onto the oak wood flooring.

"Ahm sorry, Twilight, Spike, you just did what no one in mah family has ever been able to do, you had the courage to go against the commands of an elder, you stood up for what you wanted instead of doing what they told you to do. Good luck."

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Rarity waded through the morning rush of ponies in the streets with no real destination in mind, she was simply trotting around since her mind wouldn't allow her to focus on anything else than her thoughts, work was out of the picture by a long shot for her, and she couldn't find anything else to take up her time.

Her morning had started up in a rush as her memories flooded back into her mind, confusing her greatly, and she almost jumped out of her skin when Ditzy Doo crawled out from under her bed, saying that she got tired of looking after her and decided to take a nap. The cross-eyed pegasus had also prepared an assortment of muffins inside Rarity's kitchen, ranging from blueberry to emerald studded flavors. With nothing but her thoughts, saddlebags, newspaper, and a fresh muffin, Rarity had waltzed out into the streets and just flowed with the ponies traversing them.

She began to lean towards a group of chattering mare, trying to catch a bit of gossip from the unknown group, before her eyes widened at a certain lavender mare quickly trotting through the edge of the small crowd. Twilight had a slightly irritated look on her face and Spike wasn't looking any happier than she was, the sight instantly catching the white mare's interest, so she began to push through the ponies around her a little quicker in hopes of catching up to the lavender mare.

In the end, the mare and dragon escaped Rarity's line-of-sight, but judging by the direction they were headed, the white mare figured out that they were headed towards the library, and continued to make her way through the morning crowds. At last, Rarity squeezed out from the mass of ponies occupying the street and began to trot a little quicker towards the Golden Oaks Library.

Upon reaching Twilight and Spike's residence, Rarity fixed up her mane a little at the doorway before knocking delicately on the wooden entrance. A few seconds passed and she was preparing to knock again, but a purple aurora overtook the doorway and opened it for the fashion designing mare. The organized interior of the library was contradicting completely with the slightly angered expressions on the owners of the house.

"Uhm, good morning, dears."

"Is that you, Rarity?" Twilight finally looked up from the spot on the floor her vision had been focused on, placing a mask of normality over her true emotions.

"Why of course, Twilight, I just saw you and Spike walking through the streets and decided I should pay you guys a visit." said Rarity in half-truths, her real reason for being there not entirely revealed yet.

"Thanks Rarity, it's nice to have some company over right, Spike?" Twilight turned her head towards the dragon that was laying on the couch.

"Yeah, I guess. was there something you needed Rarity, or did you just drop by?" Spike had spent enough time with Rarity to notice the signs that pointed towards her wanting to know something, and he wasn't really in the mood to play around for a while, he just felt like curling up with Twilight and going to sleep.

"W-what makes you think that, Spike?" Rarity was freaking out a little at being put on the spot so easily, but a deadpan from Spike forced the truth out of her.

"Okay, yes dear, I came here to ask you two about something."

"Well, what is it Rarity?" Twilight had a gut feeling that she already knew what the white mare was about to bring up, and her suspicions were proven correct when she spoke.

"I wanted to ask you and Spike about these."

Rarity levitated a familiar newspaper roll out from her saddlebags, but Twilight just pushed it back into her saddlebags with her own magic, much to her surprise, and spoke in a leveled tone.

"What about that, Rarity, we've already seen the pictures."

"Oh, you have, well I came over here to tell you about this nonsense, somepony must have fabricated a picture of you and Spi-"

"Wait wait wait, nonsense?!" Twilight's anger began to flare up again, much like it had with Granny Smith.

"Why, of course, I mean you two can't possibly be together I mean, come on." said Rarity, oblivious to the glares forming on the library dwelling couple.

"And what exactly makes you think that, Rarity!?" Spike teleported of from the couch and right next to Twilight's side, his pent up anger finally finding an outlet.

Rarity flinched away from the dragon's loud tone, one she had never heard directed towards her.

"I-I mean, you're a dragon and she's a mare, h-how is that supposed to work out?" Rarity started shaking a bit as the couple's looks only grew harsher the more she spoke.

"Better than any relationships you've been in, that's for sure." Twilight's anger was clouding her thoughts, leaving behind only the basics, not a friend, only a mare who completely disagreed her relationship.

Rarity gawked at her friend's words, completely surprised by the aggressiveness concentrated on her.

"Why I never!"

"What Rarity, is this what you came here for, to plant more doubt into Spike's mind, just like last time, filling his head with your lies."

"What lies! It's just not natural, Twilight, a pony and a dragon can't b-"

"WHY NOT, HUH?! What do you expect in life, Rarity, do you think the only relationship that is 'normal' is to get together with some stuck-up snob that would rather count the bits in his pouch than spend time with you."

"NO! It's nothing like that, this is just not right!"

"Why not, Rarity, please just answer me that one question, if you can give me a worthy answer that is backed up with hard facts, then I'll believe you."

Twilight's tone had returned to normal, though her eyes still held anger, and Rarity couldn't find anything to respond the lavender mare's question in they way she was asked to, so she just sighed sadly and looked down at the floor and uttered out a few words,

"It just isn't, Twilight."

The celestial student had heard enough from the white unicorn, and proceeded to open the door with her magic and pointed her hoof outside.

"Go, Rarity, and as long as you think like that, don't you dare try to convince us that what we are doing is wrong."

Rarity wanted to say something, anything to make herself look a little better, but found nothing yet again. She just stood there with her face down, lost in her thoughts on the current situation.

"GO AWAY RARITY!"

Spike's roar snapped the white mare out of her trance and caused her to scramble out of the library. Once Rarity got out through the doorway, Twilight slammed the door shut and hugged Spike as tears ran down her face.

"I'm sorry she had to put us through that again, Spike, I don't know what she was thinking."

"Don't worry, Twilight, I don't care about what she thinks, as long as I've got you here with me, I can stand it."

"Thanks, Spikey, that means a lot to me. To us."

The couple remained in their idle states for a few minutes before deciding that they would close the library early for the day and just rest off the day's stress, which was incredible for just one morning. The plush blue covers greeted the couple warmly as they settled down, wrapped in each other's forelimbs. Sleep didn't come for the couple easily, and a storm began to brew outside, its thunder rumbling in the distance.

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Press stumbled towards Glamour Shot's motel room with exhaustion written plainly over the goofy, content smile on his pudgy face. Pinkie had, against all of his pathetic attempts to convince her otherwise, decided to throw him a little shindig at Sugarcube Corner as a gift of goodwill and friendship. Still, as he walked through the door to the cheap motel room with a bag of sweets clutched in his maw and a party hat strapped to his head, he couldn't help but feel that he was forgetting something important that he was supposed to have done.

"Ah, about time you got here, Press. Did you learn anything from your reconnaissance on Twilight and Spike?" Glamour's voice drifted over to him from the room's sole window, and his heart went cold the second they registered in his head.

"Uhm...oops?"

Meetings

Chapter 12

Meetings

Rainbow Dash grumbled in annoyance as the morning light shone through her bedrooms glamorous windows and directly into her eyes, awakening her from her deep slumber.

The cyan mare spent about ten minutes in an internal argument on whether or not she should get out of bed at all the day, not really liking the idea of leaving the plush mattress she was on, but all hesitance fled her body once she remembered the reason she was at Canterlot in the first place.

The chromatic pegasus stood on shaky legs and stretched her limbs, popping all of the kinks in them, and fluttered her wings as she tried to get rid of the numb feeling still left in them.

Hunger found no place in her body, for she had feasted in the royal dining halls the last two days. She would have left for Ponyville after a one night's rest, but her wings had taken a bit of a toll from the limits she had pushed and the bone-chilling air she had flown through for hours hadn't really helped her situation, and the train was delayed due to some crazy pony having ripped open holes in the steam system.

After leaving her room, Rainbow Dash stuck out like a sore hoof among the finely dressed maids and the heavily armored guard ponies, whom she found were much cooler looking than the black and white dresses the maids used.

"Good morning Miss Dash, will you require breakfast for today, or would you perhaps like to visit the weapons room again?"

The pony asking a question approached Rainbow Dash, his alabaster coat contrasting greatly with the black tuxedo that marked him as one of the castle's butlers.

"Nah, thanks Alfred, but I think I'm ready to head back to my place, I'm feeling kinda homesick." replied the chromatic mare in full honesty.

"Very well, will you be requiring an escort?"

"I'm okay, Alfred, I'm just going to walk around town a little to wait for the numbness in my wings go away, thanks for everything."

"It's no problem at all, I assure you, back in the old days I used to work for this eccentric lad, he would make his home in a abandoned cave for privacy, and that isn't exactly easy to keep clean."

"Huh, well he must have been pretty weird, anyway, it's been nice staying here, Alfred, goodbye."

"Have a good day, Miss Dash, and please do be careful with those wings of yours lest you end up crashing in the middle of a field."

Rainbow Dash just chuckled at his comment, the possibility of her crashing due to a little soreness in her wings not existing in her mind, and she waved a farewell at Alfred once she reached the castle's gilded gates.

The proud mare trotted down the cobblestone streets of Canterlot along with much of the city's 'Higher Class' residents, whom seemed to instinctively keep their noses pointed towards the sky. As Rainbow Dash made her way through a random path in the elegantly chiseled roads, she found that the news stands still had crowds around them, all of the ponies in said crowds wanting to get in on the juiciest news the paper had to offer.

The photographs that had been posted on the newspaper article had kept a never ending stream of ponies flooding towards the nearest news stand they could find, and, from the few times the cyan mare had walked around town, she could tell that the article was the target of many of the gossiping mares, nothing good ever coming from the majority of their mouths. Some of the commentary that was passed around almost caused Rainbow Dash to punch the dirty mouth it had spawned from.

The rainbow mare's wings began to twitch in anticipation of flight, signaling that their senses had returned to them, much to the quick mare's satisfaction. Rainbow Dash trotted away from the masses of ponies and towards a more open area, settling on a small park built into the mountain city. The speedster spread her wings as she bent her legs down into a crouching position, following up with a few flaps of her wings that increased in speed the more she repeated the motion. With a gust of wind, Rainbow Dash blasted away from her take off spot, much to chagrin of a few picnickers in the vicinity due to the resulting wind toppling over their food, and the blue streak set herself on a course towards her hometown, her speed as fast as the night she arrived at Canterlot, but with the addition of being extra careful with opposing air currents.

'That egghead better be there this time or I swear I'll start ripping my feathers off.'

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Twilight rose from her bed as the afternoon's bright glow filtered int through her window, surprised that she had overslept for so long and that Spike was missing from her hooves when she woke up, but she was snapped out of her building paranoia by the sound of the missing dragon grumbling after dropping a couple of books downstairs.

The lavender mare trotted over to her vanity mirror and found that the ugly cut Granny Smith had left on her cheek after slapping her was still irritated, causing her to flinch slightly.

Twilight began to formulate a restoration spell in her mind, having learned a few from the unicorn's at the Canterlot Hospital during one of her visits, and channeled it towards her horn, resulting in a yellow glow overtaking her cheek, and leaving behind no trace of the cut ever being there.

The librarian smiled at the cut's absence, but she started to stumble dizzily a few seconds after the spells completion, feeling tired all of the sudden.

'What was that all about? The restoration spell does use up a bit of magic, but not nearly enough to leave me feeling so drained. Maybe I'm still tired, yeah.'

Twilight relented from her internal deductions, settling on walking over to her bathroom and washing away the sleep from her eyes as she brushed her mane and teeth. Once she felt she was suitable for an appearance, the lavender unicorn made her way downstairs to find her purple companion, who was currently lost reading one of the 'Bat Stallion' comic books that the library had recently received near the crackling fireplace.

"Oh, Twilight, it's nice to see you decided to wake up today."

Spike spotted Twilight as she began to make her way towards him, immediately beginning his playful teasing in hopes of lifting the mood from yesterday's encounters, which had pretty much destroyed their moral to do anything that day. Twilight smiled at the fact that Spike hadn't stayed upset from yesterday.

"Well, you've gotten to sleep in for most of your life, I guess I deserve one litle day for myself."

Twilight's voice came out softer than usual, one would almost call it weak, the sound alone causing Spike to switch from his teasing attitude into a worried one.

"Twilight, are you okay? You sound a little sick."

The drake teleported off of the couch he was on and appeared in front of the lavender mare, bringing one of his claws to try and reach for her forehead.

"I'm fine Spike, really, I'm just a little tired out." Twilight's voice remained in its weak state, though it did increase slightly in volume since she now focused on making herself sound okay.

Spike just looked at her in a funny way, searching for any signs of illness visible on her body, but found none, much to his relief.

"Okay, Twilight, if that's what you say, then I'll take your word for it."

The mare widened her smile slightly, thankful for her little dragonfriend being so understanding, but she couldn't help but worry a little about her health herself since her exhaustion had come out of nowhere and her long sleep would have eliminated any tiredness left from yesterday. She cast aside her worries for the moment and instead opted to plant a soft smooch on her little dragon, melting away her problematic thoughts further.

"Still, it's nice to know that my little dragonfriend cares so much about me." Twilight's statement served to bring forth a light blush from the purple drake.

"Anyway, my health aside, how about we go and pay Fluttershy a visit, maybe she has already finished her check-ups on Peewee and Owlowiscious."

Spike perked up further at the mentioning of his pet phoenix, happy to be able to be see it again after a week and a half, but caught his excitement in order to ask his marefriend a question.

"Sure, that would be great Twilight, but don't you want to eat something before we go?"

The moment food was mentioned, Twilight's stomach grumbled out in response for her, much to her embarrassment, and a hunger she hadn't know she had hit her at full force.

"Yeah, but can we get some hay fries, I've been craving those since yesterday."

"You know, I could really go for some of those too, Haymitch still runs his fast-food stall, so that would be a good place to get an order of them."

Spike's tail began to wag slightly since he didn't really get the chance to indulge in greasy foods, and he was already savoring the crispy treats with anticipation.

Twilight opened the library's doorway, letting in a rush of chilly air from outside, causing her to shiver before she levitated a purple sweater off of the coat rack and onto herself.

"That's great, we can go there on the way to Fluttershy's cottage, but don't forget to put on your coat, it's still cold outside from the thunderstorm yesterday."

Spike scampered off into the library for fifteen steps before he remembered that he could just teleport upstairs, which he did, and returned wearing a chestnut-brown jacket with a fluffy white inside.

"Ready when you are, Twilight."

"Well come along, lets not wait till it gets too dark outside, I don't want you walking around in the nighttime cold or you'll get sick."

Twilight sealed the library shut after she and Spike had stepped outside, and began to trot down the road the lead to the outskirts of Ponyville, with the purple drake walking alongside her as he started fumbling with his wrist guard for no apparent reason.

The couple noticed that much of the ponies that usually filled the streets were gone, of course, there were still quite a few ponies up and about, but not as many as every other day. The pair chalked up the mass absence to the recent storm that had hit.

The lavender mare and purple dragon approached a blue trailer that bore an insignia of a veggie burger and hay fries on its side. Once they were close enough, they could see the white, middle-aged, earth pony that went by the name of Haymitch, who was currently reading a book with some kind of bird on its cover since nopony else was ordering food.

"Good afternoon, Haymitch, how has your business been going?"

The fry cook looked up from his book, and smiled at the customers at his windowsill.

"Ah, good afternoon guys. To tell you the truth, today has been really slow, I haven't had a single customer after the morning rush, after that, a lot of ponies just disappeared from their usual routines."

Twilight and Spike were a little disturbed by all of the missing ponies, having gone through battles with various monsters and malicious gods, which only helped to fill their heads with all of the worst case scenarios that could have led to all of the ponies sudden disappearance.

"That's really weird, Haymitch, I thought nopony came out today because of the thunderstorm last night, but if they were here in the morning then it must be something else." Twilight continued to compare thoughts on the situation with the trailer's owner, very much interested in the current happenings.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't give it too much thought, you've lived here long enough to know how weird things can get in this little town, heck, most ponies forget you're the one that takes care of most of those 'unusual' problems," Haymitch continued the friendly conversation, but didn't forget the reason why most ponies approach his shop, "anyway, did you guys want something to eat, it'll be out quickly if you do since nopony else is really ordering anything else."

"Oh, yes, I'd like two orders of hay fries, please." Twilight's conversation had covered up her hunger, but it returned instantly upon the sudden change of topic.

"Two orders of hay fries coming up." Haymitch smiled at the chance to apply his skills since he really hadn't done much that day, and took off into the cooking area of his trailer.

"So, Twilight, where do you think all of the ponies went off to?" Spike spoke up for the first time since arriving at Haymitch's stand, wearing an expression of pure curiosity.

"I have no idea, Spike, but if they don't appear by tomorrow I'll make sure to send a letter to the princess and tell her all about it." replied the lavender mare.

The couple waited for about five minutes, the tantalizing scent of fresh hay fries drifting out of the trailer and into their faces, until Haymitch popped back into the windowsill, holding a white paper bag.

"Here you go guys, fresh out of the fryer." Said the fry cook as he handed the bag over to the lavender mare.

"Thanks Haymitch, how much do I owe you?" Twilight levitated her bit pouch out from her sweater.

"Nah, these are on the house."

"It's okay, Haymitch, I really should pay you something."

"You already did, it was nice to have someone to talk to after being out here alone for most of the day, it gets a little creepy you know?"

"Well, thank you very much, I'll see if I can swing by a little later and catch up on how you've been."

"That'd be nice, now off you go, you don't want to be out in this cold for too long or you'll catch the flu."

"Bye Haymitch!" exclaimed the couple in unison as they walked away from the food stand.

The lavender mare and the dragon continued their trek towards their shy friend's cottage, anxious to arrive in order to eat their food under a roof. On the way out of town, the couple spotted Sweet Apple Acres and slight anger and sadness welled up inside of them, anger due to Granny Smith's confrontation, and sadness because of the fact that a friend was trapped there for trying to help them out. With great effort, the pair managed to keep their heads clear of their rampant emotions as they walked past the orchards and out towards the Everfree Forest's edge.

A cozy little cottage came into view shortly after passing the apple orchards, the sight bringing relief to the partners since they would finally be able to eat, the trek had only increased their hunger to the point where it could drive them to rip apart the bag and eat on the floor if they didn't dine soon.

Twilight approached Fluttershy's cottage and gently knocked on the door three times, knowing that if it was any louder it would give her friend a heart attack, but she received no answer from the other side other than a few chirps and a muffled squeak.

"Fluttershy, are you in there?" Twilight knocked on the door again and pressed her ear against it, trying to hear something she could understand. The door's lock clicked open and the entrance creaked open slowly, and a pair of blue eyes peeked through the little space provided, widening as their owner realized who was at her door.

"Oh my, Twilight, is that you? How have you been, I mean, if it's okay for me to ask, if not then it's alright."

"I've been good Fluttershy, it's just that I went to Canterlot and I didn't really tell anyone about it, sorry."

"It's fine Twilight, uhm, do you want to come inside?"

"Thanks, it's getting kind of cold outside, cone on Spike."

Fluttershy blushed profusely once she noticed that Twilight hadn't come alone, but had instead brought along her assistant, thoughts of the newspaper article flooding into her mind. She willed her body to take a seat across from her visitors on one of her green couches.

"So Fluttershy, what have you done while we were gone?" asked Twilight, catching the shy mare off guard with her sudden question.

"Not much really, I've just been busy helping out a couple of little birds that fell out of a tree, but they've been getting better, but, uhm, h-how have you two been?" Fluttershy surprised herself and the couple with her sudden shift in conversation.

"We've been alright, Princess Celestia just called me in to help me with my experiments, and Spike decided to tag along." Twilight gestured to the little drake sitting next to her.

"Yeah, and I got this out of it." Spike punctuated his statement by lifting up his claw to show Fluttershy his wrist guard.

"Wow, that gem is really pretty, but why is it shining?" Fluttershy continued to surprise herself with the fluidity of her questions.

"The gem was Twilight's project, I mean, she built this whole thing, but she enchanted the gem to let me do this." The dragon followed up his statement with a teleport, one that landed him next to a frightened yellow mare who jumped away and hid behind the couch Twilight was on.

"T-that's really n-nice Spike." Fluttershy was shaking from the fear that had coursed throughout her body a few seconds ago.

"Heh, sorry about that, Fluttershy, I didn't mean to scare you." Spike accompanied his apology with a sheepish smile that seemed to calm the yellow pegasus slightly.

"It's okay, let me just get some of my raspberry tea, it helps calm me down a bit, d-do you guys want any?" Fluttershy made her way towards her kitchen, but stopped to ask her question.

"Thanks Fluttershy, but no, Spike and I are going to eat some hay fries and the tea wouldn't really mix well with them." Fluttershy walked away from the living room and into the kitchen after Twilight finished speaking.

The librarian and dragon opened up the white paper bag that contained their food, salivating at the scent of Haymitch's cooking, but, once they touched the fries, they found that they had cooled down and hardened a bit.

"Aww, we didn't get them while they were fresh." Spike pouted a little at the 'tragedy' that had occurred to his meal.

"Don't worry, Spike, I can warm them up again."

Twilight's horn lit up faintly as she produced a heat spell, and focused it onto the delicious fries on the paper bowls. The lavender mare slumped a little as the spell finished, her eyes going out of focus for a little as the same feeling of exhaustion from the time she used the restoration spell overtook her again.

"Twilight, hey, are you okay? You look like your drifting off to sleep." Spike had noticed the look that spread on his marefriend's face and instantly put himself next to her, looking for any way to figure out what was going on and how to help.

"It's nothing, Spike I'm ju-" Twilight was interrupted by her own yawn before she continued, "I'm just a little tired from the walk over here."

"But you've been tired the whole day, Twilight, it's not good to push yourself like this." Spike's voice was basically leaking worry towards his lover, causing her heart to warm up a little.

"Thanks, Spike, but I'm okay, really, I've just been thinking about something."

"About what?"

"Well, it's just that most of our friends know about our relationship already, maybe we should tell Fluttershy as well, and then we can look for Rainbow Dash sometime tomorrow."

"I don't know, Pinkie Pie was alright, but the Apples weren't exactly fond of us, other than Applejack, and you know what went down with Rarity."

"Yeah, I know, but she is going to find out sooner or later, it'd be better if it was us telling her, right?"

"Hmm...you've got a point, but how do we ask her?"

"We just do, there isn't really a way to confess something like this to Fluttershy lightly."

Fluttershy chose that exact moment to walk back into the living room with a cup of tea clenched in her teeth, which she put down on the coffee table after taking a seat on the couch opposite of her visitors.

"So, did anything else happen at Canterlot?" Fluttershy was on a roll with her speaking skills and wasn't stopping, even as a light blush grew on her cheeks since she full well knew something else had happened.

"Actually, yes Fluttershy, how do I put this, Spike and I-" Twilight's confession was cut short as a cyan blur flew in through one of the open windows of Fluttershy's cottage, and crashed directly into a conveniently placed bean bag, popping it open in the process and spilling hundreds of the little foam balls on the floor. Fluttershy took off into the air and landed on top of a bookshelf she had near the stairs, frightened yet again.

"Rainbow Dash?!" Twilight was a little scared herself from the cyan mare's sudden appearance, but not enough as to render her speechless.

"Pfft, bleck, these foamy things taste like old horseshoes, oh, hey Twilight!" Rainbow Dash's voice grew in volume as she fully remembered why she crashed there in the first place, and she rushed over to the lavender mare and pulled her into a noogie.

"Ow ow ow, Rainbow Dash! Stop!" Twilight's mane was left unkempt and many stray hairs stood out in different directions after Dash had finished her playful assault, "What was that for!"

"You know what it was for, Twilight, you sly mare, when did you learn to create such scandals?" Rainbow Dash grinned at the bemused librarian.

"No, I don't, care to explain, Rainbow Dash." Twilight just stared at Dash, slightly annoyed with her rough playfulness.

"Oh come on! How could you not know about all the stuff you stirred up in Canterlot?" Rainbow Dash facehoofed at Twilight's obliviousness, but all the attention in the room shifted to the top of the bookcase Fluttershy was one after she 'Eeeped' quite loudly.

"Wait, you know what she's talking about Fluttershy." Twilight's hunger was forgotten again as her curiosity won out.

"Uhm, maybe." the animal care-taker really wished she could somehow blend in with her surroundings and become invisible like one of her iguanas.

"Fluttershy." Twilight stretched out her friends name and stared at her intently, slowly breaking away her yellow friend's willpower.

Fluttershy was about to break under the pressure, but Rainbow Dash intervened by speaking up, much to her relief.

"Are you serious, Twilight? You really don't know what we're talking about?" The cyan mare wore a deadpan expression as she asked her questions, which were answered by a shake of the head from the lavender unicorn.

"We are talking about you and Spike, Twilight, seriously, how oblivious can you be towards these type of things, especially if you're the center of it." Rainbow Dash finally spilled the beans, causing Twilight's eyes to go wide and her cheeks to blush in embarrassment, with Spike mimicking her almost perfectly.

"How did you two find out!" Twilight was freaking out slightly, surprised that all her friends had already known about her relationship before she even told them about it.

"W-well, I got a newspaper in the mail." Fluttershy began to put herself back into the conversation at hand.

"Yeah, so did I, but I flew off to Canterlot to look for you, and it turns out that you had already left before I got there." Rainbow Dash put her side of story into the mix.

"Wait, why did you go look for me?" Twilight's tone took a turn for the fearful, and she took a reflexive step backwards.

"Well duh, you managed to get into The Canterlot Times! You should have seen how many ponies were fighting to be able to get the article on you and your dragonfriend over there, you're getting more publicity than anyone else!" The chromatic mare's voice was full of excitement for the fact that Twilight had basically reached the 'Celebrity' level in Canterlot.

Twilight and Spike were both more than a little uncomfortable at the news that the truth on their relationship had spread throughout Canterlot like a wildfire, but Spike managed to ask out a question to the speeding mare.

"So, you're cool with all of this, both of you?"

"Cool, Spike, I'm surprised Twilight could manage to get in a relationship with anyone."

"HEY, I'M RIGHT HERE!" Twilight was already frustrated from the cyan mare's prodding.

"Hehe, I'm just teasing you Twi, but still, The Canterlot Times, wow."

"What about you Fluttershy, are you okay with all of this?" Spike turned away from the chortling rainbow pegasus and focused his attention on the butterscotch mare atop of the bookshelf.

"Well, of course, I could never be mad at anyone, especially not over this, uhm, unless they're meanies, then I would be mad at them." Fluttershy seemed to be breaking out of her shy shell even further the more she spoke.

"Thanks, girls, I really couldn't stand to lose anymore of you." Twilight gained a downtrodden look as she talked.

"What are you talking about Twilight?" the yellow pegasus flew down from the bookshelf, and landed in front of Twilight, who just sighed before speaking.

