//------------------------------// // The City of Queens // Story: Friendship is Equal to or Greater than Magic // by Fanon Canon //------------------------------// "Wakey Wakey! Life's at staky!" An eccentric but all the more familiar voice pulled Spike out of his slumber. Twilight Sparkle towered over her little dragon assistant, kindly waiting for him to get up on his own strength. But for some reason that was proving difficult right about now, as Spike grumbled and moaned and did his best to return to the comforts of his dreamland. "Ah... five minutes." He groaned in her general direction whilst keeping his eyes firmly shut and attempting to drift off. Twilight could understand that after all the work her little dragon had done the previous day, that he might be entitled to a bit of a lie in. But she found herself in too much of a pepperly mood to simply wait around for him to rise, she had barely caught some sleep herself, the excitement providing all the energy she needed. But she did end up waiting five more minutes regardless, simply standing on the spot staring at the sleeping Spike in anticipation. If he knew she was watching him like this, he probably would have felt discomfort. "Five minutes gone now!" She remarked impatiently. All he did was simply continued his slumber undisturbed. Now she really couldn't bare the prospect of waiting any further. Spike was going to get out of bed and be her number one assistant if he wanted to or not. "Spike." Twilight began calmly. "Do I have to use magic to get you up?" The moment the last syllable had left her mouth, the little dragon shot out of bed, fully wide awake and ready for whatever the day held for the two of them. "No Ma'am." He hastily exclaimed. "Good." She replied. "Now get ready, we're off to Canterlot remember?" "How could I forget?" The little dragon remarked rhetorically. Spike wasted no time in helping himself to a nice healthy breakfast of gemstones. For such a limited variety of food selection to chose from, he didn't really have anything to complain about. As he sat and ate, he realised that not even a full twenty four hours had past since Twilight had cast the spell on him. The spell, huh? He didn't have a good memory in the best of times, but he could practically recount every single thing that had happened the previous day in it's entirety, for there was nothing at all that made him think of a limited selection in the number of interactions. And now they were going off to Canterlot to do it all again. Well that was what Twilight had in mind anyway. Did she even have a plan, or was all this just going along to see where it would lead them. And what would the Princess think about all of this? Well Spike didn't have the time to ponder that particular prospect yet, as Twilight returned to the room, a harness with her usual equipment bag fastened to her back. "All set?" She asked eagerly. "Almost." Spike replied, before finishing up, doing all the procedures he would before going out (which he had forgotten to do the previous day) before the pair left for the train station. "Twilight can I ask you something?" Spike asked innocently as the train rolled through the countryside for the capital. "Go ahead." The purple unicorn responded calmly. "Why are we doing all this?" He asked innocently. "Why?" Twilight exclaimed, turning to face the little dragon. "Why why why? Why not! Why the hay not?!" Spike may have expressed some concern at the alarming swings in Twilight's mood, but after all the ponies he was already concerned about, he didn't feel like it would make much of a difference. "Don't tell me you've forgotten already?" He pressed her. "Forgotten, forgotten? Twilight Sparkle doesn't know the meaning of the word forgotten. I think I did in the past, but I can't quite recall it anymore." She recited, as if talking to herself. "It's all about the wisdom." "Right." Spike replied simply. "And what is the point of all this wisdom?" "Why its gonna make me wise." She remarked childishly. "And what's going to happen after that?" The dragon continued. "Well I'll be wise, wise beyond all my years, haven't we been already this?" Twilight said with impatience. "And that's all a good thing?" Spike pressed on. "Well of course it is, dummy!" Twilight proclaimed proudly. "What other unicorn could have pulled off something like this, huh?" "But aren't you worried something bad might come out of it?" Spike asked with concern. "Something bad, something bad?!" The eccentricity rising in Twilight's tone. "Well that doesn't sound like the voice of faith from my number one assistant. Besides if something bad did come out of it, I assure you we wouldn't be affected by it." "How's that?" He asked curiously. "Well because." Twilight started to explain. "Because it would be personal to the pony that it came from, and they'd probably resolve it pretty snappy too, hardly something for us to be concerned about." "So what you're saying." Spike did his best to understand. "Is that there's no chance of something really big happening, right?" "No chance." She replied optimistically. Somehow, Spike had a hard time trying to match her confident tone... At last the train pulled into Canterlot station. Spike briefly recalled the last time he had been here, and was grateful for how nice the place looked without the huge purple force field surrounding it and the lack of a thick presence of guards. Though with the circumstances they now faced with the spell looming over them all, he wasn't sure if the absence was a good thing. Still, it wasn't like they were about to have a repeat of what had happened last time, that was a comforting thought at least. But if the spell proved to be more trouble than Spike was imagining it to be, well... "Ahh Canterlot." Twilight remarked with fond nostalgia at the sight. "My home away from home." "Weren't you born here?" Spike remarked. "Okay." She replied. "So it's my home away from home away from home then." "Right." Spike repeated. "So what's the plan, then?" "Plan?" Twilight mused to herself. "Oh yes a plan. Well I suggest we split up." "Eww!" Spike shuddered to himself. "That'd be messy." "Not like that." Twilight reminded him. "I mean you go one way, I go the other. We simply must see the Princess, but there's a whole lot of other ponies around here first." "So, just the same as yesterday, right?" Spike grumbled. "Yes that's right." She replied merrily. Inside, Spike was grumbling further at the thought of all the more walking and talking he would have to be doing, but at this stage, he just had to go with it. "Wait a second." He was suddenly reminded. "I am still under this spell?" "Oh you don't have to worry about that little old thing." Twilight replied. "Its spread far and wide now, completely redundant to have you as a host anymore." "Oh okay." He said casually, before proper concern took him. "Wait what do you mean by that?" "What I mean." The unicorn explained irritable. "Is that after all your little interactions yesterday, the spell decided it was no longer in the mood to be tied to one slow poke dragon and took off, far and wide to all four corners of Equestria." "So it's a sentient spell?" He asked with alarm. "Yeah that's about right." She replied, heedless of any possible risks associated with a sentient spell. "Anyway, gotta dash now, don't you follow me." And with that, Twilight took off without so much as a goodbye or a good luck, leaving the dragon there. Never before had he seen her act with such carelessness. A sentient spell? That was bound to be cause for some concern for the Twilight he was familiar with, but no, not this one it seemed. And she was so confident that nothing bad was going to come out of this. Nothing at all? It suddenly dawned on him that he hadn't asked her if she herself was perhaps under its effects, though it didn't seem too much of a surprise if she was. "Here we go again." He simply said to himself, before picking up the pace and heading off into the streets of Canterlot, ready to mingle once again.