//------------------------------//
// A Short Intermission With Spike 
// Story: Battle Magic 
// by Gaekub 
//------------------------------//

	"This is soooooo boring," Rainbow Dash moaned, rolling on to her back and kicking her legs. The bush she was lying in rustled with the movement of her legs. "I need to fly."

"Dashie, shhhh!" Pinkie said from the bush next to her. "She'll hear you!"

"Ah think she'll probably see you first," Applejack pointed out, also crouched in the bush. "I mean, no offense Pinkie, but..."

"What!?" Pinkie said, indignant. "I'm wearing camouflage!"

Pinkie was indeed wearing camouflage, made specifically to hide in the bush opposite the library. It was detailed, painted in a near-professional pattern, and bright pink. When it had been pointed out to her that this probably would not mesh well with the green bush, she had thoroughly considered it, and then painted the bush bright pink. While the result was not what would be called stealthy, the four other ponies with her had to admit she was difficult to pick out from the fluorescent foliage.

"Yes, do you have any idea when Twilight is supposed to be leaving?" Rarity asked. She had refused to enter the bush with the others, and leaned against a nearby wall. "We've been waiting for over an hour."

Rainbow Dash sat straight up. "Uh-oh. An hour?" Her wings buzzed into action, and she lifted from the bush, hovering a few feet overhead. "I gotta go. I'll be back later,"

"Dashie!" Pinkie whined. "You can't go! You're supposed to follow Twi when she leaves!"

"Sorry Pinks. I gotta go redirect a cold front, unless you want winter to come three months early." With that, the pegasus zoomed towards the north, a rainbow trail behind her.

"Ah should go too," Applejack said, standing up. "There's things on the farm that need doing."

"If you figure out where she's been going, come and tell me, will you darling?" Rarity said with a smile, walking away next to the earth pony.

Pinkie frowned. "Well, at least I've still got you-" she said, turning only to find that Fluttershy had vanished at some point in the last ten minutes. "Well fine!" Pinkie said in a huff. "I'll just keep watch all by myself!"




"Alright, remember to pick up Zecora," Spike said, ushering Twilight to the carriage that had landed in front of the library.

"I will Spike," Twilight said, exasperated. "I'm not going to forget; she's the whole reason I hired the carriage."

Spike through up his hands. "Alright, alright, sorry." He paused on the path, and leaned over to look past the pegasus carriage. "...Why is that bush pink?" he asked.

Twilight trotted over to follow his gaze. "I... don't know." She squinted. "Is Pinkie sleeping in it?"

"Oh. Well, that explains it," Spike said, dismissing the issue. "Alright, I'll see you in a few days. And uh..." Spike paused and and rubbed one scaly arm bashfully. "Be careful."

"I always am," Twilight smiled back before banging on the side of the carriage. "Alright, ready to go!"

The pegasus in front snorted and galloped away, taking off once they'd gathered a little speed. Spike spared one more look for the pink shrubbery, shrugged, and went back inside.




Pinkie woke up from her nap to the sound of trotting hooves and flapping wings. She pried open sleepy eyes and saw the carriage lifting into the air. "DASHIE!" she yelled in a hoarse whisper. "THE CARRIAGE IS-" she turned, and found the spot next to her full of greenery and nothing else.

Her face fell. "Aww..." she whispered, and looked up at the receding carriage. She looked back down at the library, and spotted a scaly tail slipping in through the door. An evil grin slipped across her face, and she twisted a leaf in front of her face as if it was a mustache.

"Yyyes... time for plan B," she whispered, and then vanished in a pink blur.




Spike opened the door and stepped out backwards, pulling the broom after him. He swept the accumulated pile of dust into the yard, and turned away from the library for a quick breather. The bush directly across was still pink, but he couldn't spot the outline of a pony nesting in it anymore. More interesting was the sparkle his sharp eyes noticed on the road nearby.

He leaned the broom against the door jamb and trotted over to the glimmer. He picked up the source to find it was a small shard of sapphire. Spike glanced around the road, but there was nopony in sight. He shrugged and popped the morsel in his mouth.

He was about to head back to the library, when another sparkle caught his eye. He trotted even farther from the library, and found a ruby shard. He threw that into his mouth, and looked around for a another.

He was not disappointing. Shard after shard made themselves known, and he followed the road away from the library and into town. The trail of gems wound through the streets, and Spike only realized where it had lead him when he stepped through the front door of Sugarcube Corner.

On the counter, as if it had been placed for him, was a sapphire cupcake. Light glinted off the many gems placed in frosting, and for a moment Spike felt as if a spotlight had been aimed at the treat.