"It's just that Rarity came to Spike and I yesterday, she asked us about the newspaper, saying that what it showed us doing was nonsense. To sum it all up, I had had a very bad day and I guess she sparked off all the anger I had in me, so I sent her away from the library and told her never try to convince me that what I am doing is wrong."

Fluttershy just hugged the librarian as she started to tear up, and she too could feel her eyes growing moist at the sadness of the conflicts that the couple had going on.

After Twilight had calmed down, she and Spike continued to tell them their story, starting from Spike's break up, to Granny Smith's confrontation, and finally back to where they currently were, excluding one part of course.

"Damn, so she just hit you across the face like that?" Rainbow Dash was still curious about what had gone down with the elderly Apple mare.

"Yes, but I cured myself this morning since she had left a pretty nasty cut with her hoof." Twilight was eating some of her hay fries while she conversed with her friends.

"I didn't know that Granny could be that mean, she has never showed it before." Fluttershy took a sip of her tea, which was doing wonders with her nerves.

"Me neither, but she mentioned religion in a lot of what she said." informed the lavender unicorn.

"Religion? Didn't ponies leave that behind a long time ago?" the cyan mare was trying to get as much information from her bookish friend as possible due to how interesting it all was.

"Ponies never really left behind religions, they simply stopped advertising them, for the most part, the only religious place I know of is of is the Mother Mareia Church in Canterlot's lower districts." Twilight had never really paid much attention to that place, obviously it could have been useful if she had.

"Aren't you scared of Granny Smith, Twilight?" Fluttershy shuddered after saying the elderly mare's name.

"No, I don't care what she says to me, I'm not leaving Ponyville for as long as I can." The librarian's eyes burned with determination, but began to get half-lidded once another yawn escaped her, "It's been really nice seeing you girls again, but I think I should head home already, it's getting pretty dark outside."

"It's been nice seeing you too, be careful on your way home." Fluttershy walked the couple over to the door, feeling a little tired herself, "Oh, and don't forget these two." The butterscotch mare let out a bird call, summoning Peewee and Owlowiscious, whom flew over to their owners.

"Yeah, and congrats you guys, don't let ol' Granny get in your heads." Rainbow Dash flew out through the open window she had crashed in through and made her way towards her cloud home.

After goodbyes were exchanged, the friends made their way towards their respective houses, those who weren't there already, and battled against the chill of the night air. Twilight tried set up the temperature spell she had used on the fries on Spike and herself, but her magic usage left her drained again, almost to the point of fainting.

The rare group of partners arrived to their wooden residence, much to their mutual relief, and made their way inside. Peewee flew over to his nest, and Owlowiscious went to rest on his perch, while the mare and the dragon made their way up the stairs and towards the plush mattress that awaited them.

Spike pecked Twilight before snuggling into her chest, both of them tired from the day they had gone through, though it did leave them feeling a lot better than yesterday had. As the couple drifted off to sleep, a brown earth pony dropped from one of the libraries branches, and he began to briskly trot towards the outskirts of town.

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Inside of one of the Apple Family Barns stood a massive crowd of ponies, all of which had been called there by the elder of the Apples, and they had spent the afternoon conversing with one another or simply waiting for the main event to begin. All of the ponies present had one thing in common, they each bore a wooden circle with a cross in its center on a string around their necks.

A cloaked mare stood far away from the mass of ponies, simply overlooking the events taking place, not really partaking in any of them. Her hooded head turned towards a lime-green elderly mare that appeared on a makeshift stage, said mare began to make her way towards a microphone they had placed for her, and spoke in a frail, yet commanding, voice.

"Citizens of Ponyville, it has come to mah attention that we are suffering a great problem here in our little town. This problem was revealed to me two days ago by a newspaper mah granddaughter received, my fellow Mareians, the unholiest of transgressions has befallen our peaceful home."

All of the ponies in the audience went berserk at the non-specific information they had received, but were silenced as Granny Smith raised her hoof, pointing at one of the ponies in the audience and signaling him to ask his question.

"What is this 'Problem', Elder Smith?"

The mature mare gained the same rage riddled look she had yesterday, and her voice lost all of it's frailness when she next spoke through gritted teeth.

"Its name is Twilight Sparkle and Spike the dragon."

Evolution

Chapter 13

Evolution

"Glamour Shot? Are you in here?"

Press made his way into the Golden Sun Motel after failing to meet up with the cloaked mare. He had made his way over to the checkpoint Glamour Shot had set up for him at the scheduled time, only to find that the bald mare was nowhere to be seen among the crowd of ponies inside the barn. The brown stallion now feared for his safety at the hands of the malicious puppet master, since the last time he messed up ended with him receiving a couple of burn marks on his underbelly.

The newspaper director was currently stepping within the dark motel room, his knees threatening to buckle under him, and they nearly did when the door was slammed shut by a blue aurora. He turned towards the spot by the window that Glamour Shot fancied, aforementioned mare currently writing down a few notes in a notebook in the moonlight offered by the very same window plane.

"What is it Press? I've got a lot of information to document, so I can't spare the time for idle chattering." The cloaked mare, without her hood on, turned her head to face the frightened stallion, an unusually neutral expression on her face.

"I just wanted to give you my report for today, just like you asked." Press was calmed slightly by the fact that Glamour Shot hadn't begun to punish him for messing up, then again, she shouldn't have to since he followed her orders to the tip of the letter.

"Ah, yes, well let me hear it then, I'll need to add it in with the rest of what I've learned from the Elder Council." The bald mare seemed to perk up slightly at the fact that her assistant hadn't messed up again like he usually did.

"Today, Twilight Sparkle and Spike left their library in the late afternoon, and headed over to a food stand owned by a stallion named Haymitch. The targets seemed to be well acquainted with the stand's owner, keeping up a conversation for several minutes, and headed towards the outskirts of Ponyville to visit a friend of theirs, called Fluttershy. While the targets talked with Fluttershy, a cyan mare by the name of Rainbow Dash crashed into the cottage they were in, who was also a friend of the group. Twilight Sparkle and Spike decided to confess their relationship to their friends, but they already knew and were okay with their situation. The targets left the house shortly after and headed back to their library, so I stopped my shift there, and headed back to the barn where we were supposed to meet." Press looked proud of his job well done, his years of working as the newspaper director attuning his presentation skills, but he followed up his report with a question.

"Why weren't you at the checkpoint, Glamour?"

The devious mare's eyes sparked slightly with anger at the tone of voice in Press' question, as if he could question where she was supposed to be.

"Because I got bored, Press, that old hag has no backstory to her accusations other than saying that it's against their religion. In the end, I just got frustrated of hearing her repeat the same thing over and over again, so I left the meeting and came back here, but now I know that I'll have a average sized group of mindless idiots unknowingly help me reach my goal."

"What is your goal." Press had never really discussed the reasons behind Glamour Shot's orders, simply doing as she said in order to avoid her barrage of blackmail to leak out into the world, so he was genuinely curious as to her reasons and what she planned.

"My goal, Press? My goal is to exact my revenge on those two," Glamour Shout pointed a cloaked hoof towards a dartboard with a picture of Twilight and Spike, "they took my normal life away many years ago, so I plan on doing the same to them, and nothing will get in my way."

"How do you know that everypony will follow along with this long enough to achieve what you want, what if Twilight and Spike persevere through all of this." Press began to regret his words the moment they escaped his mouth, anticipating the burns, but nothing happened, Glamour Shot instead raised her head a little higher from her sitting position in order to look at the director in the eyes as she spoke.

"There is a truth in ponies, Press, and this is it, the only thing ponies love more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall trying." Glamour Shot's voice was clear of emotion, she simply spoke her raw thoughts, "Some day you'll come to embrace those words, for when one knows their enemies, they can never lose."

The cloaked mare returned to her documentation, adding in the newest information she gained, and left Press to his thoughts and rest. The earth pony made his way to his spot on the floor and curled up in order to get some sleep, but was interrupted as something fluffy hit him on the head, causing him to look up at the bald mare.

"Keep the pillow, you've earned it for doing your job right."

"Thank you, Glamour Shot."

Press lay his head down on the plush object he was given, finding it much better than the itchy carpet that lined the floor, and quickly fell into a deep sleep, one devoid of the usual ink infested nightmares he had been suffering for the past few days.

"The time is near, Twilight and Spike, Fortuna has her cards playing in my favor, and we will truly see how much the public can wear down those who oppose what they want." Glamour Shot punctuated her monologue by shooting a dart at the couple's picture, hitting the purple dragon right between the eyes, and a grin spread on her muzzle.

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Spike was up early again, early meaning before Twilight woke up, and walked across his bedroom and towards the bathroom in order to take a relaxing bath. The drama that had been going on the past days was starting to affect him a bit, tiring him out quicker than he usually would be. After his bath, he brushed his teeth and went downstairs to brew up a batch of coffee for Twilight and himself.

As Spike was pouring himself a cup of the awakening elixir, he heard a muffled groan from upstairs that caused him to instantly put down everything he was doing and run upstairs with the help of his wrist guard. When he reached the bedroom, he found Twilight sitting up on their mattress with a hoof pressed against the base of her horn, her eyes sealed shut as she tried to get rid of the slight pain that had formed there.

"Twilight, does your head hurt? What's wrong?" Spike was beginning to get tired of repeating the same lines he had said yesterday, but not enough as to keep him from worrying about his marefriend.

"Ow, yes Spike, I feel dizzy and this headache won't leave me alone." Twilight's amethyst eyes opened up to look at their owners dragonfriend.

"Do you want me to get some migraine pills?" the purple drake didn't like to see his partner the way she was, every flinch in pain given off by her being mimicked by him.

"Please do, but I think I should visit a unicorn doctor, the pain is coming mostly from my horn." the lavender mare's response caused Spike to run off and come back with two pills and a glass of water.

"Here you go Twilight, and about the unicorn doctor, I don't think there are any here since this is a earth pony town." the draconic assistant was racking his mind for anyone in Ponyville who had a medical degree on the unicorn branch, but nopony came to mind.

The librarian put the pills in her mouth and washed them down with all of the water in the glass, getting rid of a dryness she didn't know she had in her throat. Twilight began to get off of the bed, but found that her legs felt really weak, as if she suddenly weighed more than she could carry, and began to stumble to her right. Spike teleported to her side and supported her by letting her lean against him slightly.

"Okay, I think you should stay in bed today, you look really tired and should rest." the dragon tried to guide Twilight towards the bed, but the mare instead tried to walk towards the stairway heading down into the living room.

"It's...It's not that bad, Spike, I just need to walk it off." As, the lavender librarian moved sluggishly, she felt like if her stomach was tied in a knot, which made the trek downstairs quite uncomfortable.

Upon reaching the library's main lobby, or the living room, Twilight flopped down onto one of the couches in front of the idle fireplace. The pain from her horn was beginning to dull slightly due to the medicine she was given, but it never really left her.

"Twilight, I really think you shouldn't be walking around like that if you feel sick, and you've been like this since yesterday." Spike had his arms crossed and tried to keep a stern expression on his face, but the worry was enveloping any other kind of face he could put on.

"I know, but I really think I should visit a doctor here in Ponyville, just to make sure that there is nothing wrong with my body that is causing me to feel so unbalanced, but the problems with my horn will have to wait until I can schedule an appointment with a unicorn expert in Canterlot." Twilight began to rise from the couch, not really wanting to, but she had to put Spike's and her worries to rest.

"Fine, we'll visit the medical center, but I'm coming along too since I don't want you walking around without someone to help you." With his mind spoken, Spike continued to support his marefriend as she walked towards the library's entrance.

Twilight lit up the door in a flickering purple aurora, barely able to will it open as she walked out, and having an equally difficult time closing it behind her. Her magical abilities worried her, since magic was her special ability, it was a little heartbreaking to see her own talent being so weak.

The residents of Ponyville looked on as the lavender mare and the dragon made their way through the streets heading towards the Tenderheart Hospital, some of their expressions putting further confusion and worry into Twilight's mind. Most of the ponies that the pair knew gave them cheerful smiles and a wave, but the rest of the ponies gave them looks of disgust with a couple of glares in the mix. Those one of the ponies who smiled at the odd couple, Twilight believed his name was Rift Raft, was confronted shortly after greeting them by one of the ponies that glared at them. The confrontation looked more like a debate, with each member speaking and pointing a hoof at the other before they switched positions.

The bickering between the two ponies kept up even after they had left Twilight's field of vision, but she couldn't really hear anything they were saying anyway, yet she felt as if she knew why some of the ponies were acting weird, but she couldn't put her hoof on what it exactly was.

Spike noticed the glares directed at them as well, but instead of trying to deduce why they were looking at them like that, he decided to return all of their harsh stares, causing some of them to back down. The drake felt like if he needed to protect his marefriend more carefully now, so he pushed himself closer to her, accepting the extra weight to support her better.

The red and white building that was known as the Tenderheart Hospital came into the couple's view, causing them to pick up their pace a little in hopes to get the lavender mare checked-up as soon as possible. The hospital's double doors slid open on their own and granted the companions entry, only to find that the lobby was almost fully used up, causing them to groan in the horrible anticipation of having to wait until it was their turn.

The receptionist was one of the ponies that the couple already knew, so she was a part of the half of the room that wasn't glaring at them .

" Hello Nurse Care, how have you been." Twilight approached the pink attendant, starling her out of the paperwork she was immersed in.

"O-oh, okay I guess, can I help you two." The nurse was blushing at the sight of the unusual couple, but said couple chalked her blush up to embarrassment.

"Why yes, Twilight here would like to get a diagnosis for any illnesses she may be carrying." Spike answered for Twilight, a bit formal since he really didn't speak to Nurse Care much.

"Very well, I'll sign you up for an appointment later today, but I mean later today, you guys might want to walk around town for a while until this rush dies down." the Nurse seemed to wilt just by looking at the sheer size of the mass of ponies taking up the main lobby.

"It's okay, Care, I'll just wait it out here since the reason I came is because I don't really feel strong at all today." Twilight's words caused two of the glaring ponies ears to jump up. Nurse Care took their sudden interest into account and spoke in a hushed whisper to the lavender mare.

"Twilight, I don't think you should say stuff like the news of you being weak today, I've ponies around town have been talking about you two, and a lot of it wasn't anything good."

Twilight's heart got caught in her throat, much like Spike had at the very same moment, and a ounce of fear poured itself into her mind. When she asked the question she already knew the answer to, her voice was slightly shaky.

"What have they been talking about?"

"They've been talking a lot about what is going on between you and Spike, personally I don't see anything wrong with it since you've already told me stories of how long you two have spent your lives together, it's only natural that you would fall for each other. Unfortunately, most ponies don't know you as well as I do, so they see what your doing is wrong, I've even heard them mention that old mare from the Apple Family, they kept saying something about a meeting that she hosted yesterday."

Twilight and Spike suppressed a groan of annoyance at the elderly mare's involvement, having had their fill of her when they last spoke.

"Thank you for understanding us, Care, it's nice to know that not everypony is as narrow minded as Granny Smith."

The couple began to make their way towards a line of seats, composed of five plush blue chairs. Two of the seats were already taken up by a glaring mother and her son, whom was oblivious to his mother's state of emotion, both of them sitting on the far left seats. After Twilight and Spike took a seat on the far right chairs, the mother got up with an undignified snort and began to walk away, only returning to pick up her colt since he was still sitting in his chair, not understanding why his mother had gotten up.

"Seriously Twilight, how shallow can some ponies be?" Spike was whispering to his marefriend since he really didn't want to attract any attention towards her and himself.

"Well, I guess you're getting a perfect picture of it right now." the lavender mare suppressed any indignation that was stirred up from the mother's actions, knowing that there was nothing she could do about it at the moment.

"Do you think they could ever warm-up to us?" the dragon was seeking as much information as possible, and luckily, his marefriend was probably the smartest pony in Ponyville.

"Maybe, Spike, maybe with time, but not as long as Granny Smith is manipulating them like she is right now." Twilight began to think of ways to smooth things out with the general population about her relationship, even though she didn't care if they didn't like it, but her headache prevented her from losing herself in thought.

The lavender mare and the purple dragon waited in the hospital's lobby for various hours, only leaving once to go buy lunch from a little food stand they had set up on the inside of the building. The sun was beginning its descent from the sky by the time the couple's number was called out through the speakers, causing them to cheer inwardly for being able to escape the sterile room that had half of its occupants staring angrily at them.

"Ah, good afternoon Miss Sparkle, how are you feeling?" Doctor Dowse greeted his patient, and began to walk towards her in a weird limp since one of his legs had a contraption the supported it.

"Weird is how I would put it doctor, I've had a raging migraine all day, my magic is severely weak, my legs feel as if they can't support me, and my stomach is just a huge knot." Twilight listed off her symptoms to the fairly old stallion.

"Hmm, I wouldn't exactly know how to diagnose one's magic, but I can offer you some medication if you would allow me to take a few X-ray scans from your legs." the doctor wheeled in a black screen and placed it near the lavender librarian.

"Of course I would, go on ahead." Twilight stepped behind the screen, which only reached up to the base of her legs, as she accepted the offer.

The screen flicked on and showed Spike and Doctor Dowse the bones in the lavender patient's legs, which were in perfect shape.

"Well look at that, nothing seems to be wrong, Miss Sparkle, I think the problem is more concentrated on your legs' muscles. If that is the case, which it most certainly is, rest and some therapeutic massages should be able to clear you of your weakness, the same going for your stomach aches, and the migraine can be taken care of with a few prescription grade pills." the doctor scribbled down a checklist on his notepad and signed it once it was finished, handing it over to the weak mare.

"Thank you doctor, I'll be sure to drop by the pharmacy and pick the medications up." Twilight levitated the note next to her in a barely visible aurora.

"Think nothing of it, this was a short check-up after all." Doctor Douse returned to his desk in order to fill out the paperwork required after a finished diagnostics, letting the mare and the dragon show themselves out.

"That didn't take long at all, heck, we spent most of the day waiting for our turn." Spike had expected some rigorous tests, like blood sampling and ink splotched cards, but he got to see none of that.

"We should be thankful for that, Spike, it's still chilly at night and neither of us brought our jackets." Twilight noticed the sun beginning to set beyond the horizon through the hallway's windows as she walked towards the pharmaceutical area of the hospital.

Aforementioned area was mostly deserted when the couple arrived at it, nopony being there save for an cashier at the gated windows that led to the medical storage, his expression one of pure boredom. After hoofing over the prescription note, Twilight received a stronger dose of pills for her migraine, which she carried in her weakened telekinesis.

The companions walked past the moderately filled lobby and began to make their back towards their home, exhausted of looking at plain white walls all day. The sun had already lowered itself completely and the sky was instead dominated by the waxing crescent rising through it. Twilight noticed her dragonfriend's slight shivering, having cold blood didn't exactly help in the cool of the night, so she allowed him to move under her a little more in hopes of sheltering him from the chill. They were alone in the path home, everypony had already left the streets due to the weather, and the ambiance was a little more than creepy.

The lavender mare's heart caught in her throat when a slightly familiar pony walked around one of the street's intersections and began to trot menacingly towards her. She levitated Spike onto her back and gave him the medications so he could hold them, and she turned around and tried to walk down a different street. Twilight had barely taken ten steps by the time another slightly familiar pony rounded the corner and began to trot towards her, much like the one she had her back to.

The librarian shifted her gaze back and forth between the two intimidating ponies as they approached her in a steady pace, their faces contorted in silent anger while their true colors where hidden by the darkness. They stood a few hooves away from the pair before the lavender mare opted to dash down one of the alleyways in the street, hoping to evade the two threats. The malicious ponies picked up their speed as they gave chase to the mare through the darkened pathways.

Twilight could feel Spike shaking slightly out of fear, much like she was, and she continued to run past the garbage bins that littered the maze-like paths of the alleyways. Her pace was sluggish due to her weakened state of body and mind, but she managed to delay her confrontation for the time being, 'Delay' being the key word. The lavender librarian ran down a dead end covered in graffiti, and as she attempted to run out of that area, she found that her path was already blocked off by the two stallions that had been chasing her, they stood shoulder to shoulder which effectively took up most of the alley's space.

"Heh, look at her, Flash Fire, she actually thought she could get away." the stallion on the right spoke up in a devious tone.

"What did I tell you about names, Frost Bite?" the stallion know as Flash Fire spoke in an annoyed tone.

"Hey! You said my name too. Why does it even matter, she's not leaving this alleyway anyway." Frost spoke in a 'whatever' tone that was like sandpaper being rubbed against your ears.

"Just shut up, Frost. Now you two," Flash pointed a hoof towards the couple, "you are in some deep trouble for what you're doing."

Flash Fire and Frost Bite began to advance towards the couple, whom was busy in a little argument of their own.

"Spike, teleport away from here, the gem should be strong enough to get you onto the rooftops." Twilight was speaking in a hushed voice that was trying to convince the purple dragon.

"No Twilight I'm not leaving you here alone with them." Spike's mind was made up and was as reinforced as steel.

"Please, just go Spike, save yourself." the lavender mare was tearing up as she pleaded her lover to escape.

"Twilight, I am not leaving you with those two, they can hurt you!"

"Your damn right we can, and we will." After his statement, Frost Bite jumped towards the dragon and pinned him to the floor while Flash Fire tackled Twilight and pushed her against the alleyway's wall.

"Twilight!" Spike screamed in terror as his marefriend was bashed against the wall repeatedly, causing her to yelp out in pain each time.

"What are you gonna do kid? Your just a useless little lizard, and your marefriend is gonna die because of how weak you were, how much of a coward you were, and still are." Frost enjoyed toying with the drake's mind, so he moved his head out of the way and allowed him to watch more clearly as Twilight continued to be pushed against the wall.

At that moment, Spike's world froze. Something deep inside of him burst open, and his spines began to glow with a green light that put a stop to Flash's merciless attack.

"GET AWAY FROM HER YOU MINDLESS BRUTES!"

The dragon tore his arm out of Frost's grip and socked him straight in the face, sending him flying into the alley's wall. With the oppressing weight gone, Spike jumped to a standing position and began to snort out green smoke through his nostrils as he set his draconic eyes on the, now revealed to be scarlet, earth pony that had been bashing Twilight. His bones began to ache as his spines grew brighter and all of the ponies present gained wide eyes at what was happening to the purple dragon. He began to grow taller, his arms, legs, head, and tail all grew in proportion with his body. His spines grew a bit as well, gaining a slightly sharper look. The end result was a dragon that was at eye level with the average pony, and he looked as if he was ready to charge at any moment.

"NOW, YOU, STEP BACK FROM HER!"

Spike's voice had grown very slightly deeper, but his rage turned his voice to a roaring volume. Flash did step away from Twilight, but lunged himself immediately afterwards at the dragon, which was a big mistake. Spike crouched and let the scarlet stallion jump over him, but delivered a punch to his soft underbelly, knocking all of the air out of him before he crashed against a dumpster. Frost had recovered from the sucker punch he had received and ran towards Spike from behind, only to be smacked away with a flick of the dragon's tail, knocking him out. Flash caught the dragon by surprise and punched him in the ribs, earning a pained grunt, but the glory from his strike was short lived because Spike slashed him on the side with his claws, leaving behind three cuts in his torso. The purple drake walked over to the hurt Flash and punched him square on the nose, effectively sending him into a deep, painful, sleep. With the offenders downed, Spike ran to Twilight's side and pulled her into a hug as warm tears flowed down his cheeks, said mare still astonished by the drake's sudden transformation.

"T-Twilight, how bad did he hurt you, are you bleeding?" Spike was still the same baby dragon on the inside, except he was now about twice his original size.

"No, I'm just a little sore on my left side," Twilight buried her face into her dragonfriend's neck as she too began to cry tears of joy, "thank you, thank you, thank you, Spikey."

"I thought that they were going to...k-kill you." the word was hard to force out of the dragon's mouth since he saw visions of what could have happened the moment he said it.

"We need to get home, and drop these two off at the police station." the mare was reluctant to leave the feeling of safety that was given to her in her lover's embrace, but in the end they both parted and Spike helped lift Twilight up onto her feet.

Twilight went about looking for medications they had lost and Spike tied up the two attackers with some old rope he found lying in a cardboard box.

"Are you sure you can walk, Twilight?"

"Yes, I'll just need to lean on you a little, but I'll be okay."

The slightly hurt couple made their way out of the horrific alleyway, with Twilight pressed against a now taller Spike as he dragged the two crooks behind him with the rope he bound them with, intentionally moving them in the way of thorns and spiked pebbles. The mare and the dragon kept their eyes peeled for any other attackers that might jump them along the way, but none appeared by the time they reached the stone building that housed the few criminals in Ponyville, the Ponyville Police Center.

After dropping Flash Fire and Frost Bite off with the officers in the station, Twilight and Spike continued their path towards home, but the mare's legs buckled under her and she was caught in the nick of time in the dragon's arms.

"Here Twilight, let me carry you." Spike wrapped his arms around his marefriend's side.

"Don't be silly Spike, you wooouulddAH!" Twilight's rejection of the offer was interrupted as the dragon lifted her up, holding one claw at her waist and the other near her neck as she faced up towards the sky.

"You were saying?" Spike flashed the lavender mare a smug grin, causing her to roll her eyes as she smiled back, and his tail wagged in excitement at his new strength.

He carried her in his arms all the way home, finding little difficulty doing so. Twilight used her weakened magic to open the door to the library, still in her lover's arms, and Spike closed the door with a push from his wagging tail. The dragon continued up the stairway and headed into their bedroom, tripping at the last second and causing Twilight and him to flop onto the bed, giggling at his clumsiness. As the giggles died down, the lavender mare snuggled up to Spike's chest enjoying the feeling as the drake wrapped his arms fully around her and pulled her closer as he nuzzled her head.

"Twilight?"

"Hmm?"

"What happened to me today?"

"Well, we'll have to find out tomorrow since I'm not fully sure myself, but today you saved my life again, Spikey."

"What's that, like three times already, haha?"

"Oh be quiet you, I've saved your tail more times than you can count."

"That you have Twilight, that you have."

"Hey, don't get all zoned out right now, we're having a moment."

"Uh? Oh, sorry about that, I guess I'm actually kinda tired. Well, good night Twilight, love you."

"I love you too, Sir Spike, hehehe."

Insight

Chapter 14

Insight

Sweetie Belle was startled awake once again by a sorrowful noise, one she had to bear with for the past days. The young filly stood on her tiny legs and gave a little stretch, accompanied by a yawn, and began to make her way out of her room and into the hallway in the Carousel Boutique that held the doors to the sisters' respective rooms.

The little unicorn hadn't been sleeping well, being haunted at night with the sounds of sorrow, and was left to herself during the daylight hours.

Sweetie Belle swayed slightly as she walked up to the crimson, gem studded doorway that served as the entrance to her sister's room. The high-pitched filly knocked on the door lightly, but received no response, just like every other night she tried to talk with her sister.

