Chapter 1
Radiant as the Dawn
Dawn was a special time for some ponies. The mysterious night being slowly overwhelmed by the majestic light of the sun peeking over the horizon. Equestria was quiet at dawn, many ponies slept through it. For those who are awake however, they experience the waking of the world as the sun's warmth slowly breathes life into the land. The cool morning air, crisp and biting, is energising and each breath taken is fresh and clean.
Yes, the dawn was a special time for some ponies. Today, Twilight Sparkle is not one of those ponies.
"Ughh, Spike, let me sleep," Twilight groaned as she buried her head underneath her pillow "It's too early to be thinking."
"Sorry Twilight but you told me to get you up early today" Spike replied, slowly prodding Twilight as he did. Twilight rolled over facing away from Spike.
"Then considered that request retracted."
"No can do Twilight, 'last night Twilight' told me to ignore what ever 'this morning Twilight' said about ignoring 'last night
Twilight'." Spike then adopted a blank stare and raised his hand to his chin in thought. Moments later he gave a definitive nod, reassuring himself that what he said was correct.
Twilight didn't respond, maybe if she ignored the interloper, he would give up and go away?
Spike resumed prodding Twilight. She groaned again.
"The only way you are going to get me to stop poking you is if you get up." said Spike "Either that or you could try and stop the sunrise" he added after a few seconds, slightly chuckling.
"Fine then. Spike, take a letter."
Spike's left eyebrow slightly raised "Okay…" he responded with a deliberate slowness. Spike paused slightly, considering which route would be better to get Twilight up, jump on her or fulfil her request. Eventually deciding the aftermath of route one wasn't worth the effort, Spike walked over to Twilight's desk and pulled open the second draw from the top, the paper draw. Grabbing a sheet, he then opened the top draw of the desk, slightly frowning after he did. His quill wasn't there. Twilight was very particular with her quills, and Spike wasn't allowed to touch her favourite one. In fact, Twilight her self rarely touched it. Setting that thought aside, he set about trying to find usual quill.
After a minute or two, Spike gave up and took one of Twilight's 'not-a-serious-or-crucial-emergency' emergency quills, she wouldn't mind and he was going to return it soon anyway. Clutching both items in his hands, he returned to Twilight's bedside. She hadn't moved.
"I'm back Twilight, what did you want me to write down?" Without rolling over to face him, Spike heard the muffled voice of Twilight through her pillow say:
"Dear Princess Celestia,"
Spike started transcribing her words, "Dear Princess Celestia" he muttered to himself. Twilight continued:
"Please put the sun down again.
Your Tired Student,
Twilight Sparkle"
After he had finished writing, Spike reread the letter with a dubious expression, wondering what exactly he was supposed to do in this situation. Twilight obviously didn't intend for this letter to be sent, so what now? During Spike's internal monologue, Twilight had completely wrapped herself in her duvet and resumed her previous state of inactivity, the slow rise and fall of her bed covers the only indication she was still inside.
After several more awkward seconds of looking down at the message in his hands, Spike rose his head and saw the mess of covers that contained Twilight. His eyes flicked down at the letter, back up at Twilight and then across to her bedroom window. Developing a wicked grin, Spike sauntered over to the window making sure his claws gave a distinctive clack on the wooden floor so his footsteps would be heard by Twilight.
Upon reaching the window, Spike undid the latch as noisily as he could and pushed the window open, ensuring it creaked and screeched for as long as possible. He could hear shuffling from Twilight, trying to block out the the noisy windows by pressing the pillow on her head into her ears. Twilight, realising this was futile decided she had to take more drastic measures.
Uncovering the duvet from her pillow and then taking said pillow off her head, Twilight emerged from her cocoon. Recoiling as the cool breeze touched her, Twilight turned her head towards Spike, squinting at him through weary eyes.
"Spike…" She wailed as Spike finished opening her window. "What are you doing? Why is the window open? Close it so I can sleep."
Her demands delivered, Twilight's head flopped back down and landed on her mattress with a satisfying 'oomph'. She then promptly reintroduced the pillow to the top of her head.
