I had been walking for quite a while now, planning out my revenge on Angel, contemplating different methods of embarrassing situations that I could put the little devil bunny into. When going to war it’s best to have it and not need it whereas if you need it and don’t have it you sing a different tune.
‘A line of thought that kept me alive against those Precambrian life forms back in the day...’ I stopped for a second, ‘What the heck does Precambrian mean?’
I shook my head to clear the fading older memories, ‘Okay, if I’m going to start a water balloon war for my revenge on Angel I’m going to need a lot of balloons. Now where am I going to get them..’ my eyes scanned the houses and businesses that I was currently running past.
Some fancy restaurant nearby stood out at the back of my mind. As I spotted two patrons sitting together the usual chill went down my back, ‘Right, Ray and Rarity. Forgot about them.’ I sat down with my back to the wall and watched the two of them from across the clearing.
Rarity had nothing in front of her while Ray was finishing up his food. The idea of following the two of them briefly went through my head, but I disregarded the idea. Spike needed to know I was alright and I needed his help with getting balloons...
‘Wow, I prioritize my revenge on Angel over investigating Ray... For some reason I have no problem with that.’ I shrugged and started to walk back towards the castle, ‘It’s the smart thing to do anyway since if I get caught then Spike will think I’m still with Angel and never know I was captured by the evil ponies.’
I watched as a waiter appeared and talked only to Ray before taking away his plate. For whatever reason he had a smug grin on his face. To my shock it was one Rarity mirrored.
‘What in the?’ I watched with increasing shock as Rarity’s horn lit up with a vibrant green aura instead of her usual light blue.
Then I watched in horror as the white of her coat suddenly changed along with her mane and tail. In less than a second Rarity was gone and Sleek was in her place, faded red mane done up in a bun and everything.
My eye slightly twitched as I looked at... I can’t rightly say. I had no idea what I had just seen my mind went blank as that started talking like nothing happened, ‘Priorities have changed!!!’ A passing pony provided the perfect chance for me to approach without being seen.
“-spell works better than expected. I do say nothing coul-” I caught Ray saying before Sleek cut him off.
“Quiet, I’d rather not have to scuttle the whole thing because you talk so loudly.” Sleek said with a hushed tone before looking around at all the passing ponies, thankfully not noticing me under an adjacent table, “Meet me in the Canterlot Gardens tonight with Red and don't forget or little presents.”
Ray looked uncertain for a moment, “You are certain that the Boss will be able to get out of his cell?”
“Yes, if he didn’t have a full proof escape plan then we would of never of gone this far.” Sleek said before standing on her four hooves, “Just make sure our gifts are nice and wrapped for the start of the party. We used all our favors in the guard and nobility already so we only have one shot at this. Am I clear?”
“Krystal clear.” Ray said with a smug smile on his face as Sleek trotted away. I watched as he levitated a paper up, “We’ll be put in the history books for this ‘party’.” He let out a deep chuckle as I started to move away.
‘What in the world is going on around here!?’ I thought as I ran towards the nearest alleyway and started to put together what I just heard in my head.
‘SCRUFFY!’ I jumped and let out a loud yowl of shock at Spike’s sudden voice yelling in my head.
‘Oh my-! You scared one of my nine lives out of me Spike!’ I yelled as I looked back and saw a number of ponies now looking at the alley had ducked into.
‘And you scared me too! Now where are you at, are you alright?’ Spike asked with his worry evident even in his telepathy.
I took off out of the alley and down another street, growing more confident in my ability to not get stepped on, ‘Angel had a bird scoop me up in a sac, it wasn’t that hard to cut out of once he dumped me in the back of a wagon bound for Vanhoover.’
‘He did what!?’
‘That doesn’t matter right now, where are you? I just saw something you’re going to want to know about.’ I stated as I started moving towards the castle once again.
‘I’m by Sugar Cube Corner, and what do you mean it doesn’t matter! I was worried sick about you!’
And now I feel bad, ‘Okay wrong choice of words, it does matter and we’ll get him back at some point in the future but we have to worry about Rarity right now.’ I stated as I rounded the corner and took off down the side of the road.
‘What does Rarity have to do with any of this?’ Spike’s asked, his tone switching faster than Rarity switches dress before a party.
‘I just saw her and Ray together still and she used some kind of magic to turn herself into Sleek!’ Like a dodgeball champion I dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged my way through the legs of the sea of ponies between me and the other side of the open market area.
Spike was quiet for a little bit as I jumped up onto a cart to look around. The entire circular area was full of ponies going to and fro. Turning around I saw the cart I had jumped on was full of apples and beyond those apples was Big Mac holding out an apple to some random pony, ‘Spike meet me Applejack’s apple stand I’ll explain when you-’
‘This whole time I’ve been in love with Sleek!?’ Spike yelled mentally and faintly I could hear it in the distance as well. That had to of made a scene.
‘No! At least, I hope not. Now that would just be weird.’ I watched the crowd moved to and fro while I waited for Spike.
‘What about anything that has happened in the past few days hasn’t been weird!?’
I took a second to ponder what he said before stating, ‘Been fun though hasn’t it?’
‘...’
I took Spike’s silence as a reluctant yes and looked away from the crowd to Big Mac, “Meow?” the large stallion looked over at me and gave me a small smile. A second later I found myself held against his chest in a surprisingly soft grip as he stroked the fur on top of my head. I purred loudly to show my approval.