It took him a moment longer to realize that it in fact had been. Most of the lights in the bakery were off, and somepony had arranged a lamp so that it was in fact shining a pool of light directly on the cupcake.

Spike was not generally paranoid, but something about this felt off. "Is anypony there?" he asked, addressing the dark corners of the room.

"No," came the reply. The voice was raspy, but somehow familiar.

"Pinkie?"

"What? No-" Pinkie said in her regular bright voice before she caught herself. "No," she continued in the disguised rasp. "I'm not Pinkie. Who's Pinkie? Eat the cupcake."

Spike opened his mouth to respond, but paused. Pinkie was Pinkie, there wasn't much point asking questions. He shrugged and walked over to the counter. After inspecting the plate for tripwires and the ceiling for nets, he took the confectionery off the table. It only took him two bites to eat, his lizard jaw unhinging wider than the average pony's.

"How was it?" Pinkie asked from the shadows, still speaking in growls.

"Really good," Spike answered, licking frosting off his claws. "Thanks Pink-" he started, and then collapsed onto the floor.

Pinkie stepped out of the shadows. Her hair lay down in straight lines, unlike its usual puffs, and she smiled sinisterly. "Yyyyesss... yyyesss... All according to plan," she whispered. "Soon I will have your secrets."




Spike awoke groggily, eyes opening to reveal a bright light directly in front of his face. He closed them again and instinctively tried to bring up his claws to cover his face, but found them immobile. He squinted down at his wrists, and saw lines of rope bounding his claws to the arms of the chair he sat in.

Pinkie stepped out of the darkness, her hair hanging over her eyes. "Hello Spike," she said quietly.

"Pinkie?" Spike asked, blinking in surprise at the sight of her straight hair. The last time he'd seen her straight hair, it had been after he told her that nopony liked her. He had gotten yelled at for that. "Did you... drug me?"

Pinkie giggled. "Just a little." She grabbed the lamp shining into Spike's eyes, and brought it even closer. The baby dragon shied away from the burning light. "Now you're going to answer some questions for me."

"L-like what?" Spike stuttered.

"Where's Twilight going every couple of weeks? What's she up to?" Pinkie asked loudly. "What's her angel!?"

"I can't tell- did you just say 'what's her angel'?" Spike asked. "Did you mean angle?"

"...Maybe!" Pinkie yelled back.

"Pinkie?" The basement door opened, shining a slice of light across the room and letting Mrs Cake's voice in. "Do you have friends down there?"

"Just Spike!" Pinkie called back up. "I'm interrogating him!"

"Alright," Mrs Cake said, unfazed. "Your hair's down dear, are you feeling alright?"

"Oh! Yes." Pinkie shook her head violently, and pink curls returned with a loud 'poomph'. "I just took a shower."

"Well, I'm going to need your help up here soon, so..."

Spike stopped listening to the conversation when he felt something furry climbing up his tail. He craned his neck back to spot Angel the bunny on his shoulder. "Oh... hey," Spike said. He hadn't trusted the small white creature since he'd spent a day cleaning up after his antics. "Here to laugh at me?"

The rabbit shook its head and hopped down to his wrist. With a few swift bites, the ropes binding Spike's left arm were severed. The claws on the dragon's left arm made short work of the rope on the right arm, and he was free.

"BUT I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF AN INTERROGATION!" Pinkie was yelling up the stairs.

Spike shook his head and looked for another way out. An open basement window sat above him, and his former seat would make a perfect ladder. In a few moments, he was back out in the sunlight.

"Alright, well... thanks," Spike said to the small bunny. He started to walk away, but then felt a hammering on his ankle. He turned and looked down to see the Angel pounding his hind foot against Spike's leg.

Angel stopped and pointed at the ground, indicating Spike shouldn't move, and then ran off around the corner.

A few moments later, Spike heard a familiar voice drifting around the corner. "Oh, I don't know," the voice said. "I don't want to bother him... I should wait to ask."

Spike walked over and looked around the corner. "Fluttershy?" he asked. "Did you want to ask me something?"

"Oh... no," Fluttershy said, looking at the ground. Angel looked back up at her, anger on his tiny face. "I mean yes."

"Okay... but if it's about where Twilight's been going, I promised I wouldn't say anything."

"Oh, okay. Sorry to bother you." Fluttershy started to turn away, but a sudden tug on her long pink hair forced her face back towards him. "Oh, right... I was supposed to say that you had to tell me, because I saved you from Pinkie."

"Who told you to say that?" Spike asked, confused.

