Number One Fool
Chapter i: The Wish
<--{i}-->
It was a beautiful day in Equestria.
The sun shone brightly, the only clouds in the sky a gathering storm over the chaotic Everfree Forest.
The leaves glistened with morning dew, swaying in a blissful breeze.
Birds flitted between trees, dancing with the wind, and critters of all sizes scurried the grasslands playfully.
Even Ponyville experienced it, despite resting right on the border of the dark forest.
Foals played in the sun, games of tag, jump rope, and whatever their minds could come up with being seen wherever they went while adults watched over them from the shade.
Bakers baked and shopkeepers tended to their stores, weather ponies took to the air and sorted out the clouds while Janitors resisted the urge to break out into dance numbers with whatever tool they were using with little success, but everypony, and that meant every pony, was content.
Today was a new day, a wonderful day. Though a time may come to worry of storms and strife, that time was not now. It was perfect, in a way that few days could compare. It was paradise.
There was a song in the hearts of the ponies, a song of praise to their ruler Celestia, who brought up the sun each day. There was more to that song, one of thanks to their other ruler, the newly returned and restored Luna, who held the responsibility of the night and the moon in her hooves.
The song was in the hearts of everypony aware of the wonderful day, a characteristic lacking in only one, who's focus was, as always, directed towards her books.
That wasn't to say the occupants of the library didn't benefit from the day. A wonderfully warm light flowed brilliantly through the windows, completely negating the need for candles in even the darkest corners of the living tree.
It warmed the weary feathers of an owl, who slept his duties away.
It was something to marvel at to a baby phoenix, who did much the same when he wasn't playing with whatever his tiny beak could reach.
It circled around the librarian, almost like a warm embrace from her royal mentor, as she paraded books past her eyes, her quill busy with the records.
At times, she had to blink away spots when the light reflecting brilliantly off purple scales flashed by as her number one assistant scurried by to gather the books she was finished with, and then again to find a good place to shove them on the shelves.
The baby dragon moved as quick as his stubby little legs could take him, his efforts almost making him a flash of purple and green in his rush.
His rush, however, soon ceased with one tiny mistake.
A single misplaced step on the exact edge of a cover without his other foot to balance, and he swiftly found himself tumbling down into a reintroduction to the floor amid a shower of books and scrolls.
Twilight immediately turned towards him, concern in her eyes as she asked, “Are you alright, Spike?”
Still face down amid the ruins of his fall, he slowly, weakly, raised a single claw, his thumb raised high.
<--{i}-->
Spike munched happily on a gem he had managed to talk Twilight out of after he had escaped her bothersome mothering.
Fine, she had hatched his egg during her entrance exam into Princess Celestia's School, and sure, she had taken care of him since then, but did she really need to fuss over every little accident he got into?
He rubbed the annoying bandage over the scuffed and surprisingly soft scales on his forehead, wincing as it gave him a twinge of pain.
Alright, maybe it had been a good call.
Finishing the gem, he immediately got back to work. Sure, he was considered a baby dragon, but that didn't mean he completely lacked work ethic. Even back in Canterlot, when Twilight had been learning personally from the Princess everyday, he had been her number one assistant.
Granted, he had been her only assistant, but for as long as he remembered he had been helping her out, gradually moving on to bigger and more difficult tasks as he developed under her care. He had been the one to insist on being her assistant apparently, though the memory was infuriatingly absent when he tried to remember it.
But still, it wasn't bad for an egg that had never been expected to hatch. An old egg, assumed lifeless from age, yet incredibly durable and magic resistant to boot, so was there any wonder why they used it to test little fillies and colts magic potential on their entry to the school?
To make a long story short, he hatched, she passed, and everything turned out fine until that one prophecy.
The prophecy had been the best thing that had ever happened to her. To make another long story short, an ancient evil wanting eternal darkness was purified back into the Princess of the Night after a thousand years, and Twilight chose to stay in Ponyville with the new friends - her first friends, really - that had helped her do it.
That had been the best thing that had happened to him, for a different reason...
