Frenzy!
Ponyville's residents were caught in a mad dash, rushing around town to pick up last minute items, put up decorations, or set-up party games. Princess Luna's first birthday party had to be perfect, and they only had hours left to set it up. It was times like these that Twilight Sparkle's organizational skills came in handy.
"No, no, no! That sign can't be painted in green letters! Take it back and re-do it in blue or something!
More or less.
NOTE: I'm well aware that the exposition below is terrible. I'm re-writing this so that I can delete the exposition and start the story with Spike's first visit to Sugarcube Corner and splice everything in there into the story.
Spike's daily trips to Sugarcube Corner had started almost a month ago. It all began one morning when Twilight sent her assistant to the bakery to pick up some cupcakes for the younger princess's birthday party. Pinkie refused the bits he offered, insisting that she'd never make her friends pay for anything in the store. Spike, having nothing better to do with his morning and in no hurry to rush back, offered his assistance in doing some chores around the bakery. It was the sort of work he was used to doing for Twilight, he reasoned, and he didn't feel right taking the sweets without some sort of compensation in return for her efforts.
Normally, Pinkie Pie would have refused his help, but as it happened, she remembered that she had forgotten to clean up the shop the night before and make fresh goods for the new day, so she reluctantly accepted his offer. It was only later that Spike found out that such events were commonplace at Sugarcube Corner, the pink mare who was usually running the place being as unorganized and scatter-brained as she was, and the real miracle that day was that her mistakes were remembered. It was around the same time that Spike started to only eat what Pinkie assured him had been made fresh either that day or night before.
The work was tedious at first, consisting mostly of dish-washing and cleaning counters, but when they got into the kitchen to bake, things started to get interesting. Three hours, several botched batches of baked goods, and more than a few angry, untended to customers later, Spike found himself, hiding behind a crate in the midst of a flour-fight, having some of the most fun he'd ever had in his young life.
The dragon was too shy to ask Pinkie to spend time with him, and he couldn't deny that working with Pinkie was fun, so from then on, Spike made a regular habit of stopping by the bakery early each morning, each day with a fake order for "Twilight", the reasons for which it was being placed getting more and more absurd each time he stopped by. One day he scoffed down some treats while Pinkie wasn't looking, then jumped into the back and started working before she could notice. That was right before she told him that he didn't have to have a reason to come and hang out with her.
His visits became so frequent he became almost like another worker in the store: he came early, worked hard, and left only a few hours before Pinkie. He learned the names of the regulars and where everything was in the store, and although he still had to work on his baking skills, he knew almost as much about working, and at times running, Sugarcube Corner as Pinkie did. Pinkie even started making two eggplant sandwiches each day for lunch. Knowing as much as he did about where things were and how they were organized, Spike ran the counter while Pinkie baked. The customers all liked him, as unlike Pinkie, he always knew what was no good to sell and what was fresh, and they soon discovered that if they brought along a few gemstones, Spike would never let them leave with anything but the best he had to offer.
Since none of their friends ever stopped by the bakery except for special occasions, they were unaware of the budding friendship between the two or how Spike spent much of his day. Sure, they did think it was strange that he was always gone in the mornings, that he always seemed to have some sweets on claw to share with his friends, and that he was hanging with his former male friends and Rarity less and less did raise some eyebrows at first, but his friends, for the most part, thought little of his behavior. Twilight did get a little suspicious when Spike brought home three whole trays of goods that Pinkie couldn't sell to eat himself and got as sick as a Diamond Dog, but it wasn't anything she questioned him too much over.
His new friendship with Pinkie grew stronger over time, and the two started hanging out outside of the bakery. When Rainbow Dash was too busy, Pinkie would drag him off to help her pull pranks on her other friends, turning him from one of her most heavily-pranked targets to her partner in crime. And when Spike had an evening off, he would go over to the bakery to hang out with Pinkie instead of Snips and Snails or Rarity. This was usually when they had their greatest adventures, which also usually lead to the Cakes making more and more rules about the things could and could not be done in the bakery, the list of which hung on a wall near the front of the store near a window. Before Spike had starting coming, the list was fairly normal and short, fitting on one sheet of paper. Now it was at fourty-six, and on a good day, the list grew by at least two, and Pinkie insisted it wasn't a fun enough day if they didn't break at least five rules in the course of a day. The rules started out normal, but they got weirder as numbers grew. They later ones consisted of things such as, "Customers are not to be fed ink" and "Sunscreen is not to be kept frozen", and Pinkie took great pleasure in explaining why each and every rule existed to anypony unfortunate enough to ask, much to the enjoyment and occasionally embarrassment of her dragon friend.