Deciding to finally figure out what was going on, Sweetie Belle rose to her hind legs and pushed the door open with her fore hooves, gaining entry to the darkened room that had a frazzled designer mare laying on a disorganized bed, tears both long dry and fresh matting her face.

Rarity raised her head from being buried in a damp spot in the sheets, turning to look at her sister with a forlorn look in her sapphire eyes. Sweetie Belle lost the little annoyance she had in her from being awoken, a surprised look on her face as she took in how deeply her big sister had fallen into the pits of despair. She should have noticed how bad it was from the start, Rarity never really was a mare who enjoyed leaving her work unchecked, and she hadn't left her room, unless it was to eat something, since the time she returned from Twilight's library.

"Rarity, what's wrong? You haven't talked to me for days." Sweetie Belle walked over to her sister's bedside, juggling ideas on how to cheer her up in her brain.

The purple maned designer avoided having to answer her sister's question, she instead trailed her eyes down to the floor and returned to burying her face into her blankets again, shutting herself away from the world's problems. The young filly would be having none of her sister's evasion, Sweetie Belle walked closer to Rarity and began to nudge her slightly with her hooves.

"Come on, Rarity! You're never gonna get better if you don't tell anypony what's wrong." The younger sister raised her voice slightly, just enough to catch the distraught mare's attention. The designer saw through bleary eyes a look of determination set upon her little sister's face, the sight causing her to speak through a hoarse throat.

"Why do you want to know, Sweetie? There's nothing you, or anypony else for the matter, can do to help me, not even myself." Rarity moved her head back down to rest her chin on her mattress, a frown frozen onto her expression.

"I want to know because I'm your little sister and I care about you, even if there's nothing I can do to help you I still want to listen about your problems!" The filly kept her voice raised, trying to break through the shell Rarity had set up for herself, and partially succeeded.

The fashion inclined mare became lost in thought, judging if she should talk to someone about her situation. Once her decision was made, Rarity sighed sadly and patted a spot on the bed next to herself, beckoning the filly to jump up and take a seat.

"What do you know about love, Sweetie?" the filly at the fashioner's side put a hoof to her chin, hinting that she was thinking heavily.

"Well, not a lot, I haven't looked for a special somepony because I'm too young for that. I don't want to end up making a mistake and ending up married to a pony who doesn't love me back."

"Okay, that's a good way to think, but what do you think draws the line for a pony's relationships?" Rarity began to forget her dismay and instead focused on her conversation, finding it almost clinical.

"Draws the line? What do you mean, Rarity?" Sweetie Belle tilted her head to the right a little, emphasizing her confusion about her sister's words.

"I-it's just that...what do you think is wrong for a pony to love?" the designer was beginning to ask the questions she had been asking herself for the past days, hoping to get the answers from her sister.

"Uhm, Rarity, there is nothing wrong that a pony can love, I'm not really following what you mean."

The fashion inspired mare lost herself in her thoughts again, thinking of a subtle way of asking about the topic without letting her know who she was talking about. She decided that she would change a small part of her question, but the same problem she faced with Twilight and Spike applied there, a sense of what they were doing was wrong.

"What if a filly in your class fell in love with another filly, what would you say to them."

"I'd congratulate them, duh, seriously what else am I supposed to say." the filly's words prompted a stare from her sister that was accompanied by a slightly ajar mouth.

"B-but, aren't fillies and colts supposed to be together, not two of the same type?" Rarity felt a little stupid at the moment, she was saying stuff a little filly would say, while Sweetie Belle was speaking like a grown mare.

"Fillies and colts can be together, but they don't have to be together, like the example you gave of two fillies."

"Isn't it wrong though, isn't it against a rule or something?"

"Before I answer you, sis, I want to ask you a question."

"Uh, okay, go ahead dear."

"Are the two fillies happy?"

Images of all the times Rarity had seen Spike and Twilight together as friends came to mind, along with the various stories the lavender librarian had shared with her, all of it pointed to the two lifelong friends always being happy with one another.

"Y-yes."

"Then they aren't wrong, it doesn't matter what the circumstances are, if the two of them are happy then they aren't doing anything they shouldn't, even if it is a little rare."

"What about a dragon, Sweetie, wouldn't that be wrong?" Rarity was unable to stop herself from speaking, her body demanded answers and it was going to get them whether she wanted to or not.

"Let me think, hmm...no, it's still right, as long as the two are happy. Just look at Spike for example, he obviously loves you, and just because he is a dragon doesn't stop him from basically worshiping you."

The designer mare flinched at her sister's words, feeling as if a knife was being twisted inside of her as all the guilt, remorse, and sadness crashed over her with a newfound weight.

"T-thank you, Sweetie Belle, I really needed to get those questions out of my head."

"No problem sis, glad to help you out, but I think I should go to sleep already, I'm feeling tired." the filly hugged her sister before making her way over to the bedroom's door, but was stopped as Rarity spoke up.

"I'm serious Sweetie, thank you, for everything."

"That's what sisters are for, Rarity, they stand there for one another when no one else does."

The helpful filly walked away after speaking one last time and headed towards her bed's warm embrace, leaving Rarity to her thoughts as said designer mare lay her head down on her pillow and closed her eyes. The white mare was far from done with her arguments though, but they were now silent, taking place in her mind as a brutish side rattled her mind.

'You aren't honestly thinking about letting those two be together are you!'

'What's to stop me?'

'Yourself!'

'I don't want to stop myself.'

'No, you want to stop that little tramp and her slithery fuc-'

'DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK ABOUT MY FRIENDS LIKE THAT!'

'It's all on you, Rarity. You don't like it, even if you manage to lie to yourself now that you spoke with Sweetie Belle.'

'I'm not lying, I'm just now seeing how stupid I must have seemed barging in like that, accusing the photographs as if they were the worst things ever to appear in Equestria.'

'So what now, huh, you shut up and let stuff you don't like happen!'

'No...now I give them a chance, after all, everyone deserves a little bit of generosity.'

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The moon was high in the sky, illuminating the apple-dotted orchards that made up Sweet Apple Acres, name and all. The shimmering glow that was reflected off of the red delicacies was watched only by one mare, one who wore a look of dejection on her freckled face.

The clopping of hooves against the sturdy hallway's floor let Applejack know that Granny Smith had retired to her bedroom for the night, which calmed the orange farm mare for some unknown reason.

Applejack was currently on her bed's edge, trying to look out of the window as much as she could. Her mane and tail hung freely since the red hairbands had been removed a long time ago and were currently in a corner next to the mare's signature stetson hat.

The hardworking mare had been replaying the most recent events of interest in her mind, starting from the time she received the newspaper from an anonymous sender, up until the moment she saw Granny Smith confront Spike and Twilight as they tried to find her, the latter always causing her to shudder at her grandmother's rare tone of voice. Among all the fear at Granny Smith's newly arisen personality, Applejack found shame, shame that she hadn't just bucked open her room's door and sided with her friend. In all honesty, she could've done just that, but apprehension cut her off every time she made up her mind to stand up for herself and her friends.

Memories of times long past flooded back into the farm mare's mind, each one of them agonizingly familiar. These were the roots of her problems, acts committed in the past that ride their way up to the future and appear as roadblocks at every turn. The memories that haunted her all contained one thing in common, each and ever one of them had her parents in them.

The latest memory showed her mother, Toffee Apple, a mare with a light red coat and a blond mane worn in a ponytail in a style matching her tail, the resemblance uncanny to any of those who could ever get to meet the mother and daughter. Toffee was currently standing in front of a green mare with a brown mane, Granny Smith unleashed a barrage of lectures upon her daughter, her face contorted in anger.

Toffee Apple had fallen in love with Citrus Punch, a member of the Orange Family. The two dated in secret, knowing the consequences that would take place if they were ever to be caught, and they continued to do so for years before Granny Smith caught on.

The inevitability happened around the fifth year of the couple's secretive relationship, and Toffee's mother was not happy at all with what she found. Her suspicions towards her daughter were correct and she caught them both red hoofed in the barn, instantly confronting the couple and stating how 'nontraditional' their actions were, since the most of the Apples and the Oranges always kept up a bit of a blood feud, and that they were going to put a stop to it. Of course, neither agreed to put an end to their love just because one mare told them to, it was a grave mistake.

The couple continued their relationship for quite some time, bringing forth a large red colt and a strong looking orange filly into the world, life seemed good for them since Granny Smith never intervened with them. It all changed one afternoon when Citrus Punch walked out into the Everfree Forest's edge to retrieve some medical herbs due to Toffee's illness at the time, it was a walk he never returned from again.

Toffee waited and waited, but Citrus never showed up, the only things that stopped her from going out into the forest to look for her husband were the two police officers standing at her house's doorway, both of them wearing grim faces. The news they carried was even grimmer, they had found Citrus Punch, brutally murdered in the woods by some unknown assailant.

Toffee was left alone, her family shunned her, her husband had been murdered, she had two kids to look after, and she was expecting yet another from her late lover. She was never the same again, she would cry herself to sleep at night and not utter a single word during the day. Her life was soon taken as well, the stress on her mind had ruined her, and her fall left a young stallion, mare, and a newborn filly in her wake.

Applejack knew what really happened to her father, all of the evidence pointed towards it. He had been murdered at the hooves of the Apple Clan due to the mixture of bad blood, unjustly stolen away from the love of his life and three of his greatest achievements. If she could, Applejack would try to present her story to the world, but all evidence had faded away with the sands of time, leaving behind a scar that still affected the farm mare.

'Ahm, just being a coward. Granny is way too old to be able to put up threats against me, but what about the rest of the clan, what would they do to me if I took up a side that opposed what they believed in?'

'This is somethin' I'll have too settle myself, but I'll need time, Twilight, just give me that much, because honestly, ah don't feel like ah can take on my family, no matter how much ah reassure myself I want to.'

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"Shining, honey, have you picked up that newspaper already, it's been sitting there for days now." Cadance called out to her husband from the second floor of their house.

"Uhm, I'm pretty sure I did." The royal guard's captain was seated on one of their house's plush celestial blue sofas, enjoying a good book and a cup of coffee.

"I can still see it from up here, can you get it already? It's starting to get a little yellow."

"Okay, I'll get it dear." Shining Armor shook his head as he walked over to his house's entrance, opening the door to find a soggy, yet readable, newspaper from The Canterlot Times.

"Hmm, I wonder what's on the news." the captain talked to himself as he took a sip from his coffee and unrolled the slightly weathered newspaper, but as soon as his eyes fell upon the photographs on the article, he began to choke on the coffee in his throat and the cup he was levitating shattered as it fell to the floor.

"What the buck?!"

Strike

Chapter 15

Strike

Spike sneaked across his shared bedroom quietly, trying to refrain from waking up his slumbering marefriend. The purple dragon reached the room's doorway, which opened with a slight creak, and made his way down the stairs and into the library's main room. In reality, Spike had a specific goal in his mind, having nothing to do with the books that surrounded him. The drake licked his lips as he approached the library's kitchen, his eyes focused on one of the cupboards that had taunted him ever since Twilight and him moved to Ponyville.

Using his newly gained height increase, Spike opened the wooden cupboard, revealing a purple jar with a green 'S' embedded onto its front. The damned cupboard had been too high for the dragon to be able to reach it before, and it was such a tight space that the safety backup on the teleportation gem wouldn't let him blink into existence next to his target. Now, the aforementioned dragon reached out with his claws open, grasping the jar in them, and proceeded to open its lid with a sparkle in his emerald eyes.

Gems, everywhere within the jar, the porcelain container was filled to the brim with the delectable treats that had motivated Spike to seek it out in the first place. The dragon settled his mind down slightly and chose a nice looking ruby, closing his eyes as he moved the treat towards his mouth, sticking his tongue out in anticipation, and...nothing.

When Spike opened his eyes again, noticing the absence of a delicious gem in his orifice, he caught sight of his lavender love, the missing ruby being held suspended at her side along with the purple jar in a flickering aurora. A sheepish smile grew on the drake's face as he began to rub the back of his neck.

"Hehe, umh, good morning Twilight."

"Spikey, you know that eating too many gems is bad for your health."

"I was only going to eat one!"

Spike's lie was about as transparent as the air he breathed in, prompting a raised eyebrow from the librarian.

"Are you sure you were just going to eat just this ruby? You wouldn't lie to me would you, sweetheart?"

Twilight brought a forth a faux pout to her lips, knowing exactly the effect it would produce on her not-so-little dragonfriend. Her hypothesis was proven correct when Spike began to fumble with his claws nervously.

"O-okay okay, maybe I was going to have more than one gem, I'm sorry Twi." the dragon's shoulders slumped slightly and he settled on a dejected stare on the floor, feeling guilty about his actions, causing the unicorn mare to feel equally guilty about her own teasing as a result. Twilight levitated the red gem over into her companion's claws as she put away the jar, causing him to look up at her again in surprise since he wasn't being scolded. His eyes widened slightly in comfortable surprise when the mare leaned forward and planted a loving kiss on his lips, for some reason it still brought forth a furious blush to his cheeks, even though they had gone through much more than a simple smooch.

"Keep it, it's not everyday that you save somepony's life y'know." the studious mare smiled warmly at the drake, the memory of him rescuing her still fresh in her mind.

"Thanks, but in my defense, the new height was a little more than tempting."

"Obviously, which reminds me, can you search for anything we have on dragons in the library, I'm curious as to how your growth actually happened." Twilight's first thought upon seeing Spike grow was that it was a greed growth, but that idea was shot down once she realized that he wasn't actually being greedy at all last night. She also realized that Spike hadn't really changed that much, height and strength increase aside, other than the slightly 'sharper' look on his spines, as apposed to the slender build he gained from his temporary greed phase.

With her thoughts cut out for herself, Twilight turned towards the kitchen's archway and began to trot towards it, but stopped in order to speak to her dragonfriend again.

"I'm gonna go take a shower, Spike, I'll be out in a couple of minutes."

"Got it Twilight, and I'll look for those books you asked for too."

"Thanks Spike, I've really been putting off my research lately."

The lavender mare walked out of the kitchen and headed upstairs to her room's bathroom, disappearing behind the oak door. Spike looked at his ruby for a few seconds before he began to move it to his hungry mouth again, savoring it in anticipation. Just as his teeth were about to crunch into the gem, a wisp of smoke popped out of his mouth with a burp and condensed into two letters, interrupting the sweet delicacy's consumption.

"Oh come on! Can't I just eat th- huh?"

Spike leaned down to pick up the letters in his free claw, his confusion born from the fact that there were two letters and that only one of them had the royal seal on it, the other being sealed with a wax print that had a 'S' and a 'A' on it.

"Two? Well, I guess Twilight won't mind if I read this one." the dragon began to unroll the parchment without the royal seal and began to silently take in the letter's writing.

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"Uhm...what are you doing, Glamour Shot?"

Press stared at the bald mare, currently only wearing clothes from her waist down as she punched a sandbag that hung from the ceiling with her fore hooves as she reared up on her hind hooves. Her muscles rippled as she mercilessly pounded into the bag with muscles that had been hidden from the stallion's eyes until that moment by her trademarked cloak, a strength even most earth ponies would be envious of being presented by the mare. upon registering Press' presence, Glamour Shot wiped away the sweat from her brow with her hoof and turned to face him.

"A mare has got to stay in shape Press, you should really look into working out sometime soon, I can't have you running around all day if you can't keep up to who you're chasing." the brown stallion took slight offense at the mare's words, but said nothing about it. Instead, he asked another question.

"How did you convince the manager to let you set up a sandbag in here...where the heck did you get a sandbag anyway?"

"Well, that useless stallion running the register has yet to grow a pair to try and stop me from doing what I want, and I crafted the sandbag from some stuff I took from the construction site down the road." Press noted Glamour's unusual tolerance towards his questions, but decided not to linger on the matter any further since that would mean he could risk the pleasantry.

"So, Glamour Shot, what do you want me to do today?" the stallion had learned that the bald mare would lay off on her aggressiveness towards him if he simply followed his orders and asked if he could be of any help.

"No, not today Press. That old hag, Granny Smith, is holding another meeting today and I'm trying to see where it will be taking place."

"Didn't you say that they were just useless rambling a while back, why would you want to go now."

"Last time I went it was the first meeting, so I expect that they will be doing something a little more productive than idle chit-chat, maybe there will be something useful I can get in on from there."

"like?"

"Okay Press, it's time for you to shut up already, I'll find out what they'll be talking about once I'm there."

The mare's statement effectively put the brown stallion back into his submissive mode, not a single sound escaping from his trembling muzzle as the bald mare slipped on the rest of her clothing. The fully concealed mare walked over to the room's closet, which was completely empty save for a black box in the corner that was locked down tightly. Glamour Shot levitated out a key from one of her cloak's pockets and unlocked the padlock on the container, peeked inside with a shrouded grin, and pulled away while locking the box back up. The act performed by the mare left Press basically radiating curiosity at the box's contents, but it was a curiosity he could do nothing of as the aforementioned mare trotted towards the motel room's entrance and opened the door before turning her head back to stare at the brown earth pony.

"Don't leave this room, Press. You can do whatever the hay you want, as long as it doesn't involve leaving or messing with the box in the closet. I, for one, highly suggest that you give that sandbag a couple of punches, you could stand to lose some weight."

Glamour Shot departed immediately after she finished speaking, closing the door behind her and leaving behind a self-conscious stallion staring at his form in the mirror, a frown spreading over time on his muzzle.

'Am I really that fat?'

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"Dear Twiley, I'm sending you this letter to ask you to come to Canterlot if you can, there are things you and I need to talk about. These things have been going on for a while without me noticing, but now it's time to sit down and face them. Come see me at my lodge near the Canterlot Castle when you decide to come. Signed, your BBBFF."

Twilight read the uncharacteristic letter aloud in her living room so that Spike could hear it again, even though he had already read it before her. To the mare, the parchment sent by her brother lacked any of his usual affectionate tone, the only hints of it being written by her sibling being that he used her pet name and his title.

"What do you think he wants to see us for Twilight, and do you have any idea why the Princess wants us to go to Canterlot too?" Spike had an idea of why Shining Armor wanted them to travel to Canterlot, but was dumbfounded by Princess Celestia's request for their appearance. If Celestia was inviting them then it had to be important, maybe another national crisis that needed to be solved.

"Well, Shining Armor probably wants to talk to me about our relationship, he must have learned about us through the newspaper like our friends. I'm not sure if he's happy about it or not, we'll just have to wait until we can meet with him. As for the Princess, It could be anything, but if it involved something major like Discord escaping from his prison, she would call all of the Elements of Harmony. We'll have to go ask one of our friends if they received a letter too later during the day."

"I don't think we should go outside Twilight, what happened yesterday may have been only the first of attacks."

"Maybe, but we have to make sure that we aren't needed as soon as possible. I don't want to rush over to Canterlot without preparing only to find out that she wanted us over for tea."

"Okay Twilight, I trust in your judgment. I'm actually a little surprised you're not rushing over to the Princess right now like you used to though."

"I've learned over the years, Spikey. it took me that long to learn that not everything has to get blown out of proportion, and I still overreact sometimes."

"It's a little cute when you do, you know that?"

"No it isn't, I look like a total nut job when I slip into a panic tantrum."

"Yeah, but when you realize that you did overreact, the look on your face is priceless."

"Says the dragon who biologically isn't supposed to be able to blush."

"Hey!"

Spike, much to his chagrin, gained a blush of embarrassment from his marefriend's comment. Upon feeling the burning sensation on his cheeks, the dragon crossed his arms and huffed in resignation as a smile grew on his snout as a result from the affectionate teasing he and Twilight shared. The couple went on to compose a letter for their princess that let her know that they would visit soon and told her to pass on the news to Shining Armor. The letter lacked any indication of the recent troubles they had gone through so that it wouldn't cause the princess to worry, but the couple planned to give her a full report in person.

A breakfast crafted from oats and some toast was served on the dining table by the mare and the dragon, disappearing in a short amount of time as the companions dug into it with a hunger that screamed to be sated. After breakfast, Twilight took a pill from her prescribed medication that quelled her slight headache, and proceeded to make a list of the stuff she would need to pack later that evening.

"So we're going to take the afternoon train tomorrow?" Spike hadn't really grasped the mare's plan of action due to his concentration on the buttered toast in front of him.

"Yup, I've got some thinking to do before I go to see my brother and a good night's rest would do wonders for me. Besides, the train is probably out of tickets, ponies have been really anxious to be able to travel again since it has been shut down for a couple of days already. We'll have to catch the next one tomorrow in the afternoon."

"Who are we going to go see today Twilight, you said we needed to visit one of our friends, but who?"

"Hmm, well Applejack and Rarity are out of the picture for right now," the mare's face took on a frown at the memory of her two friend's situations, "so that leaves Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash."

"Well, Fluttershy lives a little too far away from here to visit her to check if she got a letter, right?"

"Yes, your right, and Rainbow Dash is almost always out of her house, so Pinkie would be the closest one we can visit. Are you ready to go?"

"Pfft, I should be asking you that, remember I was the one that carried you home yesterday."

"Oh don't act like you didn't like holding me like that."

Spike just gave a nervous chuckle and turned his head away to hide his reddening face, Twilight was right in every sense of her words. "Uhm."

"Come on, Spikey, the more we walk the faster I'll tire out, and the sooner you'll get to carry me again."

The dragon jumped to his feet at the suggestion, walking out of the kitchen next to his lavender marefriend and headed towards the library's oaken entrance.

The late morning sun greeted the odd pair as they stepped out of their tree house, temporarily blinding them from the outside world. As the mare and the dragon regained their eyesight, they noticed that many of the morning ponies were missing again, and the few that were there simply stared slack jawed at Spike's new form. Twilight and Spike gained a sense of relief as they saw that only one or two few of the onlookers held any anger in their eyes, and those few were instantly put to shame by the purple dragon's much more intimidating glare.

The confection-like building of Sugarcube Corner came into view as the library dwellers trekked down the road, both of them braced in anticipation for Pinkie to randomly pop out of nowhere and tackle them to the ground. Their fears were put to rest as they reached the door to the pink mare's residence and walked in with a little bell announcing their entrance.

The cotton-candy maned mare running the register grinned widely upon the couple's entrance, leaping over the confection display case and bounding over to the new arrivals.

"Hiya guys! How have you been? I haven't seen you since your 'Welcome Home From Canterlot Party', what have you two been up to, huh, and why is Spike all big and tough looking?"

The drake was stunned by Pinkie's quick speech, but Twilight recovered much quicker due to the fact that she hung around her pink friend much more than Spike.

"We've been...okay I guess, Spike and I have just had a little bit of a rough patch with some of the ponies here in Ponyville. It turns out that not everyone is exactly happy about our relationship, though they mostly keep it to themselves."

"Whoa whoa whoa, what do you mean by 'Rough patch', have they been calling you names or something? I mean, I do it sometimes too, but nothing really bad, just playful teasing." The librarian mare and the newly expanded dragon turned towards one of the booths to find Rainbow Dash munching away at a sprinkled doughnut.

"Oh, hey Rainbow Dash, I didn't really see you there when I came in. In regards to your question, no, it's just that two stallions chased Spike and I into a alleyway and they started to beat me up a bit." Twilight raised a hoof to stop the angry outburst from the cyan mare before continuing, "Thankfully, Spike here grew in his size and strength when he saw that they intended to...kill, us. He beat the stallions until they passed out and then hauled the crooks over to the police station, the 'little' sweetheart even carried me home."

"That's not really nice at all! They were just a pair of no-good meanie-pants." Pinkie sat on her haunches and crossed her fore hooves as her face took on a scrunched up angry expression.

"No kidding, what in their right minds were those featherheads thinking." Rainbow Dash noticed that she was starting to step out of line with her insults, so she quickly tried to rectify her image, "Uhm, hehe, sorry I kinda just got really mad there for a second."

"It's okay Dash, they got what they deserved, but I'm still going to have to go over to Canterlot to tell Princess Celestia about this. Those two stallions, like Spike told me earlier, could easily be the first of many, we've been getting a couple of glares down the road every time we go outside."

"Well at least you've got this big dude to protect you, right? By the way Spike, you've gotten buff!" Rainbow accented her statement by delivering a few soft punches to the dragon's underbelly, any damage that would have been inflicted was absorbed by the flexible scales.

"Yeah Spike! Maybe when Gummy grows up you two can have a wrestling match!" Pinkie's slight anger towards the past events was forgotten and was instead replaced by excitement at her new idea, which she would have to wait various years to gain the opportunity to enact.

"Thanks girls, but I'm just glad I can actually do something to guard Twilight, I felt kinda useless before my change."

"Don't say that Spikey, you know that I love you as much now as I loved you before." the lavender mare was cooing into her dragonfriend's ear while Pinkie just grinned and Rainbow Dash made a gagging gesture with her hoof.

"Okay, enough mushy stuff for one day, when do you to plan on going to Canterlot, and why?"

"Well, while I was in the shower, Spike got two letters..."

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Later that evening at the Sweet Apple Acres property...

Glamour Shot stood at the back of the barn where the previous meeting took place, most of the ponies who had attended last time were present as well. She watched intently at anything going on in the wooden building, looking for anything she could use to as a boost to the speed in her plan's completion. The bald mare had to suppress a groan of annoyance at the sight of the elderly Apple mare as she walked up to the microphone to address her followers.

"Now settle down, mah fellow Mareians, it's time to get down to business." much like the last meeting, the lime mare's voice silenced all others that were present and drew their attention to the podium she was using.

"Ah have to say that ah am very disappointed with Flash Fire's and Frost Bite's actions last night. We can't go around breakin' the law like that, or our operation can get shut down."

"Then what do we do, Elder Smith, what other way can we solve this problem if a direct approach is out of our hooves?" a random pony in the crowd spoke her mind to the farm mare.

"Listen, as much as ah would want those two to just disappear from the face of Equestria, it's not possible. We're going to have to run them out of the town."

"That still doesn't answer my question, I'm asking what we should do."

"You want to know what ah think we should do? Ah think we all should rally together and scare her out of her little tree house as soon as we finish our meeting." Granny Smith held her cold gaze towards the questioning pony mare.

"How do you know she will leave, Elder Smith, how are you sure that she won't just stay locked inside." another pony, a stallion this time, questioned the elderly mare.

"Everypony has a breaking point, Miss Sparkle is no exception, and neither is her little dragon. Once they undergo enough pressure, they'll willingly leave this town for good and never come back."

Nopony objected to their leader's judgment, and a air of finality filled the area within the barn, quickly being replaced by the chattering of the Mareians present. Plans on non-lethal ways to intimidate the couple out of their residence were exchanged within the group, and they settled on forming a small mob and protesting outside of the Golden Oaks Library until Twilight Sparkle and Spike the dragon would leave the quaint town.