Any further thought was interrupted as the library quiet finally broke.
“I'm glad you are alright again, Spike”, said Twilight as she stepped back in, a bundle of bandages hanging laying on her back. He bet three weeks before she used them all, mostly on herself and her friends. “That was the fifth time this morning. It's not like you to be so distracted. What's on your mind?”
What was on his mind? A certain white mare with elegant curls on her purple mane. A fashionista with an appreciation of gems second only to his own. His long time crush.
“Rarity”, sighed the baby dragon happily.
“Of course”
“She's having a picnic with the Cutie Mark Crusaders all afternoon, and she invited me special!”
He gave another sigh, one that could only come from unrequited attraction.
“I should have guess it had something to do with Rarity's day off”, Twilight smiled, getting back into her record keeping duties.
“Yeah...”, he sighed again, lost in fantasy. “You know, I really think she's starting to like me!”
“Spike. She already likes you”
Spike shook his head. “Not like that. I mean like me, like me. Liking me, like I like her”
“If you say so, Romeo”, Twilight replied with a roll of her eyes.
“I do say so...”
Spike envisioned what life would be like once Rarity admitted her true feelings for him.
They could gather gems together...well, they already did that occasionally. He could watch her as he helped her make her dresses...actually, he did that whenever Twilight let him go. His mind scrambled for the possibilities but fell blank.
It didn't matter, so long as Rarity was there....
Giving a final dreamy sigh, he finally shook himself free. It would happen, sooner or later. Until then, he would spend all the time with Rarity he could. If that meant taking a more literal minded approach to Twilight's chores, then so be it.
He felt a twinge of guilt. His current duty was shelving the books once Twilight was done with them. Nowhere in that description did it say he had to sort them too. Sure, he knew that was what Twilight wanted, and had wanted the times he had done it in the past...but Rarity was more important.
Guilt twinged again. He could always ask if she would let him do the job later, but he hesitated. What if she said no? What if she prevented him from going to the picnic? The risk was too great of missing the picnic was too great.
And for a mare who had lived most of her life in Library's, Twilight couldn't find the book she wanted without somepony else, or somedragon, in most cases, to point it out to her. There was absolutely no way she would find out.
It was the best choice.
Nodding in agreement with himself, he got back to cramming the books onto the shelves as quickly as he could.
Book after book passed through his claws, minutes and rows passing by in a blur. With the hundreds of books that lined several great shelves to the brim, such a job could take hours to finish properly.
It was almost a surprise when, long before the expected time, that he snatched the final book out of the air and slid it into the only empty spot remaining.
“Finished”, he announced, smiling in relief when a glance at the clock told him that he had plenty of time still.
“Already? That's definitely a record”, said Twilight, wincing from cramps as she stood up from her little nest that consisted of a single incredibly long scroll.
Spike held his breath as she surveyed the shelves, all twice as tall as a full grown pony, making them four times his height. Books were crammed neatly in every last spot, but the silence made him fear that she had discovered his deception.
Unable to take it anymore, he headed for the door. “If you need me, I'll be at Rarity's! Ok? Bye”
He took a step towards the library door. Then Seven. His claw was gripping the handle and-
“Wait”, said Twilight at the very last second, and a chill that had nothing to do with temperature drove right through him as he cringed. Did she know?
“You did well, Spike. Very Well”
Oh good, she hadn't.
“What about the rest of your chores?”
Spike's mood reversed. Other chores? Other Chores?? The sweeping and the mopping and the window cleaning...
Twilight took one look at his horror stricken face and giggled.
“Nevermind them. You've been such a help already. I'll take care of them this time...although, could you run for some ink and quills before you go to Rarity's? I'm fresh out”
A broken quill was raised sheepishly from her nest, and an empty ink well clinked against it's fellows.
Spike could see absolutely no way running the little errand could go wrong.
“I'm on it, Twi”, he nodded, and ran out the door.
<--{i}-->
Spike knew exactly where to go. It was an errand he had run many times before.