“Ahh, that’s just the sweetest sight I’ve ever seen.” I turned my head slightly to catch sight of an elderly mare with a smile on her wrinkly face.
“I think she’s Spike’s little kitty.”
‘Again with gender thing. What makes me look like a girl?’ I thought before Big Mac continued.
“Applejack was talking about Spike finally tellin Twilight about her.” Big Mac stated as he set me down on their apple stand.
“Heh heh, now that takes me back.” the green elder pony said as she reminisced, “Why I remember when a little Applejack tried to hide a certain little puppy from us.”
“Eeyup.” Big Mac started to gently pet me making me purr.
“She was just the cutest little thing, thinkin she was gettin away with keeping Winona in her room.” the older mare start laughing, “Remember when we was all eatin supper and Winona ran into the kitchen and jumped onto the table right beside Apple Bloom? Applejack’s eyes were wide as could be and Bloom looked like as excited as a fox in a hen coup.”
“Eeyup, never seen AJ’s eyes get so wide since.” Big Mac joined in the laugh.
“Scruffy!” I heard Spike shout. Before I could even turn around I was picked up and held against Spikes chest.
‘Too tig-oh, nevermind you’re good.’ I said as Spike hugged me.
“Ya might wana keep a closer eye on that one.” the old pony stated, “Looks like she’d be a bit more free spirited than most cats round here.”
‘I am a kitten, not a cat. I will hold that title for as long as I can.’ I thought as I felt the stress from running between the sea of hooves earlier melt away with each slide of Spikes hand on my back, ‘Also still a guy.’
“Scruffy is actually a boy,” Spike stated for me, “and I’ll keep a close eye on him. Dragon’s Honor.” Spike finished with a little two clawed salute.
“I trust ya will Spike.”
“Eeyup.”
Spike turned around to leave before Granny Smith called out, “Spike, before ya go could ya tell me how long those girls are planning on this cat-tastaphy will last?”
I did a few short purrs to laugh at Granny’s pun while Spike ignored it completely, “Well usually they’re back before nightfall, but it was pretty far away this time from what a few guards at the... tree-”
‘Crystal Tree Castle of Friendship.’
“At the Crystal Treehouse told me, so probably not till tomorrow.”
“Alrighty then, thank ya kindly.” Granny Smith said as Spike and I walked away, “You two stay outa trouble now ya hear?”
“We will Granny Smith, bye!” Spike yelled as he ran slash waddled away.
Taking the opportunity I craned my head to look around the market area, ‘We need to find Ray, he’s got something that their going to bring into Canterlot tonight.’
“What kind-” Spike started out loud, ‘What kind of somethings? Cause if this is like one of Twilight's Adventures it might be those things that were stolen from the spiders last night. Did we ever get there names?’
What he said made me pause for a second. It all fell into place nicely, there’s no other ponies I know that would even be brave enough to go into the Spider’s lair, let alone take their stuff! ‘Spike you’re a genius! And no, I’ve just been thinking of them as the Spider Kingdom.’
Spike's eyes widened as he seemed to realize something, 'Wow, this is almost a complete reversal of issue #28 of Drake Rising: Legend of the Spider Kingdom when Fire Wing learns his birth name is Neltharion and finds out he has a brother and his brother’s egg has been stolen by the Mutant Spiders from the Nerubian Kingdom of Azjol-’
‘Didn’t you read that one to me and then almost snuggled me to death trying to go to sleep?’
Spike rounded a corner leading to the more residential area of Ponyville, ‘No! I just... Oh look there’s Ray!’
‘Quick get into that bush!’ Spike jumped into the bush, thankfully not crushing me in doing so, ‘Now we follow-’
“Hey! Get out of my hedge!” A pony yelled prompting Spike to quickly vacate our hiding spot.
“Sorry Mr. Dizzle.” Spike said loud enough to for the offended pony to hear but not loud enough for our target to hear.
While Spike apologized I watched as our target calmly walked up to the fourth house down the road, a modest two story home, unlocked the door and went inside. Already that raised flags as in the entirety of my staying here I’ve never seen a pony lock a door.
As Spike started down the road I pointed out the house to him, ‘The fourth one on the left is his house. Now we need to find a way inside and find whatever he took from the Immortal Spider Queen.’
We ended up taking up residence across the street in some overgrown bushes of a vacant house. We were out of sight from our target and most anypony that passed, ‘Well we can’t break into his house in the middle of the day. We need to lie low till it’s dark out and then we’ll get... uh Scruffy what exactly did the Spider Queen have stolen from her again?’ Spike asked.
His question threw me through a loop though as I had no idea what we were looking for either, ‘He told Sleek he would bring the stuff to the Canterlot Gardens tonight so we’ll just wait for tonight, sneak in, and see what he’s messing with.’
‘How are we going to sneak in?’ Spike asked as he narrowed his eyes to inspect the house and I moved to his head.
We spent a few seconds in silence inspecting the house. The windows were all darkened and had curtains covering them. The front door was definitely locked, but I might be able to pick that with my shadow magic. Still we should try to find a different way than the front door.
‘Maybe there’s a basement we-’ the ground suddenly opened up under us. We didn’t even have any time to voice our shock before we were pulled underground.