"I had to open the window Twilight, how else am I supposed to send your letter to the Princess if it can't get out of the Library?" replied Spike, still sporting his devious smile.
He wouldn't.
"You wouldn't"
Spike drew a deep breath.
He would.
Twilight Sparkle flew into action. Horn blazing, she ripped her covers off using her magic and launched them across the room. Whipping her head towards the window, she saw 'the-letter-that-could-not-be-sent' and the little dragon holding it. She locked eyes with Spike as he was about to start sending her letter. Twilight gave him a baleful glare that scarcely concealed her immense dislike for the current situation and the promise of a very unpleasant day ahead. Seeing this look and with a twinkle in his eye, Spike started to exhale his magic dragon breath.
"NO!" Twilight yelled, her face contorting with horror.
Starting off in a gallop towards him, she went as far as the end of her bed and started to lunge at Spike before teleporting mid leap, sliding across the floor as she reappeared in front of him, dying remnants of teleportation magic still crackling behind her.
Twilight, however, had reappeared a fraction of a second too late and arrived to see her letter being turned to ash by a brilliant green flame. Reaching out with her magic, she desperately tried to stop the letter in transit by magically restraining all the individual pieces of ash, but the letter had gone too far and the pieces spread too thin. By the time Twilight had devised a suitable method of restraint, the letter had already sailed just beyond Ponyville and beyond all hope of retrieval.
Twilight stared blankly out of her bedroom before slowly turning to face a suddenly less amused looking Spike.
Spike crumbled under her unnerving gaze, suddenly finding the floor to be interesting in a way he had never before thought possible. "Uhhh…. Hey there Twilight." Spike mumbled while he awkwardly shuffled his feet. "Nice weather we're having this morning… don't you think?"
Silence reigned over the library. Spike could hear it. He could feel it. The sound of nothing. It was overwhelming. It was more than uncomfortable, it was oppressive, it was unbearable. As the present painstakingly became the past, Spike held his breath. He could feel every slight twitch was scrutinised under her piercing eyes .
And then;
"Spike."
Twilight took a slow breath.
"Spike," repeated Twilight, eerily calm "I'm not going to explain to you how angry I am. I will say, however, that while I currently lack the effort to do anything, you will have a rather displeasing day should I see you again before now and breakfast." With that, Twilight turned and left her bedroom.
After Twilight had left, Spike's legs gave out and he fell to the floor, his hand rising to his chest. Still clutching at his furiously beating heart, Spike was overcome with waves of relief, having in his mind just been walking on the razors edge between life and …. well, maybe not death, but serious unpleasantness to say the least.
After several minutes contemplating his close escape, Spike went downstairs, carefully looking around all corners to avoid a confrontation with Twilight. Arriving at the kitchen with out incident, Spike proceeded to make the most amazing breakfast he could think of, he could not afford to make any mistakes today.
Roughly an hour later, Twilight descended down the stairs and trudged across the room to her usual seat at the table. Upon reaching it, she sat down heavily, her head hanging down limply. Laid out in front of her was an assortment of breakfasting goods. Looking up, she cast her eyes over the table and was greeted an assemblage of all her favourite morning meals but in petite portions, so she would be able to physically eat them all, each item no more then two or three bites.
A breakfast entree of thick porridge with sliced banana on the right side and honey on the left. This was followed up by the breakfast main course which consisted of hay bacon strips and eggs on toast, a croissant filled with melted cheese and lastly, Prench toast. The final two items being; Waffles with sliced strawberries and ice cream and blueberry pancakes glistening with maple syrup for breakfast desert.
She recalled Spike having said once that one of the things he wanted most was a six course breakfast everyday, albeit with a more gemstone related menu.
Shifting her gaze across the table she spotted Spike sitting to her right, almost disappearing beneath the table. Spike, noticing that Twilight had seen him, raised himself in his chair and adopted a normal sitting position. He was, however, still unable to look at Twilight in the eye.
"Look Twi, I'm sorry for sending that letter to the Princess, I'll—" Twilight cut him off before he could say anything else.