It had been easy the first time too. After all, there was a shop called Quills and Sofa's that, well, usually had quills. Usually. As in, maybe twenty percent of the time because everypony bought their quills from the place.
Spike frowned. That...really made it the opposite of usually, didn't it?
Fortunately, Quills were in stock when he arrived after his minutes long walk. Even more fortunately, he caught sight of some ink jars out off the corner of his eye as he tried to convince Quill Sofa that his motto could use improvement.
'We Usually have Quills' wasn't very inspiring, or accurate. It wasn't even enticing to Customers, made worse since it was right there on the sign.
Quills and Sofas. We usually have Quills.
The end result was that he had everything he needed, and Quill had agreed to think about it. Possibly. He may have just been saying that to get rid of him.
The walk home took a bit longer then the journey there, on account to the irresistable draw towards a certain Carousel Boutique, home and shop to a certain mare of his dreams.
She was busy preparing for the picnic, of course, but had let him help for a minute or thirty before she sent him off so she could prepare a special, and secret, addition.
He had gotten a bag of gems for his troubles, all flawed and therefore useless for her Dress Making Purposes. Kind of silly, if you asked him. The flawed gems were more interesting to look at, and tended to have a wider variety of tasty flavors.
Spike loved Gems. Loved them. Would eat them all the time if Twilight allowed him. He was stuck eating only a couple at a time though, never as many as there were in the bag. Twilight would probably take it away if she knew how many there were.
So he didn't give her a chance, taking it easy as he walked home and finishing the last gem as he crossed the street to the Library's main door, stuffing the supplies he had bought into the bag.
He was pleasantly surprised when the door opened silently before him, the magenta glow engulfing it telling him that Twilight was responsible for it.
“Thanks Twi!”, he called as he strode into the room, lifting the bag in victory. “I've got your Ink and Quills right here! Where do you want me to put them?”
The bag was somewhat roughly snatched from his grasp, the supplies drifting out in a magical embrace and being put directly, and exactly, in their proper place.
“Or...you can do that. That's fine”
The room was oddly silent, and tense. Spike did his best not to cower beneath Owilicious's glare. Say what you want about him, but the owl could be scary when he wanted to.
The room was getting to him, as was Twilight's absence.
“Since that is all...I'll be out for the rest of the day. Ok?ThanksbyeImOutofhereGoodDay”
His feet scrambled for the door like they had never scrambled before, a sense of dread and doom filling his very being.
But it was too late. Far too late. His feet hit only air, his body suspended in the air, and an undying, nagging fear that he had been found out haunted him.
“Of course you can go Spike”, came Twilight's voice, as friendly as Ever, before shifting to a stern and unyielding tone. “After you fix all of this!”
Spike found himself turning towards her, standing on her bedroom balcony, and caught the end of a gesture indicating the shelves. All of them.
“But-”
“You lied to me”, interrupted Twilight, “I trusted you, and then you pull this!”
She pulled out a bag not dissimilar to the one Rarity had given him.
Was this about all the gems he snuck last night?
“You ate all seventy eight gems, and claimed that I had merely misplaced them”
Spike nodded guiltily, though relief flushed through him. She hadn't found out...
“Plus there's the whole not organizing the books when you shelved them. Did you really think I wouldn't find out?”
And the relief was gone.
Twilight vanished in a flash of light and appeared beside him, calmly letting him down. “I'll admit I've been working you a bit hard lately, so I'll still take care of your other chores. But I won't let you go to Rarity's until you organize the books properly”
No...no...no no No! The picnic was in an hour, and the shelves would take decidedly more then that.
“But Twilight...”
Her expression softened, and Spike felt hope rising within him...until she flipped through the book he hadn't noticed she had been carrying with her and sighed.
“I'm sorry Spike”, Twilight said, ending the discussion, “But that's just how it needs to be”
<--{i}-->
The clock ticked loudly, beating steadily like a deafening war drum.
While it wasn't actually louder, each tick was a message that the picnic's ending was just that much closer. It had started almost an hour ago, after all.
He ran. It wasn't enough. He stack books high in his arms. It wasn't enough. He checked the clock and found that too much time had passed with not enough done.
