At that moment she had a face that was a strange mixture of confusion, surprise and joy, but before she could voice any thoughts, the voice spoke again.
’Yes, Twilight, the spell worked, but you must calm down.’
Taking some deep breaths she attempted to, at the least, look calm. She spoke quiet enough as to not be heard through the door “You’re right. Calming down is important.” Taking another deep breath, she began to think a little clearer.
“First things first, I need to calm down Spike.”
Before she could make it to the door, the voice spoke again.
’You should put me away first. That way, when you open the door, he won’t have anything extra to ask questions about’ Letting the thought sink in Twilights’ head for a moment the voice continued. ’Is the closet empty?’
This time the unicorn took action. After quickly putting the ponnequin inside the empty closet she smoothed her mane out and took a couple deep breaths. ‘Alright. Let’s do this.’
As calmly as she could, she opened the door to her distraught assistant. Spike then launched himself at her leg, almost taking her out in the process.
“Whoa, Spike. What’s the matter? Twilight asked while quickly regaining her balance.
“Twilight, do you know how long you’ve been up here?” He asked, while regaining his calm
“I don’t know exactly. Maybe a couple of hours?” Twilight asked, wondering where this was going.
“Twilight. You’ve been up here for eight hours, if not more!”
“WHAT?! How could I have been up here for that long?” She began thinking of all the possible things that could have resulted in this much lost time and realized quickly that it was likely due to the exhaustion, the spell put on her.’But to sleep for eight hours. Wow. Didn’t see that coming.’
“Yeah. I woke up this morning to the noise of something hitting the floor. Then, I remembered you saying that you would be working on some project or experiment today, so I didn’t really think much of it. Then, I went down stairs to make breakfast and you didn’t come down. I even knocked on the door.”
’Wow. I was out cold, wasn’t I? Usually just the smell of his cooking wakes me up’ she thought, while Spike continued.
“But you still didn’t answer me. So I figured you were just really into it. I went downstairs, did my chores and looked after the library, but when I noticed that eight hours had passed since I got up, I started to get really worried. So, I came up here and tried knocking, but there was still no answer so then, I knocked harder and started calling your name and, well…Here we are.” Spike finished up his explanation with a large outward sigh. “I was really worried, you know?”
“I’m so sorry Spike” She said, nuzzling the worried baby dragon, “I guess I was a lot more out of it than I thought” At that moment, her body decided to remind her of what she had missed throughout the day with a loud grumble, which quickly lead to a blush of embarrassment. “Heh. What do you say we have a big lunch then?” Spike proceeded to jump at the offer, and rush downstairs with a smile while being followed by a sluggish Twilight, ‘I swear if dragons got Cutie Marks his would be for cooking.’
Sitting down at the table, both of them were currently eating although, Twilight, however, was eating as though starved. She did this as respectfully as possible, with only a few crumbs here and there, when Spikes curiosity finally got the better of him.
“So, what were you doing up there anyway?” This prompted a choking fit from Twilight due to the suddenness of the question, which in turn, prompted Spike to hurry to try and help, only to be stopped by a raised hoof signifying that she was ok.
After hacking a little more, Twilight finally got herself under control enough to speak. “I’m sorry about that Spike. Now, what were you saying?”
“Geez Twi, maybe you should eat a bit slower” Spike said chuckling, which only earned him a roll of the eyes from her. “Anyway, I was wondering, what it was that you were doing that kept you up there for so long. I mean, come on. Over eight hours without a word? That’s a long time for you, even when you’re reading something that you find interesting, you take a food break after a little while.”
This started to panic Twilight a little, since she didn’t really want to lie to her number one assistant, but, she also absolutely didn’t want to say anything about what she was doing in that room. In the end, she figured out how to not do either.
“I’m sorry Spike, but, it’s really personal to me so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t ask any more about it.” Spike looked a bit surprised by this and it showed in the confusion on his face. “I really am sorry.” It wasn’t a lie but it was still hard to do. ‘He was worrying so much, and I won’t even tell him what it was about. Ugh. I feel terrible. Please just let it go Spike. Please, please, pl-’
“Ok, I get it.”
‘Huh?’ Which was eloquently followed up with “Huh?” Even in retrospect she still couldn't find better words for a reaction.
“It’s a mare thing, isn’t it? Rarity’s told me that, if it’s a mare thing, not only do I not need to know, but I wouldn’t want to know.” Spike sat there with a face that told Twilight he thought he’d figured it all out.
‘If that’s what he thinks, I’m not going to be the one to correct him.’ She went around the table towards him and gave him a hug. “Thanks Spike. I’ll be working on it for the rest of the day though, so, you can have the rest of the day off.” The look on his face was near priceless.
“Seriously?! Awesome! Alright Twi, I’ll see you later!” He yelled as he made his way towards the door with Twilight yelling in his wake.
“Just be back in time for dinner at ten!” and with a wave of commitment to the schedule, he was gone.
“Rarity really earned those bits for teaching him that.” She made a mental note to herself to do something special for her friend while she made her way back upstairs to the guest room.