"And that's why Spike isn't allowed to hide in the oven during hide and seek!"
"Oh, hi Spike!"
Pinkie's face immediately brightened as the small purple dragon dashed into the bakery. As much as she loved her job, working at the bakery wasn't nearly as fun when she was by herself (she didn't even get to eat anything most of the time), and seeing her friends always cheered her up and distracted her from her boredom, even if Spike was the only one who visited with any semblance of regularity.
"It's so nice to see you! It feels like I haven't seen you in forever. " The pink pony started leaping up and down excitedly. Spike stopped mid-dash and raised an eyebrow, but was otherwise unperturbed. He was used to her strange behavior by now, even if he wasn't in the mood to deal with it at the moment.
"You do realize I came in yesterday?" Spike's voice was flat. "You know, same as always?" He scanned the front of the store, looking for the potted plant that had been in the shop not so long ago, but was now missing.
Pinkie Pie leaned over the counter to try to ruffle his scales, but only fell over it onto Spike. Ignoring the sharp look Spike gave her, she giggled and leapt to her hooves, continuing as if nothing had happened as Spike rushed by her behind the counter.
"Of course I do, silly! But it's just so boring standing here doing nothing all day. You know we don't get any customers on Sunday." Pinkie stopped talking when she the purple dragon started opening up drawers and cupboards frantically.
"Uh, Spike? What're you doing? Isn't it a little early to start playing hide and seek? Oh no! I'm looking at where you're hiding!" Spike rolled his eyes.
"You need to hide me." Pinkie looked at him quizzically.
"But then I'll know where you're hiding." Spike slapped his hand to his face.
"I'm not hiding from you. I'm hiding from Rarity! Rarity keeps bugging me to go look for gems with her, and my hands still hurt from that cupcake fight yesterday," Spike explained.
"Oh yeah! I remember that." She stared off fondly, reliving the memory.
"Pinkie, focus! I need a place to hide!" Her friend snapped his fingers in front of her face. Pinkie frowned. Poor Spikey, she thought, he seems really worried. She'd need to be extra Pinkie Pie today to cheer him up. Pinkie idly wondered if she remembered to make him that extra cupcake for him the previous night like she'd been planning. She looked back at the dragon, only slightly put off by his grouchiness.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Are you really suuuur-"
"Yes." Spike interrupted anxiously, running out of patience.
"Super-duper suuuureee?" She leaned close to his face and grinned, hoping to get a smile in return.
"YES!" He shouted, losing his temper.
Pinkie visibly deflated, her mane loosing some of its shine, and her seemingly permanent smile had turned into a frown. She stared at the floor and began trudging back to her spot behind the counter.
"Oh. Okie Dokie Lokie."
Spike immediately regretted his words, ashamed at his behavior towards one of his closest friends. He ran after her and caught her halfway back to the register, grabbing her left hind leg in an attempt to make her stop. She kept walking, dragging the dragon along, causing him to bounce up and down with each step.
"Sorry Pinkie," He sighed, then shifted to a more comfortable position on her leg.. "I shouldn't have lost my temper like that. Can you forgive me?" He put on his best cute face. It was one of her only weaknesses, one of the others being cupcakes, and the other three of them being locked in a storage room in the back until Spike found the opportune moment to banish them with dragonfire when Pinkie wasn't looking. "We can share some cupcaaaakes." He drew the last word out, knowing that he had her. Pinkie brightened back up suspiciously quickly. Wrong again. She had him.
"You were faking, weren't you?" Spike sighed.
"Yep." He was like putty in her hooves sometimes. He really should know better.
The bell on top of the bakery's door rang, signaling another potential customer. Pinkie rushed back to her place behind the counter in an effort to look like she was doing her job, Spike grabbing her tail to go along for the ride.
"Hello, and welcome to Sug Oh, hi Rarity!" Pinkie chirped, feeling her mood lighten even more. Another one of her best friends was here at the bakery. Usually her friends almost never stopped by except Spike.
"Hello Pinkie Pie, and how are you this fine morning?" She seemed distracted. The white unicorn glanced around the sweets shop, eyes darting from place to place.
"Uh...can I help you find something?"