He didn't want to miss it, and Twilight certainly wasn't helping.
“Sooo, Spike. How did you like my scolding? Did it...one moment” Twilight dug back into the book she had been consulting, “Did it help you see the error of your ways?”
“No”, grumbled Spike.
Twilight's ears dropped, a befuddled look on her face before she dove back into the pages. “Alright. Did it at least make you feel guilty, so you would think twice the next time?”
“No”, sighed Spike, refusing to cooperate with her, the one who ensured he wouldn't be there on time.
He had re-shelved her books. All she had asked was for the books to be loaded on the shelves and he had done it. If she had truly wanted the books sorted, as she had every other time she wanted the books shelved, she should have said it specifically.
He refused to acknowledge that she had used the exact wording as she always did, or that he had never before failed to sort with those words.
Pausing to give his aching claws a little stretch, he observed what was left. Half the books were back on the shelves, originally unshelved thanks to a wave of Twilight's oh so magical horn, leaving just as many neatly stacked on the floor, once again thanks to that very same wave.
He could make it. He Would make it.
“Seriously Spike, what did you think of it? Was it too harsh? Too gentle? This is for your future!”
“You want to know what I think? What I really think?”, he growled, so many words and arguments half thought coming to mind in a second.
Endless possibilities, and he went with what she wanted, like always. “I think that the whole thing would have been more effective if you weren't constantly consulting the book”
The Unicorn beamed at him. “Thanks Spike. That's why you're my number one assistant”
'More like number one slave and yes-pony', Spike thought as he gathered another stack of books, anger flaring.
Seriously. She had the power to do everything with only a wave of her horn. Even know, he could hear the dishes clink in the sink, and see a series of clothes dust what needed dusting and wipe down the windows whether they needed cleaning or not.
It took him hours to do them one at a time, but her? It was nothing.
Why else would she make him work? Why else would she lift a hoof to do something, to do anything, in moments when she could make her 'number one assistant' do it in a matter of hours?
It wasn't fair. All he wanted to do was go to Rarity's picnic, and here she was making him clean up from her poor wording choice! Here he was, working as fast as he could, doing what she wanted, and now she wouldn't leave him alone!
“Hey Spike?”
Enough was enough. He had had it.
He dropped the books he currently held, and whirled carelessly around to confront her... too carelessly.
His tail toppled the stack, hitting them hard enough to knock him off balance, where a few steps in the wrong direction had him tumbled head first directly into the shelves.
The shelves had endured endless battering, from Rainbow Dash running into them, to Rainbow Dash crashing into them, and many other events in between.
But never had they rattled as they did from this, the books shifting as though to dump themselves back onto the floor.
Spike held his breath as he slowly picked himself up.
He sighed as the books settled again, and promptly spun to face Twilight again, confrontation not forgotten.
“Twilight, would you stop talking!”, he shouted, “I'm doing what you told me to, but you constantly calling my name is making it impossible to focus!”
Twilight backed up in confusion, confused why the baby dragon she had helped care for since he had hatched was so angry.
“You're not helping, and I don't need your help!”
Spike could have finished here, but resentment he never knew he had been building up kept him going.
“I'm sick and tired of it! You're always telling me what to do, or what not to do, and you're always getting in the way of what I want. You call me your assistant but you treat me like your slave, and you are always off on adventures with your friends or buried in your books rather then doing anything productive”
Spike released a deep breath, but it didn't help.
“So just stay quiet so I can get to Rarity's after I finish with these!”
He illustrated with a sweep of his hand, forgetting how close the shelves were.
Pain exploding in his hand was his first clue, followed by the shelves rattling once more. What was different was the way the shelves finally gave way with a mighty splintering crack
Horror struck, there was nothing he could do as he watched his hours of work get dumped unceremoniously to the ground with the remains of the shelves that held them. The stacks Twilight had set up toppled, and all that remained was a carpet of broken wood and books.