"I'm sorry as well Spike, I shouldn't have acted that way. You were right, I should have got up when you asked me to and it's my fault that you wrote that letter to the Princess."
"But Twilight, I sh—" Spike started again,
"Spike, we can talk about it after we eat." interjected Twilight once more, "I'm famished and I don't want to even consider talking about this further before I have eaten at least half of this." she said while sweeping her hoof over the table, gesturing at the food Spike had made. With the conversation effectively killed for the present, Twilight started on her meal and Spike did the same.
Spike was an amazing cook and this meal was no exception. While she ate, Twilight considered the logistics of having such an extravagant breakfast everyday. Perhaps Spike was onto something with this six course idea? She eventually dismissed the idea, due to not only inefficient costing but time constraints. Having to eat, let alone prepare such a feast each morning would cut a huge chunk time out of her daily schedules. However good it may taste, it could not out weigh the benefits of punctuality.
Eventually eating her meal in its entirety, Twilight levitated hers and Spikes dishes to the sink. She absentmindedly washed them, not really paying attention to her current task. Her mind was preoccupied with other things like: 'What Princess Celestia was going to do to her when she read the letter'. Would she be cast off as Princess Celestia's student? That seemed most likely. What if Princess Celestia was having a bad morning, what then? Exile from Equestria? Maybe if she was feeling lenient. As Twilight was contemplating her ever increasing punishment, she started to visibly shake.
Spike walked over to her and put his hand on her side. He opened his mouth, preparing an encouraging speech to calm Twilight down but instead of words, a bout of dragon flame escaped his mouth. Twilight jumped back at the sudden sound and then proceeded to stare at the flame in horror. As Spike's messenger flame began to coagulate into the familiar form of a letter, her eyes grew wider and her jaw dropped lower. The process seemed to take hours for Twilight and Spike but in reality, it was close to instantaneous. When the letter had finished forming it fell to the ground with a dull thud. It was then that Twilight Sparkle decided was the appropriate time to freak out.
"AHHHHHHHH!! Spike! Spike! What am I going to do!? Celestia's going to banish me from Equestria! I can't be banished, I still have so much to learn!"
Twilight ran around in circles around Spike and the letter, yelling various reasons why she couldn't afford to be banished from Equestria. The continued for several minutes until Spike decided that enough was enough. He waited until Twilight came within reach during one of her circuits flung him self at her neck. He latched onto her and started stroking her shoulder while saying; "Calm down, Twilight. Princess Celestia won't banish you from Equestria, it's going to be alright."
Twilight immediately stopped running.
"Of course Princess Celestia won't banish me out of Equestria," reasoned Twilight. Spike smiled, maybe he was getting better at this! "She's going to banish me to the moon! I can see it now! She is going to take back the Elements of Harmony and lock me in the moon for the next one thousand years!"
Falling to the floor and trapping half of Spike underneath her, Twilight curled into a ball and started shaking. Spike sighed heavily.
"Spi-ih-ih-ike, what am I going to do?" she sobbed.
Deciding that talking to Twilight was a lost cause, Spike yanked his leg out from underneath her and made his way over to the recently delivered letter.
The sound of Spike picking up the letter and unfurling it grabbed Twilight's attention immediately.
"Spike!" she gasped in a hushed tone, "What are you doing? Stop that. We have to leave, go somewhere where Celestia can never find us. We can go out to the Western Frontiers, one of the newer settlements. There should be—"
"To My Tired Student Twilight Sparkle," Spike exclaimed rather loudly, effectively drowning out Twilight's babbling.
"I must regretfully inform you that I am unable to fulfil your request. Whilst I know sometimes the decision to get up and face the day or stay in a warm bed can be rather difficult, perhaps these choices would be made easier if we didn't stay up until early morning reading about new magical theories from Canterlot University. "
"Why did you tell her that Spike!"
Spike continued, completely ignoring Twilight's comment.