So distracted were the ponies of Maria that they didn't notice a cloaked mare slipping out of the barn silently, a malevolent grin that was reaching heights that it had never reached before on her face. Glamour Shot ran with a speed fueled by ambition and the strong muscles in her legs. Her extreme speed let her reach the motel she was staying at in a much shorter time than usual. The bald mare burst into the room, promptly snapping a brown earth pony stallion from his slumber.

"Press, get the black box, we've got work to do."

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"Oh no!"

Applejack watched her grandmother lead a small mob of ponies out of the family barn and lead them towards Ponyville, and she could only think of one reason of why she would be doing all of that, they were heading to Twilight's library. The orange farm mare stared on as Granny Smith and her religious partners followed her out of Sweet Apple Acres and onto the dirt road that would take them to the town.

"No no no!" Her screams of rejection went unheard, save for a small yellow filly locked in her own room across the hallway, and she desperately hoped that her elder would just turn down her stupid idea and come back. It never happened.

"Tarnation! Why do ah have to fear my own grandmother for Celestia's sake."

'She'll disown you if you ever go against her, you know that right, Sugarcube?' the fear manifested itself into a nagging voice in the young farm mare's subconscious, stopping her from acting.

"Yes, but ah have to go!"

'Really now? Would you be willing to give up your lifestyle to help out a friend.'

"A-ah have to do this!"

'No, no you don't. Nopony is forcing you to do anything, just sit down and wait until Granny Smith gets home, like a good mare.'

"Ah'm not obligated to do this, but that doesn't mean ah don't want to go! If not for myself, if not for Twilight and Spike, then for mah mother and father. Ah'd rather give up mah lifestyle if it means that ah'll just end up being manipulated by mah Grandmother forever, she took my father, and in a way she took mah mother, now it's MY turn to make a decision in MY life!"

Applejack rushed towards the door and bucked it off of it's hinges with two good kicks, she then bolted down the stairs and out the front door in a desperate attempt to make up for the time she wasted with her internal conflict.

"Just you wait Sugarcube, I won't let you down."

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Rarity stood in front of one of her full body mirrors, fixing her freshly washed mane with a array of brushes and combs. She found it harder than usual due to all the knots she had gathered over the past days, and a shudder ran through her as she remembered that she had gone without showering for quite some time during her mindset's problems.

The designer mare dubbed herself ready once again when she could smell the expensive shampoo in her curled mane, and her coat had its usual luster back.

"Now, you are going to go over to Twilight's library and apologize for being such a bigot about her love affairs. Hopefully she and Spike will find it in their hearts to forgive me, I was becoming the very thing I was trying to avoid taking me over, a arrogant snob. Those two reminded me that life has its usual everyday stuff, like a drab clothing store, but then there are those who shine brighter than the rest. Those who shine like diamonds in the sky due to their originality, their courage, and their will to overcome the obstacles in their life."

Rarity found that as she repeated her mindset to herself in the mirror it became clearer that she was on the right path now, and all she needed to do was repair the errors of the past over a cup of wine and some small chocolates. The white unicorn mare put on a pair of saddlebags that blended in with her coat's color, they even bore the three diamonds that represent her cutie mark on them, and she headed towards her house's doorway to step outside.

"What in the world?"

The designer mare found herself staring at a large mass of ponies in the distance, all of them heading straight to where she planned to go. Things only got more confusing when she saw Applejack run past her without as much as a 'Howdy' to notify her that the farm mare knew she was even there.
"Oh dear, maybe something happened to the library, I'll just have to find out for myself."

In a moment of uncharacteristic action, Rarity took of with a speed that was no match for Applejack's, but it wasn't exactly something to turn your nose up on.

"Really, things have been interesting here lately."

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Fluttershy took notice of the mob of ponies trotting down the road as she flew towards her cottage, the sight instantly put a stop to her flight and made her crane her neck to see where they were going to.

"Oh my, maybe Ponyville is having another parade, or it could just be another one of Pinkie's late parties."

Her curiosity began to overpower her natural shyness and caused her to set herself on a flight path heading towards the moving crowd of ponies, abandoning all thoughts of heading home for the night. Her wings were slightly tired from all the hovering she had been doing while she checked up on the ecosystem in the Ponyville Park, which was still as pristine as always.

The butterscotch mare lowered her altitude until she was only a few inches off of the ground, making her feel safer for some reason, but it was a bad choice due to the fact that she was lost in thought at the moment and that five other mares four other were headed towards the same street intercept as she was.

With a chorus of 'OOFS!', Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy herself collided into one another, resulting in a chromatic heap of ponies.

"Hey! Watch where your goin' you varm-," Applejack stopped her berating once she noticed who exactly it was she crashed into, "Sorry about that Fluttershy, ah wasn't really paying attention to mah surroundings."

"It's okay Applejack, neither was I, I was just trying to see where all those ponies were going." the shy mare lifted a hoof and pointed at the slightly distant mass of residents, whom still kept their pace towards their target.

"Me too!" rang out in unison the rest of the mares, causing Fluttershy to hide behind hr mane a little.

"We saw them pass by Sugarcube Corner, so we decided to follow them to wherever they went." Rainbow Dash fluttered her wings a little, getting rid of the slight pain caused by the crash.

"They're all going to Twilight's library, mah granny is leading them there to try and scare her and Spike out of Ponyville." Applejack put herself back into a running stance.

"That's really mean, not as mean as trying to kill them, but still very mean." everypony who hadn't heard of the murder attempt gasped, but the orange farm mare snapped herself and the others out of the stupor with a loud command.

"Come on! We have to catch up to Granny Smith and stop her!"

The five Elements of Harmony bolted down the street, staying together as a group to make the confrontation against the religious party easier, they only hoped they would be able to get there in time.

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"Spike have you seen Owlowiscious anywhere? I can't seem to find him."

Spike looked up from his comic strip to answer his marefriend's question, "Yeah, he left a little while ago and flew away to the Everfree Forest, he's probably just hunting for mice."

"Oh, good, that reminds me, have you fed Peewee yet?"

"Of course I did, look." the drake pointed his claw towards the a nesting phoenix that was happily chomping away at his seed bowl.

"You're really taking care of everything you know that? Wait, did you pack for tomorrow yet?"

"Uhm, no, but I'll do it tomorrow in the morning, I swear."

"Fine, but in the morning we're packing quickly, until then why don't we ju-"

Twilight's suggestion was cut short as a rather large pebble hit her window and left a spiderweb-shaped crack on it. The sight of her property being damaged like that annoyed and slightly angered the lavender librarian, but those two emotions were washed away by the shock of what she saw outside of her window.

"S-Spikey, come and look at this."

The purple dragon got off of the couch he was reading on and walked over to the window his marefriend was staring slack jawed out of.

"What, did Pinkie show...up...whoa."

About half of Ponyville was standing right in front of the Golden Oaks Library, some of the ponies in the crowd held signs that said 'OUT', or a portrait of Discord in Twilight's color scheme, the sight rekindled the anger and annoyance that the lavender mare had lost a few moments ago. Those two emotions only heightened once she took in who was leading the strike against Spike and her.

"Twilight Sparkle, ah, Granny Smith, along with these fellow citizens, demand that you leave your residence and this town at once!" the elderly mare wasn't holding any of her anger back, she simply stated what she wanted.

"No! You have no right to come to my house and try to kick me out, even if you don't like it you have to deal with it!" Twilight scram back with an equal amount of force and indignation.

"Ah vary much plan to 'deal with it' Miss Sparkle, you go against everything we stand for, you and that dragon of yours are the highest of transgressions we have ever known!"

"Why must you make this so difficult, Granny Smith, where in Celestia's holy book did you get the idea that what we are doing is wrong!?"

"Celestia? Ha, we don't follow the religion Celestia has set up, it is too loose, weak, it allows too much corruption into our daily lives! You two are a perfect example of that weakness!" a cacophony of agreement rang out from the mass of ponies gathered together.

"Don't you see the pain you are causing for us, just go away! We haven't done anything wrong to you, and we don't plan to, so you have no reason to come here and order me to leave this town!"

"Mother Mareia demands her laws to be put into effect, you taint the sanctity of our community by not listening to her demands!"

"You mean YOUR demands, there is no voice commanding you to do ANY of this!"

"Quiet, you fool, ah am an enforcer to her will, ah was sent here the moment they began constructing this town by the high priest of Mother Mareia, whom left me with the task of keeping this place pure!"

"They're old traditions, Granny," Twilight basically spat out the old mare's name as she glared at her with teary eyes, "you don't have to follow them anymore! Think of all the times I've helped you, all of you, to stay safe."

"Those times mean nothing!"

"Don't they!? Didn't it matter when my friends and I saved your farm?! Didn't it matter when we saved the world twice?!"

"It just goes to show how badly you've fallen, Miss Sparkle, and if you can fall at your own tainted hooves, what is to stop you from influencing ALL of us!?"

"ENOUGH!" Spike made himself visible for the first time at the window, sticking his head out through it to roar at the intruders, shooting a small fireball at a spot near the group, causing them to step back cautiously. The dragon's piercing eyes and show of strength caused quite a few of the protesting ponies to lose the will to continue with their verbal assault.

"YOU ARE ALL BLINDED BY THE VERY LIGHT YOU TRY TO PROTECT, YOU SEE US AS A TRANSGRESSION, BUT ONLY THAT! YOU DON'T SEE THE YOUNG MARE, OR THE BABY DRAGON! YOU DON'T SEE THE SUFFERING YOU INFLICT ON HER WITH YOUR ACTIONS, AND YOU OVERLOOK ALL THE TIMES SHE HAS SAVED YOUR LIVES! HOW IS THAT FAIR, HUH? TELL ME!"

Most of the ponies in the crowd lowered their signs and their voices lost some of their strength as they realized the truth behind the dragon's words, some even began to back away a little further from the group, but nopony ever really left.

"You see?! This is what I'm talkin' about, a dragon trying to burn us alive, and you try to protect him?! You no good var-"

Granny Smith's verbal assault was put to an end as Spike slammed the window shut, cracking it further slightly, and pulled Twilight into a hug as they let the heat of the moment die down in light sobs. The couple had endured mental bashing to an extent that would have broken any other regular pony's sanity, yet they simply sat down on the couch and waited. They waited for the anger and sadness in them to drain away before they separated from one another and conversed silently through their eye contact,

"You want to eat some dinner?" Spike asked the question delicately, as if there wasn't a mob of protesting ponies outside of his shared residence.

"That'd be nice Spike, go ahead and grab another gem, I feel like you deserve it today." With a smile, the dragon walked out of the living room and into the kitchen to prepare a light dinner as he bit down on a sapphire.

Twilight simply stared at her cracked window for some reason she didn't understand, but it felt like if something was about to happen, and her horn tingled as a vaguely familiar sensation entered her magic's reach. It was distant and already under control, but it held power in it, leaving the mare wondering what it was for the next fifteen minutes.

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"Give me the box, Press, and be careful not to drop it."

Glamour Shot and Press were currently on top of the rooftop of the building across the street from the library. The mare was about to put in the final piece in her grand plan, a piece that was being carried clumsily over to her in the mouth of her 'Assistant'.

"Here it is," Press put down the iron box with a dull 'Clink' as it hit the stone roof, "what is in it anyway?"

"This is my ace, Press, this is my way of ending the little game I've been playing for most of my life," the cloaked mare levitated a key from one of her pockets and unlocked the padlock on the box, grinning malevolently as she saw what was within, "this is my way of saying goodbye to my good old friends."

The brown stallion's eyes widened at the object that was levitated out of the iron container, a shiver of fear at the mare's intent running wild throughout his pudgy body.

"H-how did you get that."

"I've got my methods, and I do like to plan ahead on any situation, so now is the time for my efforts to bear fruit."

"But, why now, why not start out with this in the first place?"

"Because now I have a group of religiously driven idiots to place the blame on. If they ever conduct a crime scene investigation, they'll be immediately drawn to a mob of angry ponies who were there on the night of the event."

Glamour Shot levitated her 'Ace' above her head, took in a deep breath that shuddered in twisted excitement, and hurled the object towards the library with practiced aim, a shot that made it look like the object was thrown from within the crowd.

"Yeah, a glamour shot, muhahaha!"

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Twilight's horn began to pulse slightly as the feeling she had moments ago became impossible to ignore, causing her to clutch her horn as her headache doubled on itself. It was only made worse when she heard one of her windows shatter open by a unknown object.

Spike was drawn out of the kitchen by the sound and was greeted by the sight of Twilight staring in shock at the thing that crashed through their window.

The fire ruby on the floor glowed with the rune placed on it and then blinked once, and then again four seconds later, and then again three seconds later.

"SPIKE, RUN AWAY!"

The lavender mare ran from the crystal blocking the doorway and headed towards Spike, a look of crippling fear on her face.

"TWILIGHT WHAT'S GOING O-"

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Applejack and the other four Elements of Harmony approached Twilight's library, only to find Granny Smith already protesting there.

The orange farm mare was preparing herself to face down her grandmother, but was snapped out of her concentration by screams inside the library.

"SPIKE, RUN AWAY!" Twilight's voice was full of dread that made Applejack shudder, but what happened next was far worse.

"TWILIGHT WHAT'S GOING O-" Spike never finished his question because the library exploded with flames from the inside out, jets of the hazardous element spewing out from the newly shattered windows and holes in the tree house. The explosion's force caused most of Granny Smith's group to lose their balance and topple to the floor, all of them shocked as they witnessed the ancient tree turned into a giant bonfire.

The Elements simply stared on with tears pouring from their faces as they witnessed the destruction of their best friends, all at the hooves of the deranged grandmother, or so they thought. Applejack removed her hat and broke down herself, saying one last coherent thing before she became a huddling mass of tears and sobs.

"Ah...Ah was too late."

Family Matters

Chapter 17

Family Matters

The cashier at the Golden Sun Motel trembled as his latest, and cruelest, customer walked past him and towards her shared room. He noticed that she didn't have her usual glare on her face, instead, there was a sinister grin that twisted the meaning of the word 'Smile' into something that little foals should run away from.

Glamour Shot made her way up the stairs and into her motel room, which was as cheap as ever, and properly bucked the door open in her gleeful state. Press wasn't as glad about the whole situation he had gotten himself into as Glamour Shot, but he didn't voice any of his concerns to the bald mare, although he was a bit glad that his job with her was coming to a close. Still, he couldn't help but feel his chest twist and turn with guilt at his involvement in the murder of two innocent lives.

"It's a shame, you know that Press?" Glamour Shot promptly snapped the brown stallion out of his little guilt trance and back to his terrible reality in Equestria.

"Uhm...what is?" Press feared that he missed some of her dialogue while he was in thought, but relaxed slightly when her expression didn't change to one of annoyance.

"The fact that I didn't get to toy around with those two a little longer before I properly burned them to a crisp, or should I say, before we burned them to a crisp?" the mare knew exactly how her rhetorical question would affect her partner, and she enjoyed the traumatized look on his face before she continued speaking, "It was just too good of a opportunity to pass up, now we've got the heat off of our trail and we can head back to Canterlot when the next train arrives."

"B-back to Canterlot?! Are you insane, that's where the Royal Sisters are, they would be able to find us in no time if we were to go there! We should just run, run away into the woods, or Manehatten, anywhere but Canterlot!" Press was panicking completely as Glamour Shot spoke out the next step in their 'Journey', earning himself a whack on the head from the aforementioned mare's hoof.

"Two things Press. One, Celestia and her little sister will be too distracted here to ever think to look for us over at Canterlot, I know this because over the years I have seen how close she and Twilight have become, her student's death will absorb all of her available attention. Luna will come since she will feel the need to be more involved with her sister's job and personal life, not to mention the way she has grown attached to Twilight over all the times she visited the castle. Two, if you ever so much as hint at calling me insane again, I will skin you alive and feed you to a ravenous pack of timberwolves, do I make myself clear?" Glamour Shot's horn lit up in its blue aurora and locked its grip around the brown stallion's neck, pulling him forward slightly until he was staring directly at the unicorn's fiery golden eyes.

Press' pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks at the menacing mare's death threat since he knew she would have no problem in actually acting upon it, and he just nodded his head in a almost imperceptible fashion. Glamour Shot released his neck after his meek agreement, returning her attention to the motel room in order to seek out what few items she had there, mainly just bits and some spare clothing.

Press just sat at his usual spot, rubbing a hoof against a sore spot that was left on his neck after being choked as he began to look back at his life, what he had before he became involved with the horrendous actions that Glamour Shot brought about onto the world.

'At least this is almost over.'

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Spike watched the landscape around him change drastically as the steam train continued its journey across the iron clad path towards the capital of Equestria, Canterlot. As he basked in the warm orange glow of the morning sun, he reflected on how his life had changed recently, how his dreams had finally been remembered, and how they had found their way into becoming a part of reality. He remembered each step in the chain of events, Rarity rejecting him, realizing his true feelings, the trip to Canterlot that brought him and Twilight closer than ever, the passionate night of their return to Ponyville, facing off with Granny Smith and her group of bigots, and finally his mind wandered back to the current events.

"I wonder what they'll think."

"Mmm...what'll who think, Sweetheart?" Twilight awoke with a small yawn, adorable in Spike's eyes, and she found herself in a small 'Nest'. Said nest being composed of a little indentation in a pile of hay with her dragonfriend curled around her slightly, creating a comfortingly warm embrace for the two of them.

"Oh, morning Twilight," Spike leaned down and pecked his marefriend on the base of her horn, which hurt less than the night before, before he continued speaking, "I was just thinking on how things are going to go for us at Canterlot."

"Well I thin-...wait a minute, Canterlot?" Twilight's mind began to fully activate itself, taking in the fact that they were currently inside a boxcar on a moving train, "When did we get on a train?"

"About that, yesterday when Granny Smith blew up the library, a stake pierced your shoulder and you passed out from the magical exertion. Applejack, Fluttershy, Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie were all crying nearby the library, thinking that we were dead, so I took you over to them to heal your shoulder as best as we could at the moment." Spike gestured towards the bandage still wrapped around Twilight's shoulder, "After Fluttershy fixed you up, I ran towards the train station, barely jumping in here before it left us behind. I thought this would be the best next move since we are going to need help with our recent problems."

Twilight shuddered a bit at being reminded of the attack on them, and she was saddened by everything that was lost in the fire. She wasn't sad because of all the books, well maybe a little, but what really affected her was that the fire took Spike's basket and his diary, two priceless objects that were irreplaceable due to the amount of memories they carried. Her mind wasn't deterred from the conversation with the dragon she was laying down next to though, and she decided to praise her dragonfriend for his smart reactions, but something new entered her mind, something she had been ignoring for quite some time.

"That was some nice spot-on thinking Spikey, and you're right, we are going to need some help with all of this. It's just...I'm afraid." Twilight felt her partner hug her closer once she mentioned her fear, comforting her further.

"What of, Twilight?"

"It's just that all the ponies that have disapproved of us being together so far aren't even close to me, so it doesn't affect me as much as it could. Now, we're heading to Canterlot, home to my parents, my brother, and the princesses. I never put much thought to it, but now that I do, I'm afraid of their views on us. Sure, even if they were to disapprove, I wouldn't leave your side, but it doesn't change the fact that it'll hurt more than a couple of random ponies."

"Would you believe me if I told you I was just thinking about them when you woke up?"

"I probably would."

"Good, because I was, and you've got a point. I've never really spent much time with your parents. Twilight Velvet and Night Light were always a little more than reserved, guess that's where you got it from." Twilight tried her best to give Spike a playful shove, but it proved to be futile due to the way the two of them were laying down, "I was trying to guess how they would react to us being together, but at few times I've seen them they've never really shown much of their personalities."

"Yeah, ever since I left my parents' house in Canterlot to go attend Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns I haven't really kept in touch with them. It's just that with the studies and isolating myself I began to forget about most individuals in my life, besides my brother of course, he would swing by the castle's library every couple of days. Then, one day, Princess Celestia walks in with you on her back, saying you would help me learn how to socialize more and teach me about responsibility, and you know what happened from there on." Twilight smiled as she once again recalled her foalhood memories, mostly consisting of her being buried in a pile of books or playing a game with her current dragonfriend.

"Let's just not ponder on things we know nothing about, okay?" Spike had a feeling that the subject on Twilight's parents could, and very likely would, spiral into a disaster if not kept in check or cut-off.

"Fine, but this is gonna come back in the future in the worst possible scenario, you know that right?"

"That's future Twilight and Spike's problem, for now let's just enjoy the scenery."

"Since when did you get this little personality shift, enjoying scenery, eh mister tough dragon."

"About at the same time you decided to come out of your little anti-social shell."

"Hey!"

The lavender mare and the purple dragon continued their constant teasing for the next thirty minutes, watching the land around them shift drastically from softly rustling plains to a quickly ascending slope on the side of the mountain Canterlot was perched upon. A slightly uneasy feeling shook itself across the couple's spines, they knew things were about to change. The only question was, are they going to change for the better?

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"NO!"

"Come on Applejack, quit your fussin' and come back home."

"Ah already told you, Mac, Ah ain't going back to Sweet Apple Acres. Granny Smith made it perfectly clear yesterday that she didn't want me anywhere near her, heck, she shouted it in mah face!"

Red and orange siblings clashed in a verbal debate at Fluttershy's doorstep, and the house's owner was currently listening in on the conversation from her safe spot behind the couch. Big Mac had appeared about ten minutes earlier, and proved to be about as stubborn as Applejack when he wanted to. Fluttershy had never really heard the red stallion talk much, and she very much didn't want to continue listening to the tone the debate between the siblings had.

"Stop being so stubborn, Ah just told you that she wants you back at the farm, she misses you a lot. You should have seen the look on her face when she forgot you weren't home and she tried calling you for dinner, she's hurt Applejack, don't you see what it is you're doing to her?"

"Hurt? HURT?! You two, along with every other featherbrained idiot in your little mob, completely ignored the fact that you were HURTING two of mah best friends, you even tried to kill them. So if you expect me to go back to Sweet Apple Acres just because Granny misses having me there, you might as well turn tail and trot back to her and tell her to stick an apple in it." Fluttershy audibly gasped at Applejack's language towards her own grandmother, never having heard her orange friend say anything of the like.

"Applejack! What has gotten into you?!" Big Mac was, much like the cowering yellow mare inside the house, at a loss for words at his sister's allegation.

"Common Sense, Mac! We're talking about the mare who MURDERED our FATHER for Celestia's sake! She left our mom depressed and that depression is what killed her in the end! Don't you get it Mac, our own grandmother orphaned us!"

"A-Applejack please, just come home," the red farmer's resolve began to crumble under the iron-hard facts that his sister was berating him with, "I don't wanna have to carry you away from here..by...force." Big Mac's transparent threat slowly died away in his throat as the yellow veterinarian rose from behind the couch within the cottage, her blue eyes hardened to a point that had bested beasts in the past. The Stare was called forth to aid Fluttershy once the red farm pony hinted at taking Applejack against her will, and it wasn't happy.

"You will do no such thing, Big Macintosh. In fact, you're going to go back to Granny Smith and you're going to tell her that you won't try to take Applejack anymore. Now shoo." the animal enthusiast simply tapped her hoof against her wooden floor, yet the simple action caused the older of the Apple siblings to scramble away in fear. Fluttershy didn't enjoy having to use her ability against others, but when a situation presents itself, she doesn't back down.

Assured that the intruding stallion wouldn't return, the butterscotch mare's eyes lost their sharpened look and turned back into the gentle blue pools they were supposed to be. She mad her way over to her orange friend, pulling her into a hug with her fore hooves and her wings once she noticed that she was silently crying.

"H-how could he do that, after everything we've been through. Ah'v always known about the mean streak that was hidden inside of Granny Smith, but to have mah own brother go against me, that's taking it to a whole new level. He never said anything, but Ah know he already knew about what mah grandma did, but Ah never thought he would help her if Ah ever went against her."

"There-there Applejack, it'll be okay," Fluttershy had an absurdly high maternal instinct, and it showed in the way her voice quelled the ragged sobs the farm mare was producing, "you'll see, in a couple of weeks this will all just fade away and everypony will forget it ever happened."

"That's the problem Shy, Ah don't want to forget about what happened." Applejack separated from the pegasus' friendly embrace to speak face-to-face, "Ah'v lived most of mah life under Granny's hoof, and it was horrifying to know that she was the one responsible for my father's and, in a way, my mother's deaths. Ah'v stayed awake late every night trying to gather up the courage to confront her about it, and the nights Ah did sleep were full of nightmares that have haunted me since my foalhood. Now Twilight and Spike have given me the final push Ah needed to call out Granny on what she's done, but if Ah go back to her now, Ah'm scared that Ah'll lose mah will to go on, Ah'm afraid that Ah'll go back to being a cowardly mare that keeps her mouth shut in order to avoid her problems."

"It's okay Applejack, you're not alone, never forget that. You've got the rest of the girls and me at your side, and together we can get through this, you just have to be strong like you always are." Fluttershy's words brought out comfort in the despairing farm mare, ceasing her depressive thoughts of how things can go badly, and instead filing her with hope for the future.

"Thanks Fluttershy, it's nice to finally be able to get this stuff off of mah chest."

"That's what friends are for, Applejack. Uhm, do you want to make some tea, I could really use some right now."

"Yeah, that'd be mighty nice."

So with the melodrama left behind, the caring pegasus and the hardworking earth pony walked back inside the cozy cottage, where a kettle of raspberry tea soon whistled. Applejack reran all of the events that had happened recently and found her mind wandering over to what the ex-librarian and the purple dragon could be up to in Canterlot at the moment.

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"Just keep walking Spike, and don't look back at them."

"How can I not look back at them, Twilight? 'Them' are everywhere."

The odd couple moved swiftly through the cobblestone roads of Canterlot, which were full to the brim with onlooking ponies. As soon as they had been spotted after getting off of the train, news of their arrival spread quicker than they could move, mostly likely due to those snobbish gossip mares and their quick mouths. Many of the ponies looking at the couple wore looks of slight indignation, but nopony actually made a move against them or said anything since they very well knew how high up in society the lavender mare was. Still, their stares were more than a little unsettling to the two lovers. If a stare grew too nasty, or if a noblepony looked as if he was going to move towards them and block their path, Spike would effectively neutralize them with his own piercing gaze, and his new size was a great bonus to his intimidation factor.

"Come on we're, agh...we're almost there." Twilight began to shake her head from side to side, trying to regain the balance she had just lost. 'What was that all about?'

"Twilight, are you okay, why did you just grunt out like that?" Spike's worry on her medical condition hadn't died down at all since they left from Ponyville, and it was only made worse by any signs of pain his marefriend gave off.

"It's fine...It's just my headache acting up again, it must be the strain of running." the ex-librarian should have known what her response would cause, and before she knew it, she was cradled in Spike's arms again as he dashed through the thinning crowds of ponies and towards the gilded Canterlot Castle.