Anger was forgotten. Resentment was forgotten. Spike turned to Twilight, and didn't notice the tears she was trying to hold back, or the way her voice struggled to remain steady.
“I'll fix the shelves, but that's it. You...you don't need me, after all”
<--{i}-->
The baby dragon ran down the street desperately.
Twilight had fixed the shelves, a process that had taken a little over an hour, and then had gone off to who knew where, leaving him the unmanageable debris to dig through.
It was late. Very late. Hours later, all because Twilight had decided to try to teach him a lesson for reasons that were of no fault of his own.
Rarity had said she had planned for the picnic to go on all afternoon. Hopefully...hopefully it wasn't too late.
Stopping for breath at the edge of town, he spotted the hill the picnic was to be on, close by and in the shade of a single magnificent tree.
He smiled when he noticed movement. He wasn't late! He continued, walking to make it look like he meant to be “fashionably late”, whatever that meant.
The smile on his face grew and grew as he got closer and closer, smelling the foods, hearing the tink of glasses and plates.
This was going to be so awesome! Cresting the hill, he said, “I'm here, Rarity”
Rarity jumped, and Spike saw that the food he had smelt was long gone, and the clinking he had heard simply her packing up.
“I missed it, didn't I?”
Rarity gave him a nod.
<--{i}-->
Spike's walk back was a gloomy one as the sun sank below the horizon. It was also one filled with disappointment, and rage.
He had been so close. So very close!
Twilight had known how much he had wanted to go. She had known!
But he had missed it. Completely. And it was her fault! He had done exactly as she had asked. He always had done exactly as she had asked. Why couldn't she let him do what he wanted, what he asked?
It was her fault. Her fault, and her fault alone. She didn't understand what it was like to be him, and she never cared to!
The library door loomed before him, so he slammed it open.
Twilight turned towards him, so he glared at her, and did his best to ignore her.
Old habits died hard however.
“How-”
“It was long over”, he interrupted, stomping off up the stairs
“You know, you could have avoided-”
“Shut up”
Twilight backed away as if she had been hit.
“I could have made it if you had just let me go and fix it later. I would have fixed it! I would have! But you made me re-shelve them, and when the shelves failed you made me re-shelve them again!”
“But Spike, it's for your...”
“You don't understand”, he snarled, “You never understand!”
The baby dragon stomped out of the bedroom, dragging his basket/bed. Twilight was too cheap to buy him one of his own. He didn't give Twilight a second glance as he disappeared into the room below the balcony.
Dropping off his basket in the center of the room, and returned to the entry way to the room. “I don't want to see you ever again!!”
He slammed the door in her face, and made sure the locks sounded loudly behind him.
Twilight try to call out to him. He ignored her.
She pleaded to him, tried to get him to speak up. He kept silent, and simply brooded until her voice, hoarse from all her attempts fell silent, and he heard her finally go to bed.
He had long since laid himself in his basket. It was the one thing he could call completely his. Twilight had offered to get him a bed in Canterlot. He had refused. The guest bed was available most days. It wasn't the same.
He couldn't sleep right without his basket, but that didn't mean he was guaranteed to sleep in it.
Anger still surged through his veins, and the disappointments of the day still plagued his mind.
He had never exploded like that before. He had never yelled like that before. He would probably feel guilty about it once the anger faded.
He didn't care.
She was always giving him chores she could easily handle with magic. Always doing whatever she wanted, and preventing him from doing whatever he wanted with excuses like “It's dangerous”, and “You'll make yourself sick”, or even “It's for your own good”.
The anger simply built up as his thoughts spiraled into a peak of rage.
She didn't understand. She never understood. As things were, she would never understand!
Finally, with a snarl, he release all his anger, all his energy, all his everything at the moment into a single wish that would make everything better.
“I wish Twilight would understand just how unfairly she treats me”, he swore as his body finally gave in to sleep from a long day.
He never noticed the deep echoing of the wish he wanted most of all.
Author's Note
If you don't like the story, please tell me why. If you find a mistake, or something you think I could have done better, please let me know of it. I'll consider it.
I'll do my best not to disappoint you.