"Pinkie. She said it's part of her master plan," Fluttershy answered, Angel's desperate negative motions going unnoticed until after she had said the name. "Oh... I don't think I was supposed to tell you that part..."

Spike slapped one claw over his scaled face. "This is going to be a bad day..."




The path back to the library was surprisingly long. Spike hadn't remembered walking that far, but apparently he'd been wrapped up in his gem hunting enough to not notice. The trail led him past Rarity's boutique, and Spike was able to spare a few moments to watch the building, as always.

However, today, he was spotted. Rarity's head popped out of the front window. "Oh Spiii-iiike!" she called. "May I borrow you for a moment?"

"Of course Rarity!" Spike scampered up the front path, eager to assist the unicorn in any way he could. "What can I do for you?"

"I just need a favor," Rarity said. "Come in, the door's open." She disappeared back into the window and the curtains closed after her.

Spike took a deep breath and smoothed the spines on his head down. The rigid scales immediately sprung back up again of course, but the simple act helped him calm down. He opened the door. "Well, Rarity, what can I-"

The room Spike stepped into was not the room he expected. Rarity's boutique was usually open, bright, and airy. The room he stepped into, while clearly the same physical place, could not be more different. Curtains over the windows blocked all but the smallest trace of sunlight from entering, but for some reason Rarity had not lit a single lamp. As a result, the room was dark and smouldering with a heat even Spike could feel.

"Is your radiator brok-"  he started, and then nearly bit his tongue as the door slammed behind him. He spun in place, and picked out Rarity's outline as his eyes adjusted to the dark. "Is everything okay?"

"We're friends, aren't we Spike?" Rarity asked, stepping towards him with a faintly predatory smile.

Spike sighed. "Is this part of Pinkie's 'master plan'?" he asked. "I promised I wouldn't-"

Rarity interrupted him by placing a hoof on his forehead and forcing him back onto his tail. "Answer the question Spike," she ordered.

"I-yes. Of course. Sorry," he stuttered.

"And friends are honest with each other, aren't they?" she prompted, stepping even closer. "Especially when they're as close as we are."

"I-I-I..." Spike's head felt like it was filling with pink fog. He couldn't remember what he had just been saying. "Yes," he finally managed to answer.

"So where's Twilight been going?" Rarity asked. "I've been so curious," she pouted.

A little voice in the back of his head was finally silenced, drowned out by the rest of his mind. When he had promised not to tell, surely Twilight hadn't meant Rarity. How could she have? "She's been doing-"

"Incoming!"

The spines on the side of Spike's head perked up. "Did you just hear something?"

"No," Rarity said, annoyance tainting her sugar-sweet tones. "Now, what were you saying?"

"It sounded like somepony yelling 'incoming'," Spike murmured.

"Spike, it doesn't- incoming? Incoming!?" Rarity fairly shrieked. She leaped away from Spike, allowing him to get back up on his stubby legs. "Rainbow Dash, don't you do it! Don't you dare!" the white mare was screaming, seemingly at the walls.

A moment later, the quiet darkness of the room was broken with a burst of sunlight and the sound of shattering glass. A rainbow blur rocketed in through a window, jet stream ripping the curtains from the walls. A shower of broken glass rained down on the two in the room, and they both shied away and covered their faces.

As Spike was bringing his claws back down from the reflexive action, he felt a pair of hooves hook under his armpits. Before he had a chance to protest, the legs lifted him off the ground and carried him towards the towards a window on the opposite side of the room.

Another shattered pane of glass later, and Spike found himself accelerating up into the sky. Rarity's berating voice was left behind in a matter of seconds, leaving only the whistling of the wind.

"Hey Spike," a familiar voice said from behind his left ear. "How's things?"

"Let me guess," Spike answered wearily. "I'm supposed to tell you where Twilight's been going, and it's all part of Pinkie's master plan."

"Nah, this is a whole other thing I've got going on," Rainbow Dash replied, still flying nearly vertically with the baby dragon. "Pinkie wouldn't let me be in her plan. Said I was 'unstable' and 'unpredictable'. Hmph. Like she's one to talk."

"Oh." Spike paused. "Then why did you save me from Rarity?"

"Save you?" Dash asked. "What was she doing to you?"

"Well if you're not trying to find out about Twilight, and you weren't trying to save me, why did you grab me!?" Spike asked, exasperated. "...And why are we going up so high?" He had suddenly become aware that it was noticeably cold this high up, and he was breathing heavily.