"Remember Twilight, sometimes we must give things that have a lesser appeal to us a higher priority than the things we enjoy. That may mean going to sleep instead of reading or perhaps having to having to adhere to a royal schedule instead of immediately replying to a letter from your faithful student.
Your Mentor,
Princess Celestia"
Having finished reading letter, Spike rolled it back up and gave a sagely nod of approval.
"See, Twilight, I told you everything would be fine." he said
Twilight rolled up into a kneeling position. "Yes Spike, I know you did…" started Twillight, looking clearly relieved, "But that doesn't excuse the fact that you sent that letter in the first place. I'm sure I can think up a suitable way you can repay me for that Spike, so be ready for it. For now though, I just want to forget this event ever happened." Twilight sighed tiredly, putting her head down on her front legs.
"Spike, could you please get my checklist for today?"
"Na, I don't need to Twilight."
Twilight raised her head again, raising and eyebrow as she looked at Spike.
"I remember what was on today's one." Spike continued, "The only thing that was on it was 'visit Zecora before 10:30am'."
Twilight stood up suddenly.
"What's the time now?" She asked Spike.
"It's just after 8 o'clock." he replied flicking his eyes up at the clock on the wall behind Twilight.
"I shouldn't waste any time then!" Twilight declared while standing up, her previous near mental collapse already forgotten.
Rushing over to the library's front door, Twilight prepared to leave as soon as possible. The sooner she was preoccupied with something to take her mind off the massive amount of embarrassment caused by Princess Celestia reading that stupid message, the better.
Levitating her saddlebags, which were filled with all sorts of miscellaneous items the night before and whose inventory was tripled checked for accuracy, onto her back, Twilight walked out of the library feeling invigorated. After a terrible morning that would never again be mentioned, Spike had made her an amazing breakfast, she was still in time to keep her scheduled, drop-in appointment with Zecora and she was NOT getting banished. Life could scarcely get better.
She happily cantered along the main road out of Ponyville, towards the Everfree Forest. Disregarding the odd looks from many of the shopkeepers who were setting up their businesses for the day, she merrily continued on her way to see Zecora.
As Twilight approached the edge of the Everfree forest, her cantering slowly wound down to a modest pace and finally to a sluggish walk. Going into the darkness of the Everfree was always a daunting experience. Even though Twilight knew the way and she had traveled it many times, there was always a sense of foreboding that came with the Everfree. Ignoring the urge to shudder, Twilight peered through the trees and brush, steeled her nerves and stepped into the forest.
She quickly found the small trail leading to Zecora's hut and promptly started following it. While the Everfree was still dangerous place, she felt significantly safer walking on familiar ground. The path itself was becoming more and more defined against the underbrush and leaf litter of the forest. Not long ago, Zecora had been the only one to ever walk it on her monthy excursions to Ponyville but now as she was visited more often, the path was being used with greater frequency and had started to develop.
'Perhaps we'll have to lay down a small stone road if she gets any more visitors' Twilight chucked at the thought.
As Twilight continued along the path a sudden noise from behind startled her. Quick as a flash, she turned around, jumping backwards as she did to further distance herself from…. Zecora?
"Twilight Sparkle, what a surprise!
A pleasant a sight for weary eyes."
Zecora stood in front of her, wearing saddlebags made from an odd dark brown material she could not place. Twilight let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding.
"Zecora! Thank Celestia it's you, you scared me half to death!" exclaimed Twilight.
"Then I must say I am quite contrite
for causing such a ghastly fright.
But why do you so bravely roam
in this forest, so far from home?" questioned Zecora in her usual rhyming couplets.
Twilight took a moment to collect her self before answering; "Actually, I was looking for you, Zecora."
Zecora didn't speak but looked at Twilight with an inquisitive expression on her face. Twilight took this as a cue to elaborate.
"I am doing a study into strange or unusual aspects of magic for my thesis about inconsistencies within the predefined nature of natural magical occurrences. I would have used my study into the Magic of Friendship but unfortunately, I used my research on that for a separate degree, a Doctorate of Theoretical Magic. The problem with this is the Canterlot University of the Magical and Arcane Arts doesn't allow a student to submit any one topic of research twice, even in separate areas of study.