"Do you really have to do this every time I get a little tired?" in all honesty, Twilight thoroughly enjoyed being carried by her dragonfriend, it made her feel safe and pampered, but she just had to ask.

"If it keeps you from feeling worse, then yes, yes I do." Spike left the crowded business area of Canterlot and got onto the road leading towards the castle. In a couple of minutes the companions reached their destination, and they were greeted by a couple of gold-clad guards at the castle gates. Greeted was probably the wrong word to use, a better way to explain their reaction would be to say that one of them recoiled slightly in fear at the dragon in front of them, unsheathing his spear and pointing it at the 'Menace' before it got too close.

"Halt! What is the meaning of this intrusion." the guard on the left barked out at them, a rookie if his rank as private was any clue, while the one one the right, a master sergeant, simply looked on with amusement since he already knew how things would play out.

"What intrusion? We were called here by Princess Celestia to meet with her." Twilight thought she must have looked a bit funny speaking while being carried the way she was, but she spoke nonetheless.

"Do you have any proof of this meeting? And what of the dragon?" the guard on the right looked like if he was about to burst out laughing as his partner spoke.

"No, but you don't understand I'm Prin-" the lavender mare's explanation was cut-off by the left guard.

"Sorry mam, but if you don't have any proof on the matter, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Quick Sheath, how much of a idiot are you?" the guard on the right spoke with a voice that leaked amusement.

"Why would you ask something like that that, huh Swift Blade?" the left guard, now known to be called Quick Sheath, spoke in a dumbfounded tone. Twilight's face lit up as she recognized the right guard's name.

"Because you're just telling Princess Celestia's personal student, Lady Twilight Sparkle, to leave a castle she has full access to, not to mention that you keep eyeing her romantic partner as if he was about to pounce on you." Swift's statement made Quick's face burn up in embarrassment, while at the same time it paled from the way his job could easily be put at peril.

"I-I'm sorry Lady Sparkle, I'm just new here p-please forgive my misunderstanding." Swift just laughed at Quick's reaction once he realized who exactly he was talking to.

"It's okay, mister Quick, you wouldn't be the first to forget who I am. As for you, Swift, why is it that you enjoy picking on the new recruits so much." Twilight smiled at the older guard.

"Aw, what happened to you Twilight, you get a boyfriend and then you can't stand my humor all of a sudden? I miss the little filly who would actually ask me to do a little teasing." Swift let a wave of nostalgia wash over him as he recalled the couple of times he interacted with Twilight and Spike during their baby years.

"Well this 'little filly' has some business to attend to here at the castle."

"Okay then Twilight, just let me unlock the gates, you have a good day now you hear?" Swift and Quick both inserted their keys into the corresponding locks on the golden gateway, pushing it open to give the couple entry.

Brief thanks were given to the guard ponies as the lavender mare and the purple dragon began to walk towards the entrance to the castle's lobby. Twilight asked Spike to put her down in front of the doorway leading to the main lobby since they would only be walking from there on.

The castle's lobby was exactly the same as the last time they had visited, except that instead of a creepy cloaked pony at the reception table, there was a caramel colored unicorn mare wearing a pair of bifocals. The mare at the desk stood upon seeing the new arrivals, a clipboard being levitated at her side, and trotted towards Twilight and Spike.

"Ah, Lady Sparkle and Spike I presume?" the only reason she wasn't scared out of the socks she wasn't wearing at the sight of the dragon was because she had been warned that she would be seeing him soon.

"Yes that would be us, Miss..?" Twilight let her question stretch out a bit, prompting a continuation from the accountant.

"Board, Miss Board. I never really liked my name, but hey, a name is a name. Anyway, there is a meeting scheduled to begin as soon as you arrived, please follow me." Board turned to her right and began to trot down the castle's decorated hallways.

The trio walked for a couple of minutes through the seemingly never ending until they walked up to a unlabeled door, most likely one of the many lounges in the castle as suggested by the simplicity of the room's entrance.

"So Princess Celestia is expecting us?" Spike asked the question that was about to escape Twilight's lips, something that had been happening a lot recently.

"Princess Celestia? No, she's holding Day Court at the moment, you two are meeting with another pair of ponies. Princess Celestia will meet with you once her duties are attended to."

"Uhm, okay, thank you Miss Board." Twilight had been so focused on seeing the princess that she overlooked another matter that had to be attended to at the castle, a matter that was impatiently pacing back and forth within the lounge.

Board nodded as she accepted the thanks she was given, turning around and walking down the hallway shortly after, leaving the couple to their meeting. Spike pushed the giant double doors open since Twilight's magic was severely weak at the moment, and both of the lovers stared at the Guard Captain and the Love Alicorn within. Shining Armour turned towards the door, his eyes set on the arrivals, eyes that held surprise at them arriving so early, not to mention that the dragon he was looking at was much bigger than the one he saw in the newspaper. His wife thought he was being a little paranoid when he suggested they stayed at the castle to be able to meet his sister sooner, now it seemed that his waiting was about to pay off.

"Hey Twiley, what's been going on?" his voice held no rage, no indignation, just confusion at seeing his sister in a new light due to the photograpghs.

"Heh, a lot more than you know Shining, and hello Cadance, how are you coming along?" Twilight felt only slightly disturbed at the lack of usual affection between her and her brother, maybe it was only slight because Spike stood at her side with a arm hooked around her shoulders.

"I'm doing great, Twilight, she's developing at a great pace." the Love Alicorn stood from the couch she was using, struggling only a little bit with the bulge in her underside. Seven months had passed since she was diagnosed with her pregnancy, and she could barely wait to cradle her little filly in her hooves.

"Yeah, she is." Shining Armor spoke in a distracted manor, as if he wasn't focusing on speaking on the subject of his unborn daughter at the moment, "Listen Twiley, I think you already know why I called you over here."

"Yes, I supposed that was what all of this was about." Twilight had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes in annoyance at the scandal being made out of her relationship.

"Sweetie, do we really have to talk to her about this?" Cadance obviously knew the whole reason behind the meeting her husband had prepared, and she didn't like the intrusion he was putting into action.

"Yes Cadance, this is something we have to discuss." Shining was driven with intent unknown to anyone other than himself, his resolve not crumbling in the slightest of forms.

"Uh, dude, I don't think Twilight wants to talk about it right now, we've both had a really harsh week." Spike didn't exactly know how to talk to his marefriend's brother, he didn't really speak to him much since he was always away for training, and there was also the fact that they didn't exactly like each other. It was nothing personal, they literally couldn't get along, no matter how much effort they put into the few times they met.

"I think Twilight can talk for herself, Spike." Shining had an involuntary edge to his voice, their bad tems didn't really help him rely on his sister's judgment.

"Whoa whoa, back down a bit Shining, there's no reason to start talking like that, especially not with Spike." the lavender mare leaned into the crook of her dragonfriend's arm, relishing the comfort it brought and the tension it melted away from her mind.

"But Twilight, don't you see what you're doing? All of Canterlot is gossiping about you, few good things as a fact, and the news has no doubt already reached other parts of Equestria! What would you do if a crowd suddenly began to insult you, how would you feel?" Shining Armor had no idea what the couple before him had endured, said couple refraining from releasing any information at the moment on the past days, saving it for a more tactical usage.

"Is that what bothers you Shining? That the ponies around me might be able to hurt me with foul language? If so, then you can already dump that argument into the waste bin because it isn't going to work."

"Why would you choose him over any other stallion? Twilight, I've seen things, horrible things that dragons have done to some of my best men. They've reduced an entire platoon into nothing but a puddle in a matter of minutes! How do you know Spike won't do the same to you?!" Shining Armor only had one second to register the fact that he had screwed up, big time, in his side of the debate. He didn't hate Spike, but he hated all of the attention it drew towards his sibling, all of the hate that she was sure to receive. Still, it didn't ease the fact that he had just, in a way, insulted his sister's romantic partner, a individual with the strength to easily take him and many more out, but he feared his lavender sibling much more at the moment.

Twilight's gaze had grown cold towards her brother, her emotional restraints beginning to break as the white unicorn insulted Spike. Her words weren't smothered in sisterly warmth, they seemed to be sapped of all emotions save fore resentment. "You know what Shining, shut up. Shut up about my relationship and who I chose to share it with, and let me just ask you this, who would you rather I chose?"

"I-I Uhm..."

"Exactly, Shiny, you can't think of anypony else, and do you know why? Because there isn't anypony better for me. You say that I risk being put in harm's way by being with Spike, and this assumption is based on some incidents with dragons that you most likely provoked." Twilight felt her head throb lightly as she talked down her brother.

"Now, let me tell you all of the reasons that I want to be, and am, his marefriend. How about we start off a while back, back to your wedding," Shining cringed at the memory of the barely avoided disaster that could've taken place at the time of his union with Cadance, "Remember what happened on that day, brother? Do you remember the way you tossed aside all of the trust you held for me just so that you could fulfill what you wanted?"

"I was under a spell Twilight! You know I wasn't in control of what I was doing!" cold fear trickled up Shining Armor's spine at his sister's accusations, fear of what his poorly chosen words had unleashed from within his sister.

"Yes, you were, but do you know what that spell exactly did?" the ex-librarian's forehead began to throb even harder than before as she searched her brain for anything to add to her argument.

"It stole my love and brainwashed me to neglect you."

"You're only half-correct, Shining. The spell Chrysalis was using on you did steal your emotions, but it didn't brainwash you to act the way you did towards me. The drain spell made you believe that Chrysalis was Cadance, no matter how she acted, it never diverted your mind from knowing that you were hurting your sister's feelings."

"That's n-not true!" the white unicorn had his voice raised slightly, desperation gripping him as his little sister incriminated him with evidence that was anything but false.

"Say what you wish, but you know the truth, but I'm getting sidetracked on the main point of my story. Do you recall that Spike was never really at the wedding much?" Headache turned to migraine inside of the lavender mare's head, but she never stopped her justifications.

"I wasn't there for the day because I went off and wandered into the streets of Canterlot with a bag full of bits, losing myself in arcades and anything I could really find to enjoy myself. Evidently I enjoyed myself too much since I managed to let the wedding completely slip my mind. After Twilight explained everything to me on the way back to Ponyville, I felt horrible, useless. I felt as if I had betrayed her trust in me, so for the next weeks I was at a moments notice from her command, never letting myself succumb to my urge to be lazy or to slack-off." Spike gained a lost look in his eyes as he mentally visited the past events, giving Twilight the window to pipe back into the conversation.

"And what did you do, Shining? A brief moment to 'Make up' with each other before you disappeared into the crowds, and for the following weeks I never even received a single letter from you." Cadance tried to subtly sneak in a spell to ease the situation, but Twilight's diamond-trap mind blocked her access off, using her overflowing emotions as a shield.

"I was busy, Twiley." Shining Armor sounded meek, a lot of his resolve had been crushed with the couples arguments. His quiet words would only earn him more from his sister in turn.

"Don't you dare say you were busy as an excuse, too busy to even send one lousy letter?" Twilight's vision began to darken a bit around the edges, but a shake from her head cleared it back up.

"Okay, I get it. Please, just no more." the guard captain lowered his horned head in shame, reflecting on how he had been neglecting his L.S.B.F.F. for quite some time.

"No, I've got one last point to add." Twilight unhooked herself from Spike's arm and slowly trotted closer to her brother to speak in a leveled voice, "Most recently, The Crystal Empire Incident, you have no idea what Spike and I discovered when trying to retrieve the Crystal Heart. Along the way we found something that told me a lot about my partner, a doorway enchanted to make you believe that your worst fear was a reality, and do you know what Spike's worst fear was?" the lavender mare's vision began to fade out again, not being shaken away this time.

Shining simply shook his head in response to his sister's question.

"His..his worst fear was that h-he would..lose...me." Twilight collapsed once she uttered out her final word, snapping Shining Armor out of his gloomy mood and back into big brother mode. As he was about to levitate his sister onto his back to help her, Spike rushed in and lifted her up into his arms once again, pure shock running through his mind.

"Hey, I'll help her!" the captain sounded nearly childish as he tried to get a grip on Twilight with his telekinesis, but Spike wouldn't let go. Having escaped the little tug-of-war with his marefriend's brother, the dragon stared directly into Shining's eyes, boring into the stallion with his slitted pupils.

"You've helped enough Shining Armor! She came here to escape the judgement they gave her back in Ponyville, and what does she find? Her own brother going against her, I swear to any deity listening that if Twilight is seriously hurt over this little discussion, you'd better start to carry a weapon around me." Puffing out green smoke through his nostrils, Spike turned tail and ran to the castle's medical ward, leaving behind the distraught captain and the mournful alicorn.

"I told you it would end badly." Cadance laid a hoof on her husband's shoulder, she honestly felt like she should have helped stop the argument since the beginning.

Shinning didn't answer, he simply stared at a point in the wall that bore nothing put the paint used to give it its blue color.

'What have I done?'

Checkups

Chapter 18

Checkups

"Just calm down, Press, you're freaking out.." Glamour Shot didn't stop her trot as she spoke to her assistant in crime, walking past all of the snobby, gossiping mares of Canterlot. Something had the aforementioned mares riled up today, but the cloaked mare didn't care, she was just too glad that she finally got her personal dilemma out of her life.

"How am I supposed to be able to stay calm!" whispered Press in a panicked tone, his eyes surveying the throng of ponies that were gathered at a jewelry store across the street for anyone who might try to take him away to the castle dungeon. Of course, none of them where even looking at the two partners, all of them were too eager to catch the sale in the last minutes of the day to even look at anypony who wasn't in front of them, "What if the guards figure out that it was actually us wh-"

Glamour Shot shoved a hoof into Press' mouth, silencing the unintentional confession he was about to commit, and a frown found itself on her muzzle as she spoke, "The only way we could get caught is if your loud mouth actually admits it, like you were just seconds away from doing."

Press seemed to understand what the mare meant since he kept his mouth shut long after her hoof had been extracted from his muzzle. As the sun began to set, giving the moon its airspace for the night, his curious and talkative nature won out against the urge to just stay quiet, "Where are we even going anyway?"

"To celebrate of course! You may, or may not, know about all the problems those idiots were responsible for putting in my life, but the point is that something like this shouldn't end without a mug of cider to go with it." The devilish mare and the cowardly stallion walked up to a concrete, two story building, most of the front wall being covered by a shining, blue neon sign.

"Moonshine?" Press hated to admit it, but he wasn't much of a drinker, mostly due to the fact that his body would force out any and all alcohol ingested in a matter of seconds. It was a fact that had earned him many taunts from his colleagues whenever they made him accompany them to a bar or a night club.

"Yeah, I used to come here all the time when I was a kid, but I've been a little too busy lately to swing by for a drink. They really know how to make a good glass of cider, I thought you'd be the one to know about this place, rich newspaper director and all."

"Heh, well, you see...I'm not really good at...drinking." It took Press a while to realize that he was, in fact, alone outside of the bar, Glamour Shot having walked into the drinking pub long before he even finished speaking

With a sigh, the brown earth pony trudged towards the metal doors that led into the dim club, not in the mood for throwing up at the moment. The only thing that kept him moving at the moment was the reassuring piece of his mind that kept reminding him that his service to Glamour Shot was over, and that he would be able to just leave all of what happened in the past to be forgotten by time. Of course, he knew he was just lying to himself. He would never be able to get over the fact that he took two innocent lives, and there was no way that he would be able to work with his guilty state of mind.

"At least I won't have her staring me down all the time anymore."

"What was that, Press?" the stallion fairly jumped at the sudden appearance of the mare that had left him outside a couple of moments ago, holding two cups along with a bottle in her telekinetic grasp.

"N-nothing, nothing at all." if Glamour Shot was any other mare, she would have cared about the obvious lie she was being given, but she wasn't any other mare. With a shrug, the now un-hooded unicorn walked over to a empty corner booth, setting down the drinking materials on the polished wooden table.

"You ever tasted the cider they serve here, Press? I know you haven't been to this place before, but I've heard they sell it to other bars." Press didn't know if he should relax, cry from confusion, or just keep his lips sealed at the conversational tone the mare was using with him, a tone that he had never received from her in the past. Instead, he went with choice D, a simple shake of his head, prompting Glamour Shot to pop open the bottle and pour the clear liquid into the two glasses.

"Then you're going to love this." the bald mare chugged down the cooled beverage thirstily, sighing with satisfaction at the sight of her empty cup before turning her gaze back to Press, who hadn't even touched his full glass. Embarrassed at how easily the mare could handle her liquor, as apposed to his inability to do so, he lifted up the glass between both of his hooves, bringing the cold surface against his lips, and tipping it slowly towards himself. The cider burned his throat slightly as he slowly sipped away at it, focusing on keeping the stream of alcohol slow enough to not upset his stomach, but it was a focus that was interrupted as a tiny paper ball bounced off of his cheek. Press turned towards where the ball had come from, still drinking as his eyes fixated themselves on a lone figure in a booth on the other side of the bar, which proved to be a big mistake once he realized who exactly he was looking at.

The black stallion looked at him with sly green eyes, a toothy grin growing larger on his face the more Press choked on the burning liquid in his throat. With an inaudible laugh that nopony but Press saw, the light above the booth the figure was sitting at flickered off for a couple of seconds, and the chuckling stallion was nowhere to be seen when the light returned.

"Sheesh Press, I've seen foals that can chug that stuff down, and here you are, gagging on a few sips of it." the earth pony knew that it would be useless to try and explain what he had exactly seen, that tactic never having work in the past, and he even began to wonder if he should go and stay in one of the fancy rooms that were provided at the Canterlot Insane Asylum.

"It's been a while, okay?" his defense came out a a little raspy, the coughing fit he had gone through took its toll on his throat, messing up his voice to the point of making him sound meek and fragile, a sound that matched his personality perfectly.

"Whatever you say, Press, if you can't handle this stuff then go back to drinking your little juice boxes." the mocking smile plastered onto Glamour Shot's face caused Press to frown in embarrassment, clearly ashamed of the little display he had put on.

Light jazz put on a relaxing background as the two terrorists kept up a light conversation, mostly comprised from a couple of select moments from Glamour's foalhood, and what interested Press was that she avoided much of the details that she clearly knew. After enough taunting and persuasion from the bald mare, the brown earth pony continued to drink from the bottle of cider, impressing himself for not vomiting even after he finished his third cup. With the moon at its apex in the sky, the partners in crime walked out of the drinking pub, both of them slightly intoxicated as they began to loiter in front of the bar while the rest of its occupants began to leave to their respective homes.

"So, have you heard about that mare?" a trio of mare walked out of the bar, with the white one starting up the conversation. Glamour Shot's ears flicked towards the group of mares, checking to see if they had anything better to say than whatever Press was babbling about.

"Who? Oh, you mean the unicorn, Twilight Sparkle?" the green one of the group responded to her friend, her words instantly sparking Glamour's interest like a match to a tank of gasoline.

'Wow, I didn't think the news would reach Canterlot so quickly, let's see what these prissy little gossip mares have to say.' completely ignoring Press now, Glamour Shot's ears turned all the way towards the group in order to eavesdrop on them more easily.

"Yeah, I hear she's, like, involved with some dragon, if you know what I mean." the white one spoke with a small hint of indignation in her voice as she continued the gossip comparison.

"Man, that is one lonely mare. I mean, come on, who in their right mind would get together with a fire breathing monster unless they were really desperate?" the green mare's words prompted the third, blue mare, who had become the third wheel the entire night, to speak up in a voice so soft it was almost a whisper.

"Uhm, I don't think there's anything wrong with her loving a dragon." the other two mares turned to look at her, their questioning looks making her speak again, "I mean, take me and Sheryl for example, I'm a mare and she's also a mare, but you two don't say anything about us being together." Glamour Shot smiled devilishly, knowing that a conflict was bound to break out with the train of conversation they were taking, and if anything would make her night better, it would be watching a mare versus mare beat down.

"That's because she's at least a pony, and a rich one too, so I can support that. Now, a dragon that I have no idea about being with a mare that I've only heard of once or twice, that's outright disgusting." Glamour Shot began to fidget with her hooves as she impatiently waited for the brawl between the green and blue mares to break out, but what happened next made her entire body freeze up, and her mind go blank.

"I heard that they ran through town today, on their way to the royal palace if what everypony saw was right. I hope the guards kick them away before they even get near the princesses, they don't deserve to be in their presence." even after the trio of mares walked away from the drinking pubs lot, continuing the conversation they had, Glamour Shot remained paralyzed in place, her mind going fifty miles per hour as she processed what she just heard.

"Well, it's been...fun and all, but I really should get going, I haven't been home in a week and the maids probably robbed me while I was gone. Bye Glamour Shot, have a good night." Press' farewell snapped her out of her trance after a couple of seconds, the stallion having wobbled his way down the street slowly while she was trapped within her mind.

"Finally, I'll get to sleep on something other than the dirty floor. Now, let's go hooOOOME!?" Press' monologue was interrupted as he was lifted off of the ground by a blue aurora that would flicker red every once and a while, said aurora spinning him one hundred eighty degrees and bringing him back to the bald mare. "W-what are you doing G-Glamour Shot!? Let me go!"

"Shut up, just shut up! I can't believe she's alive! That bitch and her little pet are still alive!" Glamour's conversational tone was gone, but it wasn't her usual restrained angry voice either. No, this was a voice born from pure desperation, frustration, and with a sprinkle of craze in the horrifying mixture, one that made Press wish he was hearing her usual irritated tone.

"B-but you said your job was done, that I didn't have to help anymore." the stallion dearly hoped against hope that the mare would let him go, just let him go home to his comfy bed and sleep.

"That was before I realized that OUR job isn't finished...not yet anyway. Now, you and I are going to go on a little shopping spree since we ran out of materials back in Ponyville." her true intentions were evident within her voice, and Press picked up on them easily.

"N-no, please no, I don't want to have to do this anymore. I just want to g-" the aurora around him concentrated on his neck and head , simultaneously choking him and applying pressure to his skull, inducing blunt pain as he began to blackout from the lack of oxygen.

"You ARE going to help me Press, whether you want to or not, that's not up for debate. And now, if you so much as screw up a single thing, I won't just blackmail you, I'll freaking rip your heart out with my bare hooves and send it to your mother." the mare released the stallion from her chilling grip and trotted past his heaving body, Press simply clutched his head and tried to get the black in his vision to go away. He seriously considered running away from the crazed mare, but his planning was cut short when she lit up her horn again and dragged him away in another, albeit lighter, painful choke hold.

'Celestia, please help me!'

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"How is she, doctor?" Spike had been pacing around the waiting room for multiple hours, never letting the door leading into the room that Twilight had been assigned to at the castle infirmary out of his sight. Cadance was lounging on one of the couches in the room as well, reading a book on foal management that she never really got the chance to finish, and her husband was nowhere to be seen. That particular detail would have intrigued Spike if it weren't for the fact that he really disliked the white stallion. He felt conflicted, he was mad that Shining wasn't there for his sister, but he was glad that he didn't have to be around the unicorn, knowing that he might do something to him he would regret.

"Lady Sparkle's condition has improved greatly since her timely arrival here. We had to sedate her for the treatment, so she's currently sleeping. I advise you to let her awaken on her own since it'll help her stable." the dragon nodded in response to his question, barely restraining himself from running into the room to see his beloved mare. "I'll be back in a moment, I have to go examine her diagnostic's test results in my office, have a good night Mr. Spike."

The medical officer walked out of the sterile waiting room and down the hall, leaving the dragon and the love alicorn to their own affairs. Spike waited for Cadance to get up from the couch and move to his side, a task that took quite some time for the alicorn. She really did try to move quickly, but her unborn foal didn't exactly help her speed. She had been pondering an idea that she had formed before actually reading the book she was putting down, an idea that she was sure she would put into effect sooner or later.

With the pink alicorn at his side, a stuttering breath taken, and self-restraint in effect, Spike gripped the golden door handle and pushed it aside to reveal the scene within. Celestia looked up from her spot at Twilight's side, taking in the new visitors.

"Hello auntie, how did the treatment go?" Cadance spoke for Spike and herself since the purple dragon had lost most of his self-control and rushed to the left bedside not being used, sat on a chair he had pulled up, and cradled one of Twilight's hooves between his claws. It was heartwarming to both of the alicorns present to see that a faint smile grew on the sleeping mare's face once her partner held her hoof, and that was really saying something considering that one of them was older than the planet they lived on, and that the other was the literal goddess of love.

"Very well, thank you for asking Cadance. Twilight was diagnosed with magical exhaustion, along with some minor physical injuries, but Spike brought her here before her state could worsen." Princess Celestia turned to the purple dragon, who was still lost observing his marefriend's steady breathing, "You're the reason she avoided severe damage to her magical abilities, thank you Spike."

"It was nothing compared to how much she's helped me recently, not to mention my entire life. I don't need any thanks, I only need to know that she's okay." the drake looked up from the hospital bed, looking the goddess of the sun straight in the eyes as he spoke.

"How modest for you to say that, Spike, and the devotion you show to her truly impresses me. I expected nothing less from the consort to my faithful student, especially not from you, congratulations by the way." Celestia smiled warmly as Spike shifted through his expressions of calm, surprise, and joy in less than five seconds.

Honestly, she was the god that had ruled the entire continent ponykind lived on since it came into existence, so she was bound to see some unusual partners during her lifetime. She had seen pegasi pairing together with griffons, zebras with earth ponies, and more same-sex relationships than her mind could handle. But a mare finding love with a dragon, that was something she had never seen before, but just because it was new didn't mean she found it wrong. In fact, she adored the idea of Twilight living a romantic relationship with her closest companion, dragon or not. Who better to court her than the one individual who knew her better than anyone else, who better to know just the right thing to say when it she needed to hear it, to be there for her when no one else was.

"I was actually afraid for a moment that you would disapprove, I wouldn't have known what to do if that were to have happened. Everypony else that has turned us away so far, I can handle that, but I'm not sure how I would bear to see Twilight get rejected by the one pony she cares for the most." his words caught the solar ruler's attention, seven of them specifically. A frown grew on her face at the implications, and she asked the question she knew she wouldn't like the answer to.

"What do you mean? Has anypony confronted you two about your relationship?"

"Several, actually. That's how Twilight got the gash in her shoulder." Celestia was using every ounce of her willpower to stop herself from flying straight through the roof to search for whoever dared lay a single violent hoof on her student, barely succeeding as Spike continued to talk. Her mask of composure broke at several moments along the tale that was regaled, showing the anger underneath for a couple of seconds before it was hidden behind her poker face again. Cadance wasn't faring any better than her aunt, letting out a couple of unintentional growls at some of the more violent points in the story. It was when the story reached the scene of the Golden Oaks Library exploding that both princesses asked Spike to stop retelling the recent events so that they could properly process what exactly was going on in the lavender unicorn's life. They wondered how such horrid things could happen to the mare they loved so much without them knowing, and, after their minds were settled, they allowed Spike to continue his tale.