Rainbow Dash finally stopped their ascent, and flipped Spike around to face her. Her wings flapped lazily, holding them both in an easy hover. "Oh, sorry. I am trying to find out about Twilight. I'm just not part of Pinkie's thing." She grinned. "You want to tell me?"

"No."

The grin only became wider. "Alright." She pulled him in close for a moment so she could gesture sweepingly with one hoof. "Welcome, Spike, to the upper atmosphere! About three and a half miles straight up."

Dots began to swim in front of Spike's eyes. "Rainbow... Rainbow I can't breath," he panted.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sorry. I spend so much time up here, I forgot that there's not really enough air for you non-flyers."

"I want... to go... back down..." Spike said, barely managing to squeeze out the words.

"Well, see, thing about that is, I'm fine up here. Don't really have a reason to go back down. Course, if I were to learn something shocking, like, say, what's up with Twilight, then I'd have a reason to head back down to the ground."

"I'll... pass out... first..." Spike pointed out. "Then you'll have... to take me down..."

"True, true," Rainbow Dash admitted. "Of course, the other thing is, even I'm not totally used to this altitude. Heck, my legs might just... give out at any moment, and down you'd go."

Spike narrowed his eyes, glaring past the swimming dots at the pegasus's grinning face. "You wouldn't da-"

Rainbow Dash dropped him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRE!" Spike screamed as he plummeted towards the ground.

The ripping winds tore the sound of his own screams from Spike's ears and forced his eyes closed. With both sight and sound taken from him, and nothing but air to touch, he was left with no sensation but an incredible feeling of speed.

"HEY LITTLE BUDDY, HOW YA FEELING?" a voice screamed from beside him.

Spike jerked his head to the side and forced his eyes open. Rainbow Dash was free-falling calmly beside him, wings folded at her sides, and inexplicable pair of sunglasses placed on her nose.

"RAINBOW PLEASE OH NO PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME!" Spike gibbered in terror.

Rainbow Dash reached up (or was it down?)  with one hoof and adjusted the glasses on her muzzle to expose her eyes. "WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?"

"ANYTHING!" Spike screamed. "I'LL TELL YOU ANYTHING! EVERYTHING I KNOW!"

Rainbow considered the offer. "PROMISE?" she asked.

"YES!!"

"...DEAL!" Rainbow spun towards Spike and grabbed him in her hooves. Her wings flared, sending the pair into a long, shallow curve until their speed dissipated and Rainbow returned to an easy hover.

Spike panted, desperately trying to catch his breath. When felt that he could speak again, he turned up to face the pegasus. "You... you wouldn't have really let me fall, would you?"

"Nah. Twilight'd kill me," Rainbow Dash answered breezily. "Besides, I'm getting kinda fond of you myself." Her face hardened. "Of course, I'll be a lot less fond of you if you back out on our deal."

Spike flinched and glanced down at the ground, still over a mile away by his estimation. He sighed. "Alright,  so, here's the thing about Twilight-"

"Hey, look at that!"

Rainbow craned her neck to check behind her. "Look at what?" she asked.

Spike felt a second pair of hooves slip under his arms and lift him out of Rainbow's grasp. By the time Rainbow looked back around, he and his savior were a hundred feet down and accelerating.

Spike felt the hooves release him, and he slowly spun in midair to find a familiar pair of baby-blue eyes. "Oh, hey Pinkie," he said. "Umm... how did you get up here?"

"Trampoline!" Pinkie said, spreadeagled and horizontal with her pink mane streaming up behind her.

"Is... that your plan for getting us back down?" Spike asked, looking down at the black speck far below them that he presumed was the trampoline.

Pinkie shook her head. "No, silly! Gravity gets us back down!" She giggled. "The trampoline keeps us from dying!"

Spike considered the possibility. He knew a fall from this height would shatter a trampoline like matchsticks. However, he also knew that the rules of physics Twilight had so studiously taught him tended to bend in Pinkie's presence.

"Last one down's a splattered egg!" Pinkie cried joyously, before clapping her hooves to her side, tilting into a dive, and accelerating past Spike.

The dragon shrugged, copied her movement, and shot after her. He only managed to catch up  when they were considerably closer to the ground and she spread her legs again to slow down.

Spike shot out his limbs to slow to her speed, and ended up face-to-face with a pair of aviator goggles.

"This is your captain speaking," Pinkie said, somehow introducing a static-y crackle into her voice. "We're coming in for a landing, so please, set your seats into the full upright position, keep all arms and legs inside the ride, and watch for the closing doors. Bing-boom!"

The trampoline rose up to meet them, faster than Spike could have thought possible. Pinkie's height allowed her to land first, pulling the elastic into a deep cone. It was only when Spike landed on the side of this cone that both realized the flaw in Pinkie's plan.