"Now that you mention it, yes. I'm looking for Spike. He seems to be hanging around here quite a bit recently." Pinkie giggled.
"Oh no, he just stops by to pick up cupcakes for Twilight every morning." Rarity gave her a knowing look.
"Sure, dear. Have you seen him today?"
"I, uh, nope. Not yet. Maybe you could check out Twilight's?" The party pony's false smile was utterly unconvincing. Rarity narrowed her eyes.
"Strange," she spoke slowly. "I could have sworn I saw him run in here..." She trailed off, gave the store another once over, then moved towards the exit. Spike lifted himself up onto Pinkie's back and let out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks, Pinkie, I really thought she "
"Aha!" Rarity was back at the counter in an instant. "Spike, come with me, darling. I need your help."
Spike took a deep breath. It's okay, Spike, you can do this. You're just turning down Rarity for right now. You can make it up to her later. When he spoke, he tried to keep himself composed.
"I'm kind of busy right now, Rarity."
"But Spike, you promised that you'd be free today to help me with my search for gems."
"Yeah, but I meant later." Spike fidgeted uncomfortably. He tried to keep the next line from sounding too eager. "I could totally help you later, if you want. I mean, of course you want me to, that's why you asked." Spike chuckled sheepishly.
"But I need those gems by noon so I can get my dresses done today." Spike frowned.
"But I "
"Pleeaaassseee?" Rarity leaned in closer, putting on her most pathetic face. Drat, my weakness, Spike thought. Spike glanced back at Pinkie, conflicted. He had only missed one day of "work" before, the time when he brought home the three trays of stale food and got sick, and he didn't want to miss any more. Plus, he knew Pinkie Pie hated working alone. But Rarity needed his help. He could be her knight in shining scales! He turned back to Pinkie.
"You don't mind, do you Pinkie Pie?" Pinkie shook her head.
"It's fine with me," Pinkie said. "We can eat those cupcakes some other time."
"Are you " Spike started, but the pink pony interrupted whatever he was about to say. "Going back on your promises is the fastest way to lose a friend forever." Pinkie said warningly, beginning to fix Spike with a glare. Spike looked at her, confused. Wasn't the fastest way to lose a friend it didn't matter. Arguing with Pinkie was an exercise in futility.
Spike looked at her hesitantly. "Well, if you're sure.."
"She's sure," Rarity said. "Now come on!" He started following Rarity out of the store, but stopped in the doorway.
"Wait, I almost forgot! Twilight asked me to tell you to come to her house later. She's having a big sleepover tonight and all our friends are coming."
Pinkie squealed. "Oh! Thanks for the heads up, Spikey! I'll need to get party favors, and balloons, and streamers, and..." Spike rolled his eyes, smiling as Pinkie prattled on about the stuff she needed.
"Have fun with that."
Twilight Sparkle paced back and forth impatiently across the library as her friends tried to alleviate their boredom. Applejack was playing Tic-Tac-Toe with Rainbow Dash. Both their faces were screwed up in concentration as they tried to best each other for the fiftieth time that evening. Rarity was staring intently at a mirror she was levitating as she stood in the corner, combing her mane as Spike watched from a short distance away on his back next to where Twilight was pacing. Fluttershy had brought Angel along and was trying unsuccessfully to feed him a carrot.
Twilight looked down at her assistant. Unabashed in his observance of his crush, he met her eyes and scowled.
"So what's this all about Twilight? I thought you were all going to do dumb, girly, sleepover junk. Why do I have to be here?"
"Yeah, Twilight. When are we going to do some of that fun sleepover stuff AJ keeps telling me about?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking up from her game.
"I'm waiting for a very important letter from the princess about my studies, girls." The dragon's head raised to look at the mare.
"You say that about every letter, Twilight? Why can't this one wait until morning?" The mare's favorite assistant snorted.
"Princess Celestia told me in her last letter she's sending me a new spell to practice, and I need to be able to start practicing as soon as possible. I'm going up to Canterlot for my test tomorrow, and so-"
"So you gathered everyone here so that you could practice your new spell on us! Twilight, you super-smart smart smartypants!"
Twilight leapt a foot into the air, mane puffing out and turning fizzy as she landed. Spike started to double over laughing at the sight, and he gave Pinkie Pie a high five after he recovered. Twilight shot them both a dirty look as the two traded grins.
"Pinkie Pie? How did you-"
"Through the front door, duh!" Twilight sighed. She really should have gotten used to Pinkie's antics by now. The pink mare turned to Spike.