I came to you because you are the foremost expert of the Everfree forest in this area, perhaps all of Equestria. I thought there was maybe some interesting flora or fauna you may know of that I could make the subject of my thesis?"
The look on Zecora's face changed from inquisitive to thoughtful as she reflected on Twilight's words. Zecora knew a lot about the Everfree forest. She had seen much in her travels and she had learned a great deal, sometimes through careful observation and other times through blazing action. There were things she knew of that she dare not tell Twilight for fear of her safety, she may be a powerful unicorn but young and naive. She lacked the wisdom and steady heart that could only be gained through the passage of time. Zecora did however, have one item in mind.
"In this wilderness there are many creatures
of which you could study and their features,
But there is a flower in this land,
which may comply with your demand.
Twilight clopped her front hooves together excitedly, "Ohh, a magical flower? What does it look like? Where does it grow? How big are…"
"On this track we should not delay, " interrupted Zecora abruptly,
"In my home I'll hear what you have to say."
With that, Zecora started to walk along the path leading to her house. Twilight nodded sheepishly as Zecora walked past her, following her after she was several steps in front of Twilight.
When they had reached the safety of Zecora's hut, Zecora led Twilight inside and excused herself momentarily. Twilight took this opportunity to look around. The strangeness of the masks on Zecora's wall never failed to catch her attention, she often wondered how Zecora had come into them. Her line of thought was cut short when bagless Zecora returned. Twilight, getting the vibe Zecora was articulating herself for an explanation, watched her patiently until she was ready to speak.
"Twilight, my friend, the flower you will seek
fits your requirements of a magical mystique." began Zecora,
"Petals dark like cold winters night
but shimmer with bright gleams of white.
They twinkle as the starry sky
and these stars flow off them, as if they cry.
A brilliant midnight brought into day
but when the sun is down they fade away.
To shine after dusk, they have forsworn
and wait in the earth until next morn.
They try, it seems, with all their might
to bring the everlasting night.
Beyond the Sisters' Castle gate,
travel north and travel straight.
Until you see the Weeping Tree,
then eastward bound you'll surely be.
Advance this way and you shall reach
a garden of whose edge you'll breach.
In this garden, where time forgoes,
it is there the dark Moonflower grows."
Twilight sat stunned at Zecora's speech, never before had she heard of any flower as sublime as the Moonflower and if Zecora's description of it held true, she doubted she ever would.
Twilight thanked Zecora quietly and with her imagination running wild at the thought of this new discovery. Slowly, she walked out of the shaman's hut into the Everfree.
A/N
So yeah, there you are. I'm not a writer and this is my first fic/creative writing ever so you can call me out on the terrible bits if you want. OOC characters, silly dialogue those sort of things. I most likely will be unable to fix OOC-ness to some degree for several reasons, one of which is experience, another is I lack the magic writing 'touch'. The main reason I started this was the whole "If there are no good books to read, write one yourself". I wanted to read Jekyll and Hyde ponies but I couldn't really find anything so I started one myself. I realise that this fic may be quite verbose but them's the breaks. I might try and trim down the figurative fat if it gets too bad but we'll see how we go.
Speaking about playing things by ear, I have a reasonable idea of where this fic is going but it may take a while to get there due to aforementioned verboseness and I highly doubt (read: guarantee) that I will not be producing a chapter a week like some authors. I have uni which takes up a sizeable portion of my time and I generally write slowly on everything. It may take a while for a new chapter. I also never/can't write things sequentially (i.e I wrote the 'breakfast scene' to 'edge of the everfree' in this chapter after writing the 'meeting zecora' which was written after the 'wake up') so that also contributes to slowness. On that note, by writing non sequentially, the flow of the story may be... odd in some places. Point them out if you feel that way and I'll see how I go improving it.
I'm basing the Moonflowers in my story loosely off a well written Twilestia: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/26525/Among-the-Moonflowers by butterscotchsundae. They have a similar concept but not the same.
Additionally, Australian = British spelling. Sorry.