When the pink pony shot straight back up, the purple dragon rocketed off at a forty-five degree angle, arcing through the air in a perfect parabola.

Pinkie placed one hoof over her eyes, watching the  lizard's trajectory. She had just managed to reach both a conclusion about Spike's destination and the apex of her own flight when Rainbow caught her from behind.

"Hey, Pinkie, that was not-"

"To Sweet Apple Acres Dashie!" Pinkie interrupted. "And step on it!"




CRACK!

Applejack's hooves slammed into the tree behind her, and an assortment of apples fell into the baskets placed on the ground. She trotted over to the next tree, raised her back hooves, and...

CRACK!

Her ears perked up. The apples were cascading down to the ground, but she hadn't kicked out this time. The farmer pony turned to find a scaled purple head sticking out through the splintered trunk of the apple tree behind her.

"Spike?" she asked, trotting around the trunk to see a pair of clawed feet sticking out the other side. "Now how in the hay did ya manage this?" she asked, scratching her head.

"Twilight's a secret," Spike mumbled, eyes unfocused. "You won't get anything out of me with your fancy tree torture."

"I don't want nothin' from ya," Applejack said, rising up onto her back hooves and placing the front two against Spike's scaled rump. "Alright, this might hurt for a sec."

She pushed as hard as she could, and Spike slid free of the wooden prison with a soft scraping sound. He tumbled out the other side of the trunk and landed on his back, staring up at the sky.

"There he is!" a voice yelled from above the treeline, and Rainbow Dash and Pinkie flew down through the branches. The pegasus deposited the earth pony on the ground, and then landed herself.

"Hey AJ," Rainbow Dash said cheerfully.

"Rainbow, this is your doing, isn't it?" Applejack glowered, gesturing to Spike, and then the hole in her apple tree.

"Hey, don't blame me!" Rainbow Dash answered indignantly. "Pinkie's the one who set up the trampoline, I just dropped Spike from a couple miles up."

Applejack's expression only became darker.

"What!? I caught him!"

"It really isn't fair to blame Rainbow Dash," said Rarity, approaching through the trees along with Fluttershy. "It was all Pinkie's plan. Well, up until the entire... tree situation."

"I wasn't part of Pinkie's plan," Rainbow Dash answered. "She said I couldn't be in it, and told me to go home!" She glared at the pink pony.

"Yes, and you reacted exactly as Pinkie said you would," Rarity said with a smile. "Although she didn't mention anything about broken windows."

"Sorry Dashie, but I needed you to save Spike from Rarity, so I could save him from you!" Pinkie said. "Just like Fluttershy saved him from me after I drugged him!"

"You what!?" Applejack interrupted. She looked from pony to pony. "This is about Twilight, ain't it. Have ya'll been tormenting poor Spike all day?"

"...Maybe," Pinkie answered.

"Sort of..." Fluttershy whispered.

"I wouldn't use the word 'tormenting'," Rarity said.

"Pretty much, yeah," said Rainbow Dash.

Applejack sighed and trotted over to Spike's prone form. "You alright hon?" she asked.

Spike sat up slowly, cradling his head in his claws. "I think so..." he grumbled. "My head hurts though."

"Ain't surprising. Might want to go see Zecora when you can," she sat down to get a little closer to Spike's level. "Alright, now, Spike. We know something strange is going with Twilight."

"I Pinkie promised I wouldn't-" Spike began to protest.

Applejack raised a hoof to silence him. "Let me finish. We're her friends, and we're just worried about her. But we respect her privacy, so if you can look me in the eyes, and tell me it's nothin' she needs our help with, and she knows what she's doing, we'll leave the both of you alone." She turned. "Ain't that right girls?"

"You Pinkie promised? Why didn't you just say so?" Pinkie asked.

"...That's what I said..." Fluttershy breathed.

"I suppose I can suppress my curiosity," Rarity said.

"Nope," Rainbow answered. She glanced around at the glares leveled at her, and rolled her eyes. "Oh, alright. Fine."

Spike breathed heavily, and winced as pain sliced through his skull. "She's... not in trouble, or anything. She said she'll tell you all eventually."

"Well that's good enough for me," Applejack said, answered by a chorus of positive answers. "See Spike? Everything's fine."

"Thanks Big Mac," Spike mumbled. "But it's really Applejack I should talk to." He wiped one claw across his nose, and it came away red with blood. "I'm leaking strawberry..." he said, confused.

Applejack whistled. "Alright, time for the hospital."