"I brought your order, sir and madam!" She winked at Spike, then pulled out a tray of cupcakes, seemingly from off out of thin air. Spike blinked. No matter how many strange things Pinkie did, there was just no getting used to some of the things that she did.
"Order?" Twilight inquired, bemused. "But I didn't order " BELCH! Just in time, thought Spike. He glowered at Pinkie, who only waved in return, smiling.
Twilight quickly forgot her train of thought and levitated up the scroll that came out of the flame, scanning it attentively. Spike tried to jump up and down to see over Twilight's shoulder as she read for a few moments before Pinkie grabbed him and placed him on her back so that he could see.
"What spell is this, Twilight? I haven't seen anything like it before."
"Well, Spike," Twilight began. "These symbols are from a language I don't recognize. I can make out the language, but that's all I can really tell. I'm not quite sure what it is."
"The princess didn't tell you?" Twilight slapped a hoof to her face.
"Weren't you paying attention when I was in class?" Spike nervously clawed the floor. "Wait, don't answer that. When it's time to test a student on their progress when they've been doing independent research, like what I'm doing now, the princess tests them on three things: magical ability and power, research quality, and ability to learn new magic. To avoid making that last part of the test easy to pass for someone who knew what to expect, Celestia always sends a random spell for the testee to learn right before the test."
"So it could be dangerous?" Spike regarded the scroll with a newfound sense of unease.
"Spike, I'm sure that the princess wouldn't send me something dangerous. Plus, the spell is based on the unicorns field of study. What could possibly be dangerous about friendship?" Twilight said condescendingly. Spike raised an eyebrow.
"And you're sure she meant for you to cast it on us, dear?" Rarity questioned from across the room.
"Uh," Twilight began, unsure of herself. She looked around at her friends, each now focused on her, eyes displaying everything from concern to skepticism. They were far too familiar with all of her other "harmless experiments" regarding magic. "Of course she did." The librarian pony said with a confidence she didn't really have. In truth, she didn't even know what type of spell she had, let alone whether she needed a volunteer to cast it on or not. But it was better being prepared in case she did. It was supposed to be something suited to the magic of friendship. Who else could she cast it on?
"How are you going to do that if you can't even read the stupid scroll?" Rainbow Dash flew close to her, forelegs folded.
"Rainbow Dash, magic has a language all its own. That's what makes it so powerful."
"Umm...excuse me, b-but, I'd like to get this over with so we can do something fun." Fluttershy said. "You know, if you're ready," the cowardly mare squeaked.
"Ah was thinkin' the same thing, sugercube. Why don't we get all this fancy magic stuff taken care of, Twi?" Her other friends voiced their agreement. Twilight looked down at the scroll and took a deep breath before she closed her eyes to concentrate.
"Okay everypony, I don't know what this is going to do, so you might want to take a few steps back." Twilight hear a shuffling of hooves that let her know her advice was duly noted. She started to focus her magic from deep inside her to her horn, keeping her mind on the words on the scroll.
"Here we go..."
Spike was the last to wake up. He shook his head to clear the fog, then at up and looked around the room. His eyebrows shot up. The room itself was perfectly fine. The ponies were a different story. Rainbow Dash was chasing Applejack all over the room, trying, from what he could tell, to trap her in a kiss. Pinkie Pie was running around the room screaming, so she was fine, and Rarity seemed okay as well, unconscious in the corner. But what really worried him was Twilight, who was at the moment trapped in a corner being close to being smothered by kisses from Fluttershy, whose leg was being dry-humped by Angel.
When Spike tried to stand up, after he had finished laughing himself senseless, he found that he had no real injuries to speak of. Taking one last look around to drink in the chaos, he walked over to Twilight.
"Perfectly harmless, huh?" Spike still found it in him to be smug despite the situation.
"I-I don't know what's going on!" Twilight sputtered, face hot. She was managing to fend off her "attacker" quite well. "This was supposed to be a simple, harmless spell!" She looked sun, now rising, then back at Spike. How long had he been out?
"Spike, I need to leave to go to Canterlot today." Uh oh. This could mean nothing good.
"Wait, Twilight, who's going to watch over the others?" Spike looked panicked. He knew what was coming next.
"Well, as my assistant..." Twilight gathered her bags next to her nervously. "I'mleavingyouinchargebye!
And with a pop, Twilight disappeared.
"Crap."