"By Faust, and you two came here immediately after the incident at the library?" the purple dragon nodded in response to the sun goddess' question, returning his gaze to the mare in the hospital bed when Celestia found herself lost in thought. She wondered where her ponies had gone wrong, when did the seeds of segregation plant themselves into the society she thought she knew like the back of her hoof.

"We should tell aunt Lulu before she catches word of this on her own, heavens know what she might do to the pony cult in Ponyville if we aren't around to ease her through it. Say, where is she? I thought she'd be here considering her close friendship with Twilight." Cadance finally took into account that she hadn't seen the night alicorn since Twilight's arrival, and she wondered where the sneaky mare could have vanished to.

"Luna, along with a squad of guards, is investigating a chain of robberies that occurred tonight in Canterlot. Nothing of major value was stolen, just everyday groceries, which is strange considering the great risk they ran at robbing from the city's main district. She'll visit when she finishes her report, you know how involved she likes to get when it involves her job." Celestia's mood was slightly dampened as she continued to take note of the corruption that could find its way into her ponies' minds, but her gloom was washed away as the sheets on the hospital bed began to stir. All three visitors in the room smiled as a pair of amethyst eyes opened, finding it difficult to focus after being shut for the duration of her sleep.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

'I'm not ponynapped right now. I didn't just rob others. I'm not in danger. I'm not in danger.'

Press' mind continued to loop the single phrase in hopes of actually fooling itself into believing it, but it was incredibly difficult to look past the constant noise a certain bald mare was making in the dining room. The brown stallion stared blankly at the idle fireplace in front of him, not sure if he should attempt to fall asleep on the couch he was on, or simply contemplate his situation even further.

Glamour Shot had roughly dragged him away to the lower districts of Canterlot after forcing him to aid her in robbing various shops earlier that night. He attempted to escape once, finding a opportunity as the malevolent mare turned her back on him to stuff a bag with more stolen goods, but he was strangled into submission as soon as she figured out he was trying to flee. He hated to admit it, but with him being a pudgy earth pony, he was no match for the magic all unicorns could wield, much less that of one who had gone partially insane.

Anyway, the cloaked mare had shoved him into a light brown building he assumed was the mare's house, just barely avoiding a passing patrol of guards. Press attempted to gain their attention, but a belt tied around his muzzle and shut him up when he tried to yell out for help. He didn't like the old Glamour Shot, but he sure as hell would have taken to being at her side rather than the twitching mess that was currently working on something in the dining room.

"Press! I need the burlap sack we hauled over here, now!"

Call him a coward, but the stallion shriveled up at the abrasive sound that Glamour's voice, going as far as to compare it to the odd individual that had been following him around since he arrived at Ponyville. Still, he did what he was told as quickly as his trembling body would allow him, taking the stolen bag in between his teeth and dragging it into the dimly lit dining room. As soon as he entered, he saw the mare of his nightmare's huddled over the single table in the room, which had scattered goods adorning its surface. Without so much as a 'Thank you', Glamour Shot snatched away the burlap sack in her red aurora, dumping its contents on a empty corner of the table.

Press watched as the mare poured a glass of water and set it down on the floor, confusing him even further. Glamour then pulled up a sealed pill bottle from the pile of stole items, taking out a single pill before sealing the container again and putting it back to its spot in the mound. Without warning, she tossed the white pill into the glass of water, and nothing happened after waiting for a couple of seconds. Just as he let his guard down, the whole cup exploded in flames, bursting apart with a loud noise. The chemical reaction nearly gave Press a heart attack, and it didn't help that Glamour had decided to stare at him with her demented eyes, a sadistic grin cursing her muzzle.

"Mmm, you'd be surprised at what a few household items can do if you have the proper knowledge. A glass of water here, add a little sodium there, and, poof! You've got a ticket to getting rid of pesky little dragons and mares!"

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"...and then you woke up just now. That pretty much covers what's happened after you passed out at the lounge."

After a ten minute snuggling session, Spike got his marefriend up to speed with their current situation. He was glad that they were finally getting some good feedback from the world around them for a change, instead of being chased out of town by a group of maniac ponies. Twilight had grown elated at the approval of her beloved mentor, valuing her opinion much more than those of a couple of random anonymous ponies. With speed nopony should ever have been capable of, the lavender unicorn broke her hooves out of the cradle-lock Spike had on them, and pulled her teacher into a hugging nuzzle.

"Thank you for understanding, Princess Celestia, it means so much to us that you would approve." the alicorn of the day nuzzled her student back, just like she used to do when she was nothing more than a little foal. Her protege's presence, the memories, and the nuzzle all brought a warm smile to the sun goddess' face, but there was still one issue she'd like to take care of before moving along the conversation.

"You've always made the best of decisions in your life, Twilight, and I see that this is no exception. And please, just refer to me as 'Celestia', there's no need for formal titles among friends." she got just the reaction she expected, a surprised smile grew on her student's face,who was clearly excited about the formal proposal of friendship from her mentor. She always considered herself friends with her ruler, but to have her state it directly was something else entirely.

"Of course, Celestia!" Twilight blushed at the volume her voice held as she spoke elatedly to her benevolent ruler, hiding her face behind her mane in a manner she adopted from a certain yellow pegasus before she spoke again in a much softer tone," I mean, I'd love to, Celestia."

The grin on the solar princess' face threatened to split it in half, overjoyed at the loss of her title. Many ponies would never live to know that the princesses, all of them, hate the title they carry. It interferes with their life at every turn, forcing those around them to act nervous and restrained, never allowing a fully developed friendship to bloom. So, for the pony she cares for the most to drop her title as a ruler, and speak to her as she would to a friend, was the greatest act Celestia could ever hope to see in her eternal life.

The conversation between the alicorns and the oddball couple continued long into the night, never gaining the appearance from the lunar goddess herself. That one fact didn't deter the group of friends as they reminisced for as long as their personal affairs would allow them to. Celestia wasn't sure if her drowsiness was catching up to her, or if her mind was simply playing tricks on her, but she could almost swear she saw a patch of blue shift away from the window on the door that marked the entrance to the hospital room. Her suspicions were proven to be correct when the small amount of blue returned to the window slowly, as if checking if anybody could see it, and disappeared again. With a small frown of recognition, Celestia excused herself from the friendly chatter, much to everyone else's disappointment, claiming that she had to go check on how Luna was doing.

Just a little white lie, but she did have a meeting to host, just not with her sister.

Twilight let out a short yawn, the sedatives still lingering in her bloodstream were dampening the usual energy she retained. Cadance took notice of her step-sister's sleepy state, and decided that she too would retire for the night.

"I'll see you in the morning, okay Twilight?" the love alicorn trotted up to the lavender unicorn and gave her a parting nuzzle, which was gladly returned.

"Sure thing Cadance, are you going back home?"

"No, Shining and I are staying here at the castle until you feel better. He's overprotective as always, but I don't mind the extra time with you and Spike."

"Neither do I, good night Cadance."

"You too Twilight."

The pink alicorn exited the sterile hospital room and headed down the hall leading to where she'll be spending the night, leaving the two lovestruck companions to themselves. Sleep was nowhere near her mind as she continued her trot, she was driving it away with her insistent plotting, and she managed to formulate a simple plan in her mind by the time she reached her empty room. She began to wonder where he could have run off to, but wasn't given the chance to delve to deeply into her guesses since the stallion she was thinking about walked through the gilded double doors a minute later, a unusual look on his face.

"And where have you been?" the love goddess noticed the almost imperceptible shudder that Shining Armor gave off, and she began to be consumed by her curiosity. She was left unsatisfied after the stallion responded in a soft, wavering voice as he walked to the bed and promptly collapsed.

"I don't want to talk about."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

A few moments earlier...

'Idiot, idiot, idiot!'

The white unicorn stallion continued to berate himself mentally for the way he had screwed up the day once again, increasing the tempo of his pacing. He never really had a knack at speaking with others the right way, always being too blunt, without enough sympathy or compassion.

Just another guard among the herd.

Now, his character had landed him in the worst of possible situations, the one where his sister hated him for all the right reasons. It was simply an added bonus that he now also had a potentially violent dragon pissed off at him to the point of threats being thrown around, the very same dragon that his little sister had decided to take up as a romantic partner.

He wasn't sure how to feel, never really straying much from what he was taught since he was nothing more than a simple colt. Shining Armor would have turned to his parents' judgement on the situation, using that to help him decide, but they were out of town for their anniversary vacation. He was left with nothing more than a sister that most likely hated him now, a angry dragon that wished for nothing more than to rip him to shreds, and a wife who would probably disown him for being that way to his younger sibling.

'I'm screwed.' was the only thing that he could run through his mind at the moment, well, until he saw somepony clad in golden regalia walking towards him, 'I'm royally screwed.'

Before he could devise a way to escape a confrontation with the goddess of the sun, she called out to him in her usual composed tone, making it obvious that she was hiding any and all emotions at the moment.

"Captain Armor, I wish to speak with you privately for a moment." his instincts as a guard made his body freeze stone-still, a order from one of the princesses was law, and he had no choice but to follow it.

The solar monarch closed the door to the lounge that the stallion had hidden in, sealing it along with the entire room in a soundproofing barrier. The very action told Shining that he had something coming, and he wasn't going to like it.

"Yes mam?"

"Cut the guard routine, Mr. Armor, I'm not here on formal business or anything of the like. In fact, I know very well that you know why I am here, and what I need to talk to you about." 'Frightening' was the only word the white unicorn would use to describe the tone that had attached to the solar ruler's voice, but it was probably only his over-active mind playing tricks on him.

"What do you mean, Princess Celestia?" lies would get him nowhere with the alabaster alicorn, it was almost painfully obvious that he knew something.

"I'm talking about you spying on the conversation between Twilight, Spike, Cadance, and myself. And don't try to lie to me, Captain, you are almost as bad at that particular skill as the Element Of Honesty."

"Okay, yes, I watched over the hospital room, but I don't see what there is to talk about."

"Very much, actually. Please, take a seat." a cushion materialized out of thin air, placing itself under the stallion before he was pushed to his haunches by a telekinetic force. Talking time for him was over.

"Now, from what I've been told, you directly confronted Twilight and Spike as soon as they entered the castle grounds. Is this true?"

"I called them to meet me at a lounge, so yes."

"And did you ever question her decision on who she chose to take on as her romantic partner?"

"No!" Shining couldn't restrain the volume his voice gained, and a lump formed in his throat when he realized who exactly he was talking to, "I mean, no, sorry for raising my voice."

"If you didn't question her choice, then what did you do to upset her?"

"Look, I...I did question her choice, but it was because I was only thinking about what was best for her."

"Really now? Please explain."

"How am I supposed to stand by and stay calm knowing that she's going out with a creature who can tear her to pieces if he so much as wishes to." the look Celestia gave him was one that told him that he just said something that was about to bite him on the flank.

"You would believe that Spike, the only friend Twilight had for more than half of her entire life, would ever harm her? If so, then I don't know how you have risen through the ranks of my military forces with that kind of poor judgement."

"Princess, I've seen some of my best friends get torn to pieces by his kind ho-"

"And I've seen Spike unite Twilight with many of the friends she has today, your point?"

"My point is that he still has instincts, what if one day Twilight upsets him and he lets himself be controlled by his anger."

"So do you, Shining Armor, but you let fear dominate your thoughts, rather than anger. Nobody is excluded from their basest of natural impulses, but some of us learn how to control ourselves. Spike is the perfect example of that statement."

"How?"

"He is a magical breed of dragon, the most skilled of any breed actually, and Twilight granted him further strength when she overpowered his hatching process. This increased amount of strength, however, also increases his susceptibility to a dragon's natural way of thinking. A couple of years back, he was consumed by his greed, magically transforming him into a beast many times larger than the size he has now. Obviously, he overcame that moment with some help from his friends, but what really interests me is that it never happened again after that day. He saw how much damage he could cause if he let his judgement be clouded by his emotions, and he taught himself how to control his base desires, be it greed or anger, he was, and is to this day, in control."

"But it's not a guarantee that he will never lose himself again!" Celestia resisted the terrible urge to roll her eyes at the stubborn stallion, opting to instead convince him with words that were bound to work.

"Who can guarantee you that they won't hurt Twilight? Who can you choose that you're sure will never harm your little sister?"

"I...but I..."

"Nopony, Shining, that's who. But, Spike is the closest being that has ever entered Twilight's life, I would very well guess that he is even closer to her than I am. He is the one that knows her the best, he knows how to comfort her in the bleakest of situations, and he would rather die than to leave her side for his own welfare." Shining took his leader's words deep into his mind, processing the universal truth that had just been spoken to him. Of course, he had one last thorn in his side, and he wanted to make sure if it was harmful or not.

"What about the public, how would Twilight feel if they were to react negatively to her?" he was about to receive yet another verbal whip to the face, and this one was going to sting, badly.

"Did you ever let either Spike or her to explain to you what happened these past few days to them. No? Well, allow me to give you the recap. They've discovered their feelings for each other, accepted those emotions, were rejected by one of their best friend at first, confronted by a senile member of the town of Ponyville, attacked by a pair of thugs in a alleyway, harassed verbally by a group of townsponies led by the aforementioned senile member, and had their home reduced to nothing more than a pile of burning splinters."

The white unicorn just gaped at the events that had been retold, resisting the urge to punch himself as the solar empress continued to speak.

"But, amiss all of the destruction and discrimination, they stood strongly together. They held their heads high as everypony around them tried to bring them down, so for you to stand here and to tell me that you're worried about the way Twilight could react the public reacting negatively is pitiful."

"...I'll talk to her." Shining tried to walk past the alabaster princess, but a majestic wing blocked him off. He looked up into the passive eyes of the princess, feeling the command to leave Twilight alone for the night to rest rather than hearing it.

"Go to bed, Captain Armor, your wife has been wondering where you ran off to. But before you go," eye contact was made again, but the princess' eyes now held authority and intimidation that could cause a rock to come to life, just so that it could cower in fear, "if I hear that you put my faithful student's mood down again, you'll finally get to learn if the moon is made of cheese or not. Do I make myself clear, Captain?"

With a nod of the head so shaky that it was almost as if he was saying 'No', the captain of the royal guard moved past the goddess of the day and set himself on a course to his bedroom. He wanted to lock away the memory of what just happened, but the piercing eyes of the sun princess would burn through any locks he would put on the thoughts of his conversation.

Celestia half-frowned at the way she used her intimidation against a pony so close to her, but it was for the greater good. There was one more order of business in her mental agenda, so she took of to the sky through a open window in the room, soaring through the sky towards the obsidian tower that marked her sister's room. She had a request for her dear sibling, she was going to ask if she could have the day off tomorrow. Luna was bound to accept since she jumped on any opportunities that allowed her to be more involved with running the country. Tomorrow she would set out to find a couple of ponies to speak with in private, and a steaming hot platter of justice was bound to be served.

"It has been a while since I've visited the Apples."

Celestial

Chapter 19

Celestial

The early morning sun spread its warming rays throughout Equestria, from the bustling metropolis of Manehatten to the quaint village of Trottingham. Ponies everywhere rose from their blissful slumber to begin the day's rounds, but unbeknownst to many, a crowd of ponies was already amassed at one particular location.

Sweet Apple Acres currently housed the majority of those who followed the leadership of Elder Smith, and they were all stuffed inside the same red barn they've been using since the time their group was formed. The ponies in attendance each snacked on a complimentary apple as they tried to figure out why a meeting was being hosted. They didn't see a need for one at the moment since their goal was basically completed, but none dared question the elder mare's authority.

The aforementioned mare tapped a hoof impatiently against the podium before her, the absence of her grandson at the meeting was slightly unnerving due to the fact that he never missed out on one before, not to mention that she hadn't been doing so well this past few days. Underneath all the indignation and shame she felt towards her granddaughters decision to oppose her she felt depressed, and the 'Justified' emotions that she had experienced before began to die away, leaving her as nothing more than a empty husk. Still, she felt no remorse towards running Twilight and her dragon out of town, although she was mighty curious as to who in the crowd decided to blow up the library. Big Mac's lack of an appearance would have to be ignored at the moment, she had a meeting to manage.

"Everypony please, settle down so that we can get this show on the road!" It took a couple of seconds, but the sea of conversations in the barn died down to quiet murmurs. Pleased by the overall silence, Granny Smith continued speaking, "Now Ah just wanted to let y'all know that our job for now is done, we finally managed to drive away one of the major contributors to the corruption in our town."

She didn't hear the usual enthusiasm in her group, or better said, the few who actually cheered. Many of them had been tamed by the reasoning skills of the 'Sinful' couple two nights prior. Not exactly to the point of them abandoning their cause, but enough to harm their spirits by smudging them with confused guilt.

"Our little get-togethers won't be as frequent as they have been for the past couple of days, but rest assured that we are far from being disbanded. No, as long as there is a single fillyfooler, coltcuddler, o-"

"FREEZE, NOBODY MOVE OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!" spotlight beams shone in through the six windows near the ceiling of the barn, silhouetting the armored pegasi hovering just outside them. One of the ponies in the crowd disobeyed the direct order given and attempted to escape through the back door, only to receive a pair of tranquilizer darts in his flank, knocking him out instantly.

"What is the meaning of this!? Who are you and what are you doing trespassing on mah property!?" to say that Granny Smith was pissed off at how the pegasi believed they could just waltz in and take everypony hostage would be a complete understatement, "I demand to know who is behind all of this!"

"That would be me, Ms. Smith." the large double doors leading into the barn were bucked open by two of the Elite Guard, presenting the last pony everyone in the barn wanted to see at the moment.

Princess Celestia strode into the wooden construction, her graceful posture being framed by the first sun rays of the day, striking both awe and fear from those who weren't from the guard. Her magenta eyes scanned the crowd in record time, searching for anypony that seemed as if he or she were about to attack, but she found nothing other than shocked expressions and the one mare that had managed to ignite all the fury of Tartarus within her. Instead of just beginning what she had planned for the mare immediately, she addressed the two guards at her sides.

"I want a the perimeter secured via a class 3 telekinetic barrier, asap. Nopony leaves this barn unless I give the order, understood." her mask of composure had slipped off a bit on the flight over to the barn, revealing the calculated mare of war that the princess actually was.

"Yes your majesty." their synchronized response was punctuated by the bow they gave, and they made their way over to the unicorn squadron outside in order to set up a one-way shield. With the suspects kept under control, Celestia began her march towards the stage the one mare she hated stood upon. Granny Smith obviously didn't like the princess much either, due to how she kept a subtle glare fixated on her since the moment she arrived. The solar goddess walked up onto the platform, coming face to face with the pony that had caused so much strife against her beloved student, and she could barely hold back the berating session she had planned for her.

"You and I are going to have a nice little chat, Elder Smith, but unfortunately I must attend to my subjects first." Celestia mocked the mare by using the title she had endowed herself with, gaining a even greater glare from the old timer. The princess moved in to take the spot at the podium, looking down at all of the ponies that dared break her rules with what could only be called disappointing marring her face.

"My subjects, I stand before you today for a reason I wish I never had to see in my eternal life. You have gone against the very fundamentals that I have instilled since the beginning of times by not only extorting my student and her newly declared partner, but by also attempting to take both of their lives in cold-blooded murder. I am ashamed that I have to entrust all of my duties onto my sister just so that I can have the time to come and treat you as a group of uncontrollable foals, but this behavior is. Not. ACCEPATABLE!" the mask slipped away further, allowing the Royal Canterlot Voice to slip out as a result.

Nightmare Moon had a creepy aurora to her that allowed her voice to send chills down a pony's spine, Luna had her own ability to use The Voice, but the formerly unheard boom from Celestia's own variation of the Royal Shout set everypony present into their submissive modes. It imprinted the message she was expressing deep into their minds whether they wanted it to or not, and even a couple of guards outside the barn tripped over their own hooves in shock at the sudden noise. After regaining control of her volume, mostly, the solar princess continued speaking to the cowering crowd.

"This is not how I taught you to go about in life, my ponies...I gave you the freedom to do ANYTHING as long as it didn't contradict the rules of morality, yet you do something as lowly as this. And for what, please do regale me with your justification." nopony spoke after she finished, only silence answered her question. That is, until the lime mare next to her saw that she had to be the one to stand up for the group.

"That's just the way it's supposed to be, princess." Granny Smith basically spat out the title Celestia carried, expressing her dislike at how she could just arrive and ruin everything she had planned, "Nopony here would try and do something as ludicrous as loving a dragon. These are just the ways life wants it to be, it's the reason you don't see everypony swoonin' over something other than a pony, except for that student of yours. She defies everything the way of life has set up an-"

"Let me interrupt you right there, Ms Smith. You continue to justify your actions by saying that life wants it to be that way, explain to me how you know that. How can you possibly know what life wants?" Celestia wasn't in the mood to listen to the ramble the old mare was bound to fall into, instead opting to bluntly question the justification that was being repeated.

"Because I-I..we kn-" Granny was caught off guard by the princess' words, and how useless she felt against them. She couldn't even continue to stutter before the ruler of the day continued her verbal charge.

"How can you tell right from wrong?" the alabaster alicorn knew she had the mare trapped, At this point she was only breaking down the metaphorical wall the lime pony had hidden herself behind.

"It's...not ri-"

"Are you some kind of prophet that can just sense life's demands?"

"Will you stop INTERRUPTING me!" Granny snapped, her shield was down and her inner self exposed, completely at the mercy of the goddess before her.

"NO, not until you see the light of reason! You rant and rant about how the universe is your guide, backing you up on all the wrong you do, but it's all a lie. Do you know how I'm aware of this? Do you Ms Smith?" Celestia's wings unfurled themselves due to the hostility in the air. It was a basic reflex that the alicorn had no power over, and it intimidated the elderly earth pony even further, "I know because I am a part of nature itself, I wasn't born like you or anypony else. I personally spoke with the goddess responsible for life and death at one point, and she never spoke to me about these limitations you put on others. So tell me, what do you have to say for yourself now?"

"..." silence dominated the barn, and Granny Smith especially had nothing left to say. Anything she had once brought herself to believe had been destroyed by a single conversation, and she hated how much her arguments had been failing recently. Other than that, she felt nothing. Nothing but the sense of failure, depression, and newly arising fear. With the haze of her unjustified anger wiped away, she could now see how deeply she had screwed up. She had commanded the direct offenses against Twilight Sparkle and Spike, apparently destroyed city property, lost the love of her granddaughter, and done the one thing that could piss off the solar princess.

She messed with her child, and she was going to pay for it.

"Citizens of Ponyville, now I return to the matter of your offenses against my student. I know not what crimes each of you has specifically committed, but you as a group do. I request that one or more of you would please put an end to this foolishness and step forward so that I may have aid in investigating each and every one of your transgressions." nopony wanted to be a snitch so they kept their muzzles shut, all of them save for one, who barely decided to make his appearance at the open barn doors.

"Ah would your highness." melodramatic gasps were heard as the most loyal and devoted member of the clan marched forward to speak to his princess, reaching into a saddlebag he was wearing with his red muzzle to pick out a hefty book, hoofing it over to the national leader with a bowed head, "This here's the log book for our assignments, it's got all the names of all the members and the specific jobs they were assigned."

"Thank you, Big Macintosh, this will make my job so much easier. I'm actually surprised that you would be the one to assist me at a time like this, may I ask why?" Celestia was honestly glad that the burly stallion decided to help her out, but she was also curious as to how he could so readily aid her in a case against his own grandmother.

"'Course Princess Celestia. It's because Ah never really did any of these things because Ah felt like they were right, Ah did them because it was what mah granny wanted. Ever since she took Applejack, 'Bloom, an' me in she's taught us to do as she says. What finally caused me to change mah mind was a talk Ah had with mah stubborn sister, seeing her stickin' to what she felt was right was enough to push me to be more like her, to fight for what Ah want instead of what others tell me to."

"I'm glad to hear that Mister Macintosh, it's comforting to now that at least you were able to change from the oppressive nature Granny Smith has attempted to implant in you. That reminds me, guards!" the moment her beckoning call left her lips, six unicorns flashed into existence in front of her.

"Yes your majesty?"

"Please escort the suspects to their holding cells while I examine the severity of their crimes."

"Right away, Princess Celestia."

With the order given the guards began to bark at the ponies in attendance, ushering them out of the red barn like a shepherd would to a herd of sheep. Granny Smith stayed put though, not wanting to make it too easy for the guards. Just as one of the elites was going to hoist her away, Celestia called him off.

"She'll stay here for the moment, I've still got a conversation pending with her. The same goes for Mister Macintosh."

"Why didn't you let them take us away?" the red farm stallion spoke what was on both his and his grandmother's minds. They were probably the ponies that had the highest amounts of crimes committed in the group, so he couldn't see why the day alicorn would bail him.

"Well, the reason you're still here is because Sweet Apple Acres needs a capable workforce. Not to mention that you assisted me by hoofing over the log book, so I can soften the charges against you. Besides, Applebloom needs somepony to look after her, and I'm not entirely sure if Granny Smith would be the perfect influence now that I've heard about how she manipulated you throughout your life."

Celestia looked back at the withering mare, and shame filled her heart again along with the anger still coursing through her. This was a mare who had abandoned all regards on morality, trying to force her own views onto the world by putting herself at the top of a power pyramid that was bound to become corrupt. Ironic really, she became worse than we she tried to cleanse from Equestria. All of this, however, was simply the princess' mind wandering off. Now she had to do what had to be done, and she'd be lying if she said she felt bad for doing so. The goddess turned to face the lime mare again, to finally set an end to the insanity that had been brought about.

"As for you, I'm not even sure how I'm even capable of resisting the urge to simply kick you out of my country. You are charged with attempted murder, extortion, discrimination, and the destruction of public property. I haven't even looked into the other crimes you may have committed, but right now this is what you have bearing down on you. You're so lucky that you are in your elderly years, Smith, because if you weren't you'd be shackled in my personal dungeon for what you've done. No, instead I sentence you to live out the rest of your days under house arrest, and you're lucky for that."

"What!?" the gray-maned mare snapped to attention upon hearing her punishment, not liking it in the smallest of ways. Sure, she wasn't much of an outdoor person anyway, but she had bingo games to go to, and other senile friends who she could speak to.

"It is what you heard, you are hereby placed under home detention for the remainder of your life. Preen, Fling, please come down here." Celestia beckoned for two of the six pegasi standing guard at the windowsills, and they arrived with dull thuds against the ground, "These two will be your foalsitters from now on, just to make sure you don't go a repeat what you've already done. Lodgings for them will be constructed for them near your household, and will be fully paid for by the Equestrian Treasury."

"You can't do this!"

With but three taps of her hoof she commanded the guards to escort her to the building she would roam for the rest of her life. The pegasi standing to her left and to her right unfurled the wing the was pointed towards the mare, picking her up with their combined strength before she could object. It was a sight like that that showed just how brutally the Elite Guards were trained, to the point were they could lift weights with their wings. With the elder secured, the stallions began to walk away towards the house she lived in, with the red farm stallion following closely behind them.

"You can't do this to me! Who are you to lock me away in my own home!"

Celestia knew that talking to her at this point would be useless, that she should just concentrate on heading over to the crime scene to investigate the area, but she allowed herself a moment of foolishness of her own. Without looking back at the mare being hauled away, the sun deity lit up her horn as she summoned forth pitch-black shades from the shadows, placing them over her pristine magenta eyes before replying to the mare.

"I'm the princess."

Nightmares

Chapter 20

(20th Chapter Special - 1st person)

Nightmares

Who am I?

Well, that's a very long story, but I know that I'm a mare with a lot of time on her hooves. Now, with my pudgy assistant sedated, I lay my head down on my battered bed, and I found the perfect moment to just look back and think about one of the questions I've asked myself throughout my life various times. How in the world did I get to this point?

As they say, every story has a beginning, and so does mine. I was born into a middle class family hailing from Canterlot, the very place I've spent my entire lifetime. My parents were...they were guardians, ensuring that I wouldn't get killed, but not much more than that. Ever since the moment I could walk, they started to groom me into what they wanted to see by enlisting me in beauty contests and forcibly altering my personality severely.So severely, in fact, that they controlled what my very cutie mark became, and even that didn't garner any more affection from them. At times I would come home from a pageant just to find them counting the bits they got in contest money, never sparing so much as a glance towards me as I trotted up to my small room, much less a scrap of allowance.

My coat began to gain luminescence from the extended, and sometimes painful, treatments my mother would use on me. She truly never cared about the risks, using chemicals that would make a chemist start screaming just because of its name to permanently change my coat's details. I had been born white, a color I loved severely due to how lustrous it would look in the sun, but my mother tested out some of her latest bottles of cosmetics on me to change my coat to what was in fashion at the moment. And so, I lived on with a blue coat that caught the eyes of many, but the luster it once held was gone, at least until she started pouring more of her torturous solutions onto it.

Beauty pageants became such a routine part of my life that I would be going there almost every single day of the week. As I grew a little older, my parents stopped accompanying me on the path to the building were the competitions were hosted, and I would have been fillynapped if a stallion from the pageant center hadn't seen me being carried away by some depraved lunatic.

I actually let a faint smile grow on my lips when the day for my parent's trail came, being accused of child neglection. Of course, my status-craving guardians were able to pull many strings in order to save their hides from rotting in the dungeons, earning nothing more than two years of community service. It was still fun to look at them work physically for once, watching them feel just a fraction of what I felt whenever they forced me onto the pageant stage.

My parents never changed though, save for the fact that they would now begrudgingly take me by my hoof and walk me over to the competition center. I on the other hand, changed very much, but it wasn't into the perfect filly they wanted. No, inside me were all the bottled up emotions I had refused to let out in fear of disappointing my caretakers, but it wasn't until the day I was enrolled in Princess Celestia's school that I finally discovered them myself.

The princess had caught onto the lack of education being given to me when she attended one of the pageants. During the academic phase of the competition, I failed horribly again, earning another bout of humiliating laughs from the onlooking crowd. Celestia, in an act that I will never forget, silenced them all with but a stomp of her hoof. After that, she glided over to me from her balcony seat and gave me a ride home, personally putting me to bed before she went to berate my parent again for not following the law. She gave them an ultimatum, start giving your daughter the life she deserves, or go to prison.

The few years following their decision had less beauty pageants in their schedules, a lot less. My father grew abusive, blaming me in his drunk stupors for 'uselessly spending money' right before he beat me. Mother never stopped him, much less said anything about it, but the small amount of generosity in her soul urged her to heal my physical state after each beating session. Any free time away from the deviants I knew as my parents was taken up with my strenuous studies, I aimed to be the best of all the unicorns in the school, just so that I could feel like I accomplished something in life.

But, that was all changed when she appeared.

Twilight Sparkle seemed as if she were just the ordinary unicorn, no, she looked much weaker than than the rest of our classmates. She hailed from humble beginnings, but that had only given her a humble nature that many of the students in the class abused, including myself.

I felt as if my world had started to crumble, what with parents that pretty much ignored my existence when they weren't torturing me and having lost the rank as the smartest unicorn of the school's generation. So, I followed in my beloved parents' hoofsteps, and attempted to crush the little lavender filly at any chance I got. It was really easy to hurt her feelings, most likely due to her lack of friends. I enjoyed the satisfaction that came along with every tear I caused her to shed, knowing that somepony else could feel what I felt every second of my horrid life.

I joined a duo of troublemakers to spread my pain to others even more, but I really liked Twilight above every other sad soul that had the dissatisfaction of crossing me. She was so easy to break, so fragile, all I needed to do was taunt her about how her parents had dumped her with the princess because they didn't want to see her anymore. She reacted much like I would have if I hadn't bottled it all up, crying all the way to Princess Celestia to see if her parents hated her, and she never revealed that I was the one responsible for putting that in her pretty little head.

As Twilight rose to the top of the world, I was left to drown in my failures. I had a degree set for me, surely, but it wasn't as prestigious as I could have made it, nor was it enough to satisfy me. So, to fill in the void left inside of my ego, I doubled the dismay I spread to those around me. I started to drop classes I didn't need and instead replaced them with extra hours to visit the gymnasium, where I spent much of my school life from that point on. The weight room was the perfect place for me to gain the build I wanted, the form that would give me a sense of authority over all others that tried to oppose me, and something I could be better at than all the mares.

The harassment I inflected onto Twilight grew in severity, extending from the emotional damage to the physical as well. I never did enough to leave a mark that could be used against me later, but I hurt her bad enough to silence her please for help, along with any thoughts of telling anypony about everything I had done.

What I didn't account for was that she didn't plan on telling a pony, she went ahead and told a dragon.

Spike, I had learned his name by overhearing it from others, would walk around with Twilight as her bodyguard. I may have been a teenage filly with a good build, but this was a baby dragon, one that had naturally gifted strength that could easily surpass mine. So, whenever he was around, I picked on the rest of the class to feed my desire.

One day, Hearts and Hooves Day I think, the dragon that had blocked my attempts to further break my 'Nemesis' walked into class with a love letter in his little claws. I followed his eyes and found that he had become transfixed with Twilight, who was buried in a book at the edge of the classroom, and a wicked little grin grew on my face.

I found a way to pop the dragon's inflated heart.

The duo of morons I hung out with approached Spike on their own, intent on harming him as well without me having to urge them to do it. We took his letter and mocked him for it, but I didn't stop at that. I made sure to leave a deep scar in his thick skull, one that I was almost guaranteed would destroy any hope he had of ever becoming an item with Twilight. His tears felt so much sweeter to me, just because they were hard to achieve, but I had done it. I had caused a beast as mighty as a dragon to cry, and I loved every bucking second of it, reveling in all the dreams I crushed in the span of a minute.

How could I have known that decision would bite my flank in the future?

More years passed by, filled with the regular beat downs executed by my father and the tears of my mother, who was bawling over the way I had put their reputation to shame. They were truly the two biggest pieces of shit anyone could ask to have as parents. I was forced to put up with their everyday routines of berates and scolds just because I wasn't old enough to live on my own yet, so I decided to blow off all of my accumulated steam in a single day, and I knew the perfect filly to help me out.

I gathered up my little posse and searched the castle grounds for her, but it took me a long time to find her little hiding spot, where she was sitting near a tree in a secluded clearing. She looked at me for a single second before a scream welled up in her throat and her eyes widened in fear, only to be shut by my horn as I telekinetically forced her muzzle to seal itself.

"Please no, put me down!" she somehow managed to break free of my silencing hold when I began to levitate her off of the ground, but I liked to hear her screams so much more than her whimpers, they reminded her of the sounds she would make when her father would wail on her. I actually decided to laugh at her, mocking the helpless filly in my grasp right before I played along with her.

"Oh, what was that, put you down? Sure thing!" I hurled her against the tree's trunk, and the yelp of pain she gave of brought even more humor to my 'Friends' and I, but what really set us off were the little sobs we could here.

"HEY, LEAVE HER ALONE!" I didn't know what to think when I heard that voice, the one that had stopped me from getting the emotional release I needed to achieve by damaging Twilight's body and mind. So, I decided to play it cool and turned around with the same intimidating grin that had scared almost every student in my class on my face.

The rest of the argument with the scaly kid was pretty dull, mostly just dry taunts being thrown his way. The only interesting point I noticed was that he didn't remember me or the duo of nitwits at my side, and it really pissed me off that he couldn't even remember what I had done to him. It should have stayed imprinted in his mind forever, but he looked as if he genuinely didn't know who her group was, and I didn't like that at all. So, I decided to hurt him even worse than last time by mocking Twilight right in front of his face, dangling her upside down to increase the pain from her impact against the tree.

Then, it happened, the one thing that changed the course of my life took place on that day.

Before I even knew what had happened, I was consumed by a green flame spreading all over my body. That purple bastard actually had the nerve to blast me with his fire, and I wasn't sure I liked the way I looked when I started to panic for my life. Thinking back on it now, I wish the fire had simply burned me to a crisp to save me the trouble of living my life, but no. When the flames died away, I was left a horrifying monster, no longer being hidden behind my beautiful coat and mane. I was shocked at the sight of my newly-balded body, but that shock gave way to rage when I noticed something much more important that had been taken away from me.

My cutie mark was gone.

I was nothing more than a bald, unloved, blank flank with a temper that wouldn't be soothed by every therapist in the world if they were to so much as try. They had stolen what made me...me, or at least what my blasted parents shaped me to be. It was the signature mark that had sealed my fate as a model, and the two little bastards chuckling in front of me were responsible for everything. I planned to make them pay, so I lunged at them with a shout straining at my throat.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH, I'M GOING TO KIL-"

I couldn't say much more than that, not after the telekinetic aurora of a guardpony that had been attracted to the clearing by all the shouting held me floating in the air. Everything around me seemed to have burned away at that moment, metaphorically of course. I could only see to figures in the darkness I was immersed in, and they were the bi-cores of my hatred, ones that I swore to get back at as I was dragged away by the guards. The other two idiots I hung out with were captured as well for not running away sooner, and all three of us were hauled away to a holding cell inside the castle.

My trail started after three days of being shut inside the bland room that housed my posse and I as we thought about what had just happened. My parents weren't there among the crowd for me when I was being judged by Princess Celestia herself, accused with multiple counts of physical and verbal harassment after Twilight grew a spine big enough to be able to fess up everything I had done to her mentor. I never said a single word as I was shackled and transported to the correctement facility in the lower regions of Canterlot.

As soon as I walked into the cell I would call my home for the next seven years, I was introduced to Jacky, a tough looking pegasus mare with a red coat. I instantly saw the slightly crazed look in her eyes when I made contact with them, and they seemed to rove over my curious body as they took in my appearance. She didn't say a single thing for the entirety of the first day, and the only thing letting me know that she was even alive was the occasional shuffle her wings would give off.

The day in my cell wasn't all that bad, it gave me a moment to think about the track my life had taken since I was born to where I was now. Lunch was pretty calm as well, save for every mare in the room staring at me as if I were an earth pony that had just sprouted a horn. I felt horrible walking around the prison grounds, not just because I was in the prison itself, but because the flames had also burnt away my tail, leaving everything I had to show on display for anypony willing to look.

When the sun went down to make way for the moon bearing the silhouetted shape of a pony of legend, the bells signaling shower time rang out in a cacophony that strained my earlobes. All of the mares filtered into the massive bathing room, which was just a big square chamber with shower heads lining the walls and a drain at the center of the room. But what was really weird about the room was that it lacked any guards, or supervision of any form.

After realizing that this was a serious danger zone, I noticed that all the other ponies had made a circle around me, every single pair of eyes piercing into my very being.

My cellmate walked out of the small crowd with a smug grin adorning her malicious face, and she said things to me so horrid that I have difficulties even remembering exactly what her words were. The idea was still clear as air in my memory though, and it showed her asking me that if I thought I was a hotshot just because I beat up others. I didn't reply to that, I just opted to listen to their laughter reverberate off of the rooms walls, but it didn't end there.

I was caught by surprise as two earth pony mares came up behind me and pinned me on my back, giving me a perfect view of Jacky stalking ever closer to me. Her mouth was basically a factory for lewd commentary that visibly riled up everypony else in the room, causing their faces to grow ever more crazed by her tantalizing ideas. My horn was incapacitated, and my strength was useless while being held down, so I could only lay there and watch as she rested her body against mine and started to grind herself against me painfully hard.

That was my life for the next seven years, being everymare's little sex bitch at least four times a week. I would cry myself to sleep, wishing I had my normally crappy life back instead of being stuck inside that hellhole. As much as I didn't want to admit it, they changed me much like my guardians had. All of the depravity and sadistic intent rubbed off onto me as they literally rubbed themselves on me, hardening me from a simple schoolyard bully into a potential maniac, but I didn't let myself go off the deep end. Well, at least not at that time. I began to dream of what I would do when I got out of prison, what I would do to destroy the mare and the dragon responsible for putting me through all of that without inflicting as much as a single punch against them.

When my time was served, I was released from jail as a new mare, one that would stop at nothing to exact the revenge she truly deserved. The first thing I did was go visit my parents, just so that they could take a good last look at their daughter before I disappeared from their lives forever, but they had beat me to it already. The house was deserted, nothing but pictures of myself had been left behind when the penny-pinchers living within left, letting her know that they had been driven away by shame. Somehow, that managed to hurt my cold heart harder than anything in the past ever had. I cried myself to sleep on the floor again that night, actually wanting any company there to hold me, but I was alone on the dusty floorboards.

Princess Celestia called me to her castle on the second day of my newly-gained freedom, saying that she had an important matter to discuss with me, so I obliged. After all, one does not simply reject a request from a princesses.

When I trotted up to the castle, there were a pair of guards clad in gold waiting to escort me from the gates to the royal throne room. I was just glad that I could finally get some clothes on to conceal myself from the world, there's something about staring eyes that always seems to get me to give off a little shiver.

The princess awaited me on her throne, keeping her hawk-like eyes concentrated on me as I made my way to the base of the stairs leading up to her royal chair. She took in my appearance, incredibly not showing any sign of disgust at what she saw, but a nod of her head snapped me out of my own examinations.

She asked me a series of questions pertaining to how I felt now that I was back in a normal society instead of the power pyramid she called a jailhouse. I responded truthfully, letting her know that I was happy to finally be out of that freaking hellhole, but I didn't exactly phrase it like that. No, I passed myself off as a reformed mare, and she didn't spot a single lie because, for the most part, I was truly a changed mare. Not exactly a peaceful mare, but a changed mare.

To my surprise she offered me a job as a maid in the castle, one that I would master in the following few years as I climbed my way to the top rank in the castle's sub-department, ultimately becoming the adviser and accountant for Princess Celestia. I knew that my position would help me when the day to confront Twilight and Spike would come, and I was absolutely right when I stalked them to their bedroom window by using a simple cloudwalking spell. I took a couple of photographs of their little shenanigans that would destroy their public reputation. The next phase of my plan was to prepare a way to finish the job with a bang, and luck smiled down on me when I stumbled upon a vacant training room that held a chest filled with charged fire rubies. I only took one to avoid arousing suspicion in Celestia, and it worked out in the end.

For the following days, I followed the duo I so desperately wished to humiliate right before I annihilate them, building up my plans along the way. The day finally came where I blew them sky high with the makeshift bomb I robbed, and I felt satisfaction like no other that they were finally off of the face of Equestria, almost enough to finally have the peace of mind to kill myself. But no, that was all ruined just a day later when I found out through a couple of gossip mares that they had survived my final trump card.

I snapped at that point.

Now, I don't want to make fun of them anymore, I don't want to make them suffer, I don't even want to watch the blame get pinned on someone else, I just want to bucking send them to Tartarus as soon as I can. I can't go near Twilight right now since the guard is raised due to the search Luna has set up to find the ones responsible for the robberies, but I can prepare for the perfect moment. I can get ready for the chance I'll get to sneak into the castle and just blow half of the bucking building into smoldering rubble.

Now, we are back to the present time, with the morning light filtering in through my room's window. The sunlight reminded me of something important I almost overlooked, Princess Celestia. She was bound to figure out exactly who had thrown the fire ruby that blew up Twilight's library, and there were only so many suspects that had the connections to be able to get a fully charged one. Adrenaline rushed into my veins as fear of all my plans going to waste again came to my mind. Paper Press was still snoring on the ground, drooling on a pillow I don't remember lending him. A grin spread my face as I raised a hoof to smash it down on his rib cage, but something in my dresser's mirror caught my attention.

There was a monster there, one who's golden eyes pierced souls and hooves would rip apart all those whom it hated. It's exposed flesh poetically symbolizing what had become of the mare I once was. The facade cast by my beauty was torn off, leaving behind what I truly hid inside, nothing but destruction and hatred so confused it only latched onto three subjects that it despised with all of its being.

Twilight...Spike...and myself.

I put my hoof down gently onto Press' back, shaking him softly to rouse him from his sleep. He mumbled for a while before blinking open his eyes, without a doubt wondering why I hadn't beat him like I regularly did. I just responded by putting on my neutral face and talking in a even tone.

"Come on, Press, we've got to get moving before the guards raid this place." his face only grew more shocked, but he nodded back a response.

I handed him one of my spare brown cloaks as I switched out of the one Celestia had given me, it would be a dead giveaway to be walking around with the sun emblem resting upon my back.

I walked towards a little device I had created yesterday by hooking up an alarm clock to one of my makeshift bombs, pressing the button on it to activate the countdown. Press and I quickly exited the old building I had called my home for so long, not wanting to be anywhere near the scene when the device activates itself. I didn't know what to do other than hide, but I would come up with something sooner or later, I always do when I'm pressured. I heard the deafening explosion a couple of minutes later, and one of the smiles I had come to use so much in my lifetime crept onto my face.

"Heheh...boom."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N:
Yo Spilight fans! Don't forget to check out the other Spilight I've got cooking up if you want to, here ya' go. Enjoy!

Faded Flame.

Rejection

Rejection

Chapter 1

Rejection

Celestia's heavenly sun began its gracefully slow descent through the late evening's twilit sky, ready to rest behind the mountainous horizon and let its sister orb take its rightful place in the starlit indigo nighttime sky. The last of Ponyville's residents retreated to their cozy homes, settling into their warm beds before slipping into Luna's dream embrace. The young night was calmly silent and everyone slept soundly, resting for the next day's antics.

Well, almost everyone.

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"Why-y!?" One of Spike's billowing sobs managed to escape the sore wasteland that was his throat for what seemed to be the thousandth time that same afternoon, the very sound instigating a feeling very much like a jagged knife being twisted in Twilight's heart. The studious unicorn lay among a barrage of tomes spread sporadically on her lofty bed, her amethyst eyes watching her little assistant forget completely about his macho-dragon appearance as he bawled his eyes out over the day's earlier incident.

From the bits and pieces she had been able to collect from Spike's incessant sobs, she pieced together the scenario that had taken place a couple of hours prior. The little purple dragon, along with the help of three energetic fillies whom shall not be named, mustered up the courage to finally confess his affectionate feelings to Rarity. Evidently, not everything had gone as planned, and Spike had been shedding warm tears of grief nonstop ever since, outright refusing to speak about the entire ordeal to Twilight beyond his pained sobbing.

Twilight climbed out of her cozy loft and approached the heartbroken drake, wrapping a comforting hoof around his shoulders as she, once again, tried to pull him into a caring hug. Much to her silent surprise, he looped his short arms around her neck as best as he could in response and buried his face into her velvety lavender coat, his fresh tears of dismay matting her neck as he nuzzled himself against it. Slowly, his grieving sobs subsided until they were nothing more than the occasional sniffle, and the flowing streams of sorrow spawning from his eyes began to run dry. His grip on his caretaker's neck weakened and he detached himself from her affectionate embrace, settling on a dejected stare at the floor as his youthful mind began to set aside the discordant chaos it had descended into as best as it could.

"There-there, Spike, feeling any better?" Twilight's voice positively radiated with hope towards her lifelong companion when she spoke, effectively snapping him out of his frail trance and prompting a downtrodden, albeit thankful, look from his slitted emerald eyes.

"Kinda'. Thanks, Twi. I bet I've just been a pain about this all day." A minuscule sigh rushed past Spike's lips after he expressed his gratitude with his slightly improved tone, yet a small frown grew on Twilight's own expression as she took in his half-hearted response.

"Don't say something like that, Spike. I don't mind if you need to shed a few tears. Nothing would make me happier than helping you through this in any way I can, but I can only do that if you let me." Honesty found a perfect home in the mare's voice when she spoke her heart, intermingling harmoniously with the compassion already residing there.

"I don't know, Twilight, I can't exactly explain how I feel right now beyond having the urge to break down again or just eat ice cream until I fall into a food coma." Bittersweet humor laced his words as a dry chuckle escaped him. "Have you ever felt anything like this before?"

"Well...uh...no, not really, Spike. You know that I've never even looked into finding someone to be with," a sheepish smile accompanied Twilight's meek response, growing slowly by the second until it was replaced by a newly steeled look of determination on her soft features, "but that doesn't mean I'm not here to hear you out if you need somepony to talk to. Okay?"

"Yeah, I understand. Thanks again, Twi, but I'd rather not talk about it right now. Maybe tomorrow if I'm up to it by then."

A yawn very nearly interrupted his response before he finished speaking, reminding him that sleep was still a necessity he needed to attend to. Spike shared a quick, thankful hug with his caretaker once again before retreating to his cozy basket, burying himself beneath the mountain of blankets he had filled it with. Before leaving reality to enter the world of dreams, the inseparable library duo spoke one last time.

"Goodnight, Twilight."

"You too, Spike."

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"It's just not natural, dear, a pony and a dragon just aren't meant to be together." That vile lecture rang fiercely in Spike's mind as he slept, a memory born from events that had taken place earlier in the day. He hated it with all of his still-beating heart.

"B-but why, why isn't normal Rarity?" Spike heard his own voice ask the question he had asked not too long ago, tinges of desperate sorrow beginning to taint its youthful purity, "What difference does it make if I'm a stallion or a d-dragon? Can't you look past this one difference?"

"I'm so sorry, Spike, but I just grew up knowing this, just like every other pony I've met." The memory's taunting tone continued to lash out at the drake's mind, but a mystery arose from the sensations the lashings brought about. Spike began to gain awareness that the phrase "A pony and a dragon just aren't meant to be together" cut so much deeper into his tortured heart than the actual rejection itself as it was repeated over and over in his nightmarish dreamscape.

"Why, why do those words hurt so much? They sound so...so familiar, it's almost like I've hea-" Spike immediately cut-off his internal monologue after realizing that it was surely impossible, "Nah, no, it can't be that. Who else would have said that?"

The train of thought he had hitched himself onto slammed directly into a long-abandoned pocket within his subconscious mind, releasing a tidal wave of sensory inputs to wreck havoc in his head. Blurs and distorted images composed of green, blue, and white flashed through Spike's mind, none of them making any sense due to the absence of clarity among them. Spike felt familiarity creep its way into his sensations once again, but he couldn't manage to piece the fragments together to form something he could comprehend.

"Celestia damn it, why can't I just figure this ONE thing out!?" Spike's shout of frustration echoed eternally in the endless space that was his dreamscape, surprisingly aligning the pieces he had stumbled upon through his desperate willpower. They melded together to form a scenario that forcibly sucked Spike in, putting him in a POV perspective of whatever it was he had been thrust into.

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Spike looked down at his claws, which were unusually small, and found a pink envelope with a heart stamp on it cradled in between them. He could only see through his memory self's eyes as it looked up to find a filly-version of Twilight curled up in a corner, lost in a book like she usually was, of what appeared to be one of the classrooms she used to attend. The room itself was draped in ribbons colored with various hues of pink, all bearing scarlet hearts, and a banner saying "Happy Hearts and Hooves Day!" All of the other fillies and colts that he had managed to see were exchanging letters or gifts with each other, pleasant smiles adorning their youthful expressions.

'When...when was this? I don't remember any of this.' Spike's consciousness was utterly baffled at the scenario his memory-self was a part of, asking questions he knew he couldn't answer on his own. However, he was snapped out of his thoughts as his memory-self started to mutter to itself in a slightly higher pitched voice, a voice he had lost to the years long ago.

"Come on, Spike, you can do this. Just walk up to her and give her the letter." Spike felt an elated smile tug on his memory's lips as it started to walk over to the miniature Twilight, but he felt it fade out of existence the very instant two unicorn fillies accompanied by an older unicorn colt blocked off his path, their glaring eyes telling tales of their rotten nature.

'Who the heck are these kids? Man...they look like trouble, not good. And what is it that I'm trying to give to Twilight?' The questions kept coming steadily, yet no answers came forth to quell the curiosity beginning to brim within Spike's conscious.

"Hey there, lizard, what's that you've got there in your claws?" A devilish grin spread the white colt's expression as he spoke, growing wider once his eyes settled on the object clutched between memory-Spike's claws, "Oh, is that a love letter? Let me see that." With but a flash of his horn, the letter was torn from memory-Spike's palms and into the grasp of the intrusive colt.

'D-did he say a...a l-love letter?' Spike's conscious began to grow sluggish at the sudden influx of information working it's way through his mind, 'But, I love Rarity, don't I?' Spike delved into his self and searched for any feelings towards Rarity, but he could feel nothing except what his memory-self was feeling, and there was definitely something towards Twilight there.

"H-hey, give that back!" The colt remained unfazed by the infantile drake's demands, and the ambient noise caused by the excitedly chattering foals in the room managed to drown out his shout before it reached Twilight's ears.

"Or what? Are you gonna set me on fire? OH, that's right, you're so pathetically useless that you can't even breathe flames like a normal dragon." taunted the devilish colt without the slightest hints of mercy tinging his gratingly corrupted tone, "Now, lets see who this is for."

Spike's memory-self struggled to reach for the letter with his short arms, nearly snagging it from the white forehooves currently possessing it, but he was stopped short as the blue and green fillies restrained him by locking his arms to his sides with their telekinetic auroras, malevolent smiles spreading their lips.

"Hahaha, look at this little freak! He wrote a letter to a FILLY, hahaha!" The obnoxious chortles that escaped the white colt's lips sent chills down Spike's back, and it only worsened when the two fillies added their own laughter into the cacophony they had managed to form.

"HEY, what's so funny!?" Memory-Spike was utterly baffled by the group's reaction to his love letter, his blissful obliviousness shielding him from the humiliating moment's full blast.

"What's funny is that you're such a freak that you're trying to ask out a PONY even though you're a DRAGON." insulted the blue filly with a grin showing way too many teeth, still restraining Spike as he struggled furiously to free himself.

'No...that's impossible.' Spike managed to utter those few words to himself before his memory began to speak again, confusion lacing every syllable of his naive question.

"So, what does it matter if I'm a dragon or a pony?" asked the dumbfounded memory, prompting the hurtful filly to drag a hoof down her face before she spoke again, annoyance born of having to crack through his thick skull poisoning her response.

"It's just not normal, you sick freak. A pony and a dragon just aren't meant to be together! Never have been, and never will be!" With her twisted verbal dagger plunged deeply into Spike's draconic heart, the filly pulsed her telekinesis to hurl him out of the classroom roughly before shutting the door behind him, sealing him outside.

"Never? But...I love her."

The younger Spike ran.

With no hope in his soul left uncrushed, he had nothing to fuel the courage he needed to go through with his plan. Despair the likes of which he'd never experienced before consumed him as he fled to the safety of his basket back in the castle's tower. His poor, infantile mind couldn't handle the traumatic sorrow feverishly gnawing away at him, so it did the best it could to limit the damage by sealing away the horrific memory of the psychological torture the filly's words put him through. It locked away everything in its desperation, the memories, the pain, the heartbreak...the love.

Not a single tear was shed on that day, for his body wouldn't allow it.

Spike, the dragon of the present, had lost his sense of self in the nightmarish memory, mouthing along the last few words his past self had said before his stinging eyes lost their focus and he fell into a deep, restless sleep.

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The glorious moon was still high in the sky by the time Spike awoke from his nightmare. He felt as if his chest was a hollow shell and his face was wet, drenched with tears that were long overdue to be shed. He silently began to weep again, not for Rarity, but for everything he lost due to the cruelty of three little foals. The little dragon wept throughout the night, pouring out all of the pain he had so strongly buried away until he was left with nothing but his fatigue and unbridled emotions he was nowhere near sorting out. The weight of his mind proved to be too much, and restless sleep once again overtook him.

Reemergence

Chapter 2

Reemergence

Twilight gently roused from her restful sleep as Celestia's sun began to peek its bright form over the mountains in the distant horizon, waiting for its smaller sister to descend from its position in the sky before moving in to start the day. The lavender unicorn crawled out of her warm bed and stood on her numb hooves with a silent yawn slipping past her soft lips, stretching forward akin to a lazy feline as she popped the slight kinks that had formed on her back, bringing a very much enjoyable sensation to herself as the pent-up tension was released.

After riding her body of its lingering stiffness, Twilight began to trot over to her vanity mirror, spotting Spike's curled up form huddled up in his precious childhood basket. A frown found its place on her expression as she noted the marring traits he had adopted overnight; his face was coated in both dried and fresh tears of sleepless sorrow, and the little purple drake would stutter on his breath every so often as a nearly imperceptible sob escaped his throat.

Twilight's horn lit up in a violet aurora as she levitated a handkerchief out of her bedside drawer, using its finely threaded satin to delicately dry the salted rivers escaping Spike's clenched emerald eyes.

'Poor Spike, all of this must really be hard for him.' Twilight conversed with herself as she idly stroked away at her horrific bed-mane, grooming it out of existence before she had the displeasure of letting anyone else see it in all of its unorderly glory, 'I should let the little guy relax today, just letting him have the entire day to himself. He has been working extra hard recently, and this thing with Rarity must have really put him out'

Twilight set down her brush after quelling her ravenous hair and making up her mind in regards to her assistant's schedule for the day, trotting over to Spike's basket on her way out. She planted a small, affectionate peck on his forehead before backing away slightly from the basket, watching as his troubled shuffling came to an end and a silent smile of nostalgia replaced the distraught grimace his apparent nightmares had induced. Twilight, content with the soft snores of peaceful slumber now slipping into the air, made her way downstairs to begin her busy day, booked with having to handle the combined weight of Spike's and her own chores, yet she knew that she wouldn't regret her choice, not if she got to see her lifelong friend happy once again.

Twilight spent much of the morning serving as the Harbinger of Destruction to the various dust bunny kingdoms secretly hidden around her library as she reshelved and reorganized her entire library in a whirlwind of objects being carried in a purple aurora. It was two in the afternoon by the time Twilight had finally been able to check off the final task on her extra-bulky Sunday schedule, and she had just taken a seat on her comfy couch to enjoy some light reading before a delicately timed knock came from her front door.

With an annoyed huff at the noise's intrusion on her private literature time, preventing her from being able to read at least one more page from her book on teleportation runes, Twilight briskly made her way to the library's main entrance. Upon opening the wooden doorway she discovered none other than Rarity herself waiting outside, clad in a deep purple scarf that matched perfectly with the saddlebags she was wearing, but even their fashionable appearance couldn't hide the nervous twinkle plaguing her sapphire eyes.

"Oh! Good afternoon, Rarity." Twilight noticed the forlorn look to her friend's face without directly addressing it, not at all liking the unfamiliarity it held before she attempted to cover up her own surprise at the alabaster mare's expression with an innocent introduction, "The library is closed for today, cleaning day and all, but I can find you something if you need it."

"Thank you, Twilight dear, but no." Rarity shuffled with her hooves nervously as a slight frown spread across her muzzle, "I just...wanted to see how Spike was doing. He looked pretty distressed about our little encounter yesterday and I was worried about what he might have done."

"Well, he was pretty upset yesterday, but I managed to get him to get some sleep and decided it would be better if I just took over his chores for today." Twilight patiently recalled the previous night as if it hadn't been stuffed to the brim with youthful drama and consolations, "He's actually still upstairs sleeping right now."

"I-I'm sorry about all this, Twilight, I didn't want to have to let him down like that." The frown on Rarity's muzzled devolved into a downtrodden look not many got to see from her as the painful memories of Spike's confession came back to her, festering in her mind.

"You don't have to apologize about anything, Rarity, sometimes things like this happen," Twilight understood the guilt her close friend must have been feeling at that moment and decided to try and console her before her mood could sour even further, "and both of us knew this day would come eventually, no matter how much we didn't want it to."

"I know, darling, but it doesn't make it any easier to bear with." A forlorn sigh of relent escaped the designer before she spoke up again, "Anyway, I brought something for Spike to try and cheer him up, but since he isn't awake could you please give them to him when he wakes up?"

Rarity's horn lit up in its naturally azure aurora as she unlatched her precious saddlebags, floating out a small cloth bag filled with an assortment of cut gems, letting her own aurora shift into a lavender one once she hoofed over the telekinetic control to her bookish friend's much more powerful magic.

"Sure thing, Rarity, I'll make sure he gets them once he wakes up. Thanks by the way." Twilight set the bag of gems on her back before letting her magical aurora die down.

"Don't you fret over it, Twilight. Spike helped me dig up most of those gems anyway, and I see no problem in giving a couple of them away." Rarity waved away the unnecessary gratitude with her manicured hooves as she spoke, losing the negativity that had been plaguing her just seconds ago, "Well, I guess I'll see you later then, darling. I need to check up on Sweetie Belle and her friends, crusading and the sort, ta-ta!"

"Bye Rarity!" Twilight called out to her departing friend before trotting back inside her cozy oaken library, her spirits high now that she had mostly cleansed Rarity of any lingering guilt she might have had clinging onto her.

"Well, I guess that went alright." Twilight mused to herself as she poured the chromatic array of gems into a plastic bowl that she then stored away. With that done, she happily trotted back to her book, eager to discern the quantum physics on sealed teleportation spells.

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Spike groaned groggily as his eyelids slowly pulled back, allowing him to take in the late-afternoon's soft, orange glow as he awoke. He could still feel the salted streams on his cheeks, both old and new, and he felt as if he hadn't had a wink of sleep the past night, drained of the usual energy he usually carried.

In a burst of sensory overload, the images of his memory-induced dream flashed through his head. He gripped his head with his claws as he cringed as the physical pain caused by the emotional stress festering within his head for the longest of times came crashing down on him.

"Ow, that's just great, a headache. Can this day get any better?" Spike's voice positively dripped with sarcasm as he spoke to the empty bedroom he was in, and it was then and there when he realized that he was alone.

Seeking out his caretaker, Spike's emerald eyes scoured the cozy bedroom for the mare he shared it with, finding nothing but the orange glow of the sun trickling in through the windows. As soon as he finished his survey of the room, his brain registered that it was, in fact, very late into the day and that none of his appointed chores were done. His stubby legs scrambled to carry him to the library's main lobby, nearly causing him to trip down the stairs in his frenzied pace.

"Oh crud, Twilight is going to...kill...me?" Spike's voice faded away in synchronization with his panic when his sights fell upon the library's main chamber, a confused spark igniting in his eyes upon realizing that everything was already cleaned and that the various other miscellaneous chores assigned to him had already been finished.

"Hi Spike, did you sleep well?" Twilight's calm voice startled Spike out of his dazed trance, prompting him to turn and face her. She was seated on one of the library's couches not too far away from him with a heavy tome in her telekinetic grip and her dark mane tied back into a bun, the very sight causing Spike's mind to fumble with words as it failed to create a response to her question.

'Come on, just answer her!'

"Uh...okay, I guess." Spike spoke slowly, still trying to snap out out of the numbness that had befallen his mind, "Lots of weird dreams though."

The shadow of unexplainable hurt that flashed on Spike's expression didn't go unnoticed by Twilight, and she promptly made her way over to her little assistant and pulled him into the warm embrace of a comforting hug, hoping to soothe a pain she didn't yet understand with her act of affection. A lost sigh slipped past her lips before she spoke quietly.

"I'm sorry for asking, Spike, I'm just worried about how you might be feeling."

Spike barely managed to register what she had said before he was completely absorbed by the sensations of her intimate contact, lost to the wonders flooding his mind. The warmth she shared with him spreading through his smooth scales, her steady heartbeat a primal symphony lulling him into comfort, all of the lucid feelings acting as the perfect bait to bring forth a soft pink blush to his purple cheeks.

'Wh-...why am I blushing? It's not like she hasn't hugged me before but...this feels different, warmer...why?'

He dug through his extensive memories to find those of any hug he had ever given Rarity, and warmth was surely found within them, but it wasn't the unique sensation piercing through his confusion and sorrow at that very moment. Twilight's was a testament to the unknown, to the rejovinatingly new, as its aurora of ethereal calm transferred into his chaotically discordant enigma of being. He wished more than anything that it was something he could keep forever, to remain within its haven of safety, but he understood that it had to come to an end.

"It's okay Twilight, really. I know you're worried for me, and you'll never know how much I appreciate that, but you don't have to apologize for every little thing you know?" The drake chuckled as he reluctantly broke away from the embrace, his headache long gone and his mood revitalized. However, the questions were still there, wading through the depths of his subconscious mind.

'How the heck am I being so smooth with all of this? Rarity flat out rejected me, and...and, why don't I care anymore?' It seemed to Spike that for every question that he tried to answer, a new one would pop up, each more difficult to decipher than the last. He couldn't linger too long with his internal dilemma for long, however, lest he remain in a trance in the external world.

"By the way, what's up with the mane? You aren't going to go get some glasses and a school-mare uniform are you?" Spike's playful teasing caused a patch of pink to grow on Twilight's lavender cheeks, highlighting the sheepish smile spreading across her muzzle.

'Even though I bet you'd look cu-, WHOA, what the heck am I thinking about!?'

"No, Spike, it's nothing like that." Twilight's giggle nearly interrupted her response as she spoke to her trusty assistant, "I just thought I'd try this out a couple of weeks ago since my mane keeps getting in my eyes."

"Then how come I've never seen you with it before?" Spike continued to prod his fellow library-dweller as the curiosity within him began to surge.

"Hehe, well, lets just say I forgot to undo my mane by the time you got down here. It might make me feel better while I'm reading, but I can't imagine actually wearing this to talk with anyone, besides you obviously." Twilight's laughed internally as her mind brought up embarrassing images of herself walking around town with the unfamiliar hairdo, something she'd never find the courage to actually do.

"Anyway, your librarian look aside, is there anything you need help with around here?" Spike was at the ready to service his caretaker in any way she needed, but he relaxed a little when she shook her head in response to his question.

"Not really, Spike. I did most of the chores this morning and already made myself a daisy sandwich. Oh, that just reminded me that Rarity came by a while ago and left you a couple of gems." Twilight's hoof slapped against her mouth a second too late after she mentioned Rarity's name in front of Spike, expecting another breakdown from her emotionally unstable assistant, which was why she was left in surprised confusion when he simply expressed his thanks and walked towards the kitchen with his tail wagging in anticipation of the delectable treats.

"Where did you say the gems were, Twilight?" Spike's questioning tone snapped her out of her mild surprise as it rang out through the archway leading into the kitchen. The unicorn shook her horned head to fully escape her daze before responding to her young companion's question as she made her way to the room he was in as well.

"They're inside the cupboard Spike, in the blue plastic bowl."

Spike sat down on one of the floor cushions around the dining table after retrieving his bounty, getting comfortable just before he was joined by Twilight, whom had settled on drinking a glass of warm milk.

They enjoyed their respective treats in the cozy silence they shared, neither having much to say and both having much to ponder, but it was only the purple dragon who had become completely lost within his thoughts at that moment, eating the chromatic gems absentmindedly.

'Should I ask her about the dream? Nah...well...at least not yet. I'd hate to ruin the day again by risking being put in an awkward situation.'

Spike continued to ponder his plan of action for the remainder of his meal, refusing to leave the subject completely at rest until his claw scraped against the bottom of the empty bowl in front of him. A small frown tried to crawl onto his face in response to him not having properly enjoyed his gems due to his mental inquisitions, but a yawn he hadn't known he was suppressing escaped him before the sad expression could develop, with Twilight following suit herself.

"Still tired, Spike?" asked Twilight with a lazy smile tugging at her lips. The day's chores had taken her toll on her, and her drowsy tone told tales of her exhaustion.

"I didn't exactly have the most restful sleep you know."

"Well, come on then, time for bed don't you think?" Twilight's offer was taken up instantly by the dragon, who went on to drop off his bowl in the dishes and walk up to his caretaker's side.

"Heh, don't mind if I do, Ms. Sparkle." Spike chuckled at his own teasing as he flicked Twilight's bun, her feminine laugh backdropping his own as they climbed up the stairs to their shared bedroom.

The duo of lifelong friends walked lazily towards their respective beddings, letting themselves fall into the plush wonders of their furnishings before bidding each other a good night, slowly slipping away into sleep's embrace once again.

"Goodnight Twilight."

"Sweet dreams, Spike."

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Obnoxious blurs of green, blue, and white started to meld together just as they had done the previous night, but they were now accompanied by a distressed lavender blur. Spike kept his patience this time and simply allowed the memory to come this time instead of trying to force it out, and he soon found himself in a slightly older body than the last memory he visited. Around him the royal Canterlot Gardens, where a filly-Twilight was surrounded by Spike's original torturers.

'Oh no...'

Retreat

Chapter 16

Retreat

Aching pain spread throughout the drake's body from the force from the library's explosion as it propelled him towards the solid oak walls of the aforementioned library. The collision would have easily snapped his neck, along with every bone in his body, but a flickering purple shield took the blow instead of him, smashing through the wall in a storm of blazing splinters. Spike hugged Twilight close to his chest as the bubble shield was flung away from the Golden Oaks Library, bouncing along a field of grass until it finally crashed against a tree.

"Twi...Twilight?" the dragon's voice held none of the strength it had a few moments ago as he called out to his marefriend in a huff. The bubble shield had absorbed most of the impact, but it was weak enough to knock the air out of the the drake. Upon hearing no response, Spike uncurled himself slightly, looking down at his lavender companion to find her knocked out by the magical exertion she gained from producing the shield spell while in her weakened state. His thoughts barely registered her shallow breathing as he took in the sight of something much worse on her form. A splintered stake had driven itself into her right shoulder with the force from the explosion, causing her to bleed from the moderately deep gash, and her coat had a couple of areas that had been burned slightly, leaving black 'Splotches' on her body.

"Oh no!" adrenaline was pumped throughout the drake's body, washing away his mild pains, and gave him the strength to be able to stand again. Spike cradled Twilight carefully in his arms in order to avoid touching her wounds, a feat that proved to be impossible as suggested by the whimpers of pain the mare gave off in her exhaustion induced slumber.

'What the hell just happened?' the purple drake conversed with himself in his mind as he began to run towards the giant fire in the distance, the shield really launched them far away. 'How did Granny Smith get her hooves on a fire rune gem, I don't think there are any unicorns in her group, and I doubt they would know how to enchant a fire ruby without instruction.'

"It's not safe here anymore...not if they're willing to kill us."

Spike cut the distance between the burning library and himself in a short amount of time, and he noticed a smaller group of ponies detached to the side of the protesting mass, a group made up of five sobbing mares. The dragon tried to draw as little attention as he could to himself as he approached his friends, not really wanting to argue with Granny Smith at the moment since there was a more pressing matter to take care of.

"Girls!" Spike called out to the mares in a hushed yell.

The Elements Bearers all raised their heads groggily, not wanting to talk to anypony due to their grief, but were snapped to attention when their eyes found the dragon and the damaged mare. Those who hadn't seen Spike's transformation yet were more shocked than those who did, but they were all filled with dread at the sight of the hurt couple. Soundlessly, the mares rushed over to Spike as they tried to take in the gravity of the wounds inflicted on the couple.

"Oh my, that splinter," Fluttershy pointed a hoof at the spot where the piece of wood was impaled in, "it has to come out or else it'll make Twilight develop a infection."

The yellow mare was taking the sight of one of her best friends bleeding quite a lot better than the rest of the ponies present, except for Applejack and Rainbow Dash of course, they had both seen enough injuries to not get freaked out by one.

"What'll you need, Flutter?" the farm mare spoke up first, not wanting to disappoint her lavender unicorn friend like she thought she had a few moments ago.

"Hmm, I'll need something alcohol-based and something to wrap the wound in." Fluttershy inspected the stake closely, and, in a move that no one was expecting, took hold of it in her teeth and yanked it out. Shyness found no home in her body at the moment, any trace of it was overridden by her desire to help others, especially in medical situations due to all the practice she got with healing her animals. Twilight thrashed a little at the pain that was injected into her body when Fluttershy pulled out the shrapnel, but stopped after a few seconds.

"Well, dear, I just happen to have a bottle of wine with me, and I've also got the lacing I used to seal this box of chocolates." Rarity levitated the items she spoke of out from her saddlebags, uncorking the wine and unwrapping the chocolate's box.

"Those will have to do, now, pour some of the wine onto the cut to clean it. I'll put the bandages one after you're done." said the veterinarian.

The designer didn't exactly like the idea of bringing more pain to Twilight by pouring the alcohol onto her, but it had to be done. She levitated the bandages over to Fluttershy and began tilting the bottle towards the gash on her lavender friend's shoulder, prompting more violent thrashes from the sleeping mare as the pain spread throughout her nervous system.

Twilight's thrashing began to die down a minute or so after the wine was introduced to her injury, and Fluttershy took the opportunity to wrap it in the lace provided, forming a durable makeshift bandage. Spike smiled at his friends after the bleeding spot had been covered up, looking down at his marefriend for a few seconds, pecking her softly, and facing up again to speak.

"Thank you, girls, I wouldn't have know how to handle Twilight's injury if it wasn't for you."

"Oh, well your welcome Spike, we're just doing something for our friends." Fluttershy had returned to her shyer self, blushing at the praise.

"I'm just curious, but why didn't you just run straight to the hospital?" Rarity spoke up what was on some of the mare's minds, resulting in a serious expression overtaking his face. For a moment, the designer thought that the dragon was about to lash out about their last meeting, so she was surprised when he spoke softly.

"Because that would mean we would have to stay in Ponyville longer." Spike braced himself for their reactions, a smart choice.

"What!?" the Element Bearers asked loudly in unison, shock clear on their faces.

"Why do you guys have to go?" Pinkie's question was accompanied by a quivering lower lip, a sight that would be able to melt any other pony's heart.

"It's not safe here anymore, Pinkie, Granny Smith and her group intended to kill us tonight, and they very well might have if it weren't for Twilight setting up a shield spell in a split second." the dragon seemed to tighten his embrace on the mare in his arms as he spoke, drawing her closer to his chest. Applejack gained a sense of fury at Spike's words, remembering what exactly had caused harm to her friends.

"Darnit Granny, I'm going to have a word with her right now!" the farm mare turned around and stormed off towards the stunned crowd of ponies, who were still staring at the burning building and completely overlooking the fact that the couple they intended to run out of town was a few meters away from them.

"AJ, stop!" Rainbow Dash called out to the orange farm pony, seeing the danger of drawing attention at the moment, and tried to stop her from exactly that.

"Granny Smith! What have you done!" Applejack was holding none of her voice back as she beckoned her grandmother, whom looked at her in surprise, not expecting her appearance or the tone of her voice. The accusation snapped her out of her shock at the library's spontaneous explosion, reigniting her anger.

"Ah ain't done nothing!" the elderly mare's words seemed to bounce off of Applejack, not phasing her in the slightest of degrees.

"Nothing!? You burned mah best friends' house down, heck, you very nearly killed them!"

"Ah said that Ah didn't do it! Listen to your elders, young lady!"

"No, you listen Granny," Applejack incredibly spat out her own grandmother's name in her fit of anger, "I'm sick and tired of you manipulating mah life! You steered my mother's life, you killed my father, and now you're trying to destroy Twilight and Spike's lives as well."

"Ah never manipulated anything in your life, Applejack, and how dare you accuse me of killing your father!"

"Because you did! Who else would have done it, Granny?! He was found dead near the orchards, right were all of the stallions working the field were, and I never even saw you on that day!"

The elderly mare's throat began to constrict on itself as her granddaughter took apart the crime scene better than any of the detectives who were there on the day of Citrus Punch's murder, whom she had managed to ward off with her weak elderly appearance.

"Y-you can't prove nuthin'!"

"Ah don't need to, Ah saw the anger on your face the second Ah mentioned my Aunt and Uncle Orange, Ah spotted your little charade for that little second your mask slipped and Ah was able to finally understand what was hiding behind your lie!"

"That doesn't change the fact that you're going against your own religion!" Granny Smith was growing desperate to keep control of the situation, tossing out obstacles in the conversation to try and subdue her granddaughter.

"A religion you dragged me into! Ah never liked being a Mareian, it doesn't give ponies the freedom they deserve in life, it just sets a path for them to follow, whether they want to or not!"

"You are a disgrace Applejack! You would desert your own kind to help those sinners, you broke mah commands, and you have the nerve to confront me like this!"

"Yes! It's a nerve that Ah should have put to use long ago!"

"THAT IS ENOUGH FROM YOU! You abandon your duties as a Mareian, you go against me, and you go against your fellow community members! You're not mah granddaughter, not the mare Ah raised, so you have no place in Sweet Apple Acres any longer!" the lime mare was unable to restrain her final trump card from slipping through her mouth, yet she made no move to rectify it.

Granny Smith's words rang in Applejack's ears, her own grandmother just told her that she was no longer welcome at her own home, the home in which she grew up in and left many memories behind. The orange farm pony froze in place as a torrent of emotions rushed through her, a torrent made up of anger, sadness, and melancholy.

A hoof touched her shoulder, and she turned with teary eyes to look at Fluttershy, then another hoof touched her opposite shoulder, this one belonging to Pinkie. Applejack soon found herself in a sympathizing group hug with the four mares and the dragon, the act washed away some of her worry, barely enough to get her out of her shock. She opened her mouth to speak, but Spike did it instead.

"Granny Smith," he started in a leveled voice, one clearly hiding all of his emotions save for pity, "how low have you fallen? We used to look towards you and found the caring mare that has always been there for her community, we all cared for you. Now, go ahead and look at yourself now, what do you see? I don't see a avenging angel in golden armor, I see a mare who has yet to let go of the past and embrace the future, I see a mare who is willing to get blood on her hooves in order to get what she wants, but, most of all, I see a mare who is too afraid of change to let it happen, so you try to stop it in hopes that time won't leave you behind."

"..." Granny Smith simply stared at the dragon, her recent rage had been put to rest with the drake's words, like a bucket of cold water to a flame. She still didn't like the idea of his relationship, but she was now lost in thought about what he just said.

"Well, congratulations, you win. Twilight and I are leaving Ponyville, I'm not sure for how long, but victory is yours. As a favor, I ask you to look back at what you have done in order to achieve your goal. You attempted to murder us, you harassed us, destroyed our home, and you have caused un-repairable damage to your relationship with your granddaughter."

Spike turned away from the silent crowd to face the four Element Bearers with a look of finality clear on his face, along with a small frown.

"Listen, girls, I'm taking Twilight to Canterlot to take care of some business we have over there, and to get away from the recent attacks towards us. I'll be sure to send you a letter soon, but right now I have to run."

"Right now? As in 'No time for a goodbye party' now?" Pinkie hoped that her friends could stay, but no. The offer nonetheless broke away a bit of the tension in the group since it was still clear that Pinkie was herself.

"Yes Pinkie, the train is leaving in a couple of minutes, so I have to run if I want to catch it."

"That's it? Is this how it ends?" Rainbow Dash was expecting some kind of a giant brawl, not Spike and Twilight leaving town willingly.

Spike sighed before speaking, "No, this is far from over, I just need to get Twilight away from here. Canterlot has the Princesses and her family, that would be the best place to recover the recent events."

The five Element Bearers could tell how serious the purple dragon was while he spoke, hearing that his voice was laced with sorrow and urgency. With sad smiles, Spike's friends said their reluctant goodbyes after settling that Applejack would be able to stay at Fluttershy's cottage due to her lack of housing, and they watched as the purple dragon ran, with a speed unknown to them, past the still crowd, and towards the train station.

The Ponyville Express' whistle billowed out of its freshly repaired steam engine and into the night air, alerting Spike that he should really pick up his pace. Sweat ran down his forehead as his feet became blurs in their speedy movements, a speed that barely kept up with the moving train. The steam vehicle began to gain velocity, almost leaving the couple behind. Spike used his short range teleportation to close the gap between him and the train, following up his action with a mighty leap that landed him into one of the last boxcars.

Panting from the exertion he just went through, Spike moved away from the open sliding door on the cart, towards the back where a small pile of hay lay. He walked up onto the dry grass, laying down on his side and curling himself a little tighter against Twilight, feeling her shudder as a blast of cold air flew in through the boxcar's opening. Experimenting a little, Spike clenched his mouth shut and blew a flame, restraining it inside of his body. The little move served to warm up his body like a furnace, banishing any cold that he or Twilight held, and helped lull him to sleep. One thought entered his semiconscious mind as he slipped into the dream realm,

'Canterlot...this should be good.'