"Oh come on, do it for completion's sake! You got the rest of the book down, and you just know it'll bug you if you don't do the last one!" He said, switching tactics.

"Liar." He said with a smirk. "Just imagine it, months, maybe years from now when you check over your Finished Books and Completed Magical Exercises List you'll never be able to check off that one entry. The one book in the big big list that you never finished. The checkbox will be staring at you, glaringly empty compared to it's-mmph!" He stopped talking when I telekinetically shut his mouth.

"Yes!" He cheered and took a few steps back, looking at me expectantly. I rolled my eyes and telekinetically grabbed a copy of 25 transmogrifications for the socially awkward Unicorn: How use transmogrification to break the ice and impress your fellows off the shelf where a box of them was waiting to be rotated into my general stock and flipped to the last page before the index. It was a simple spell really, but applying it to Spike's unique biology would present some interesting challenges. Granted, nothing I hadn't done before, but I'd never exactly attempted to do much with hair follicles aside from the memorable time my brother accidentally dissolved half his coat when he tried to dye himself a different color with magic. Good times. Regardless, a few seconds of running through the calculations and a double check involving actual paper and a quill and I was ready to give it a shot.

"Alright, here we go. Now hold still." I focused on his muzzle and formulated the spell carefully, being careful not to charge it too much lest any errant energy seep out and cause unintended side effects, and only when I was absolutely sure I had it right did I let fly. Light flew from my horn and impacted Spike's face. I blinked from the unexpected luminosity of the spell and when I opened my eyes Spike was practically bouncing in place, admiring his new mustache.

"Ha ha! You did it! Growing magic!" He crowed, twirling his newfound facial foliage.

"Spike, I've been able to do growing magic for years now. How do you think I passed my Agricultural Science courses?" I found myself without an audience as Spike was lost in his own little world, still fiddling with the moustache and muttering about Rarity. I sighed and facehoofed. Thank Celestia Rarity doesn't encourage him. "Hey, Equestria to Spike, Equestria to Spike, do you read, spacepony?"

Still no answer. Fine, two can play at that game. I smirked and enjoyed his indignant squawk when I reversed the spell and perma-shaved him.

"Well, you shouldn't have ignored me. Besides, you know what they say," I said back with a puckish giggle that Celestia would have been proud of. "The good Dusk giveth, and the good Dusk taketh away. So there." Then I stuck my tongue out at him like the mature adult that I am.

"Hey Dusk! There's a...what the hay?" She froze as she took in the sight of me and Spike sticking our tongues out at each other like four year olds. Then there was a long moment of awkward silence as Spike and I both blushed and tried to salvage a semblance of dignity. Fortunately, for once Rainbow's inability to not laugh at anything immature or puerile was superseded by her apparent haste. "Nevermind, come on! We gotta go!"

"Go to wha-hey!" I squeaked as Rainbow grabbed me and started pulling me out of my office. Spike followed out of habit, though he looked just as confused as I was. "Rainbow! What have I said about touching?"

"Fancy unicorn sissy stuff." She said. Translation: I didn't listen to you because I thought it was a wimpy excuse or you got technical. "Come on! There's a new show in town you gotta see!"

"Wait, by show do you mean a show show or that thing you tried to go get me and Applejack to go-"

"No! Not that kinda show, geez, I wouldn't bring Spike to something like that. At least not until he comes of age."

"Comes of age for what?" Spike asked, intrigued in the way children are when they hear about stuff they shouldn't know about yet.

"Tell you later." I said, trying not to blush at the memory of Rainbow's idea of friendly bonding time. Honestly, I hadn't even known there was a bar like that in Ponyville. "Now what the hay is going on Rainbow, and stop pulling me, I told you I have a sensitive coat." I tugged myself free and levitated Spike onto his usual spot on my back, where he settled in quite comfortably. "And besides, I can't exactly leave the library unattended."

"Dusk. The Library is closed. It's not like it's going to run away." She snorted, indicating the prominent 'closed' sign in the window.

Ever since the second vandalism incident the local contingent of wangsty teens decided to embark on their own crusade against me and my totalitarian ways. Well, they tried anyway. The latest and greatest incident, the one that necessitated the closing, occurred when one of them got uppity enough to earn himself a prolonged application of the shock rod. From there things got a little out of hoof and when everything was said and done I was going to be getting five brand new shelves courtesy of Ponyville's Problem Youth Rehabilitation and Community Service Program. At least this time an off duty guardspony was there to clear me of all wrongdoing and help me keep things in order until his uniformed fellows arrived. Not exactly the sort of subtle maneuvering and machinations that Celestia taught me, but the sudden change from victorious to agonized when the ring leader managed to wrest control of the rod away from me only to get a jolt of my own lightning magic was worth the disappointed look Celestia gave me whenever I used combat magic on a Minor. I hope those scorches leave a mark. Little bastard.

"It's the principal of the thing Rainbow. I am on duty from seven thirty to-" My mouth was suddenly full of cyan hoof.

"Rahnhow." I growled around the hoof, my ears flicking in irritation. I'm getting used to the nonsensical amount of touching most ponies tend to do, but hooves are not intended to go anywhere near mouths unless scrupulously cleaned first, and Rainbow's jagged appendage didn't taste anything like clean.

"Oh, sorry." She had the good grace to look awkward for a nanosecond before jumping right back on her train of thought. "Anyway, come on, you gotta settle a bet for me!"

"What kind of bet, and for pity's sake wash your hooves at some point." I said, spitting grit out of my mouth and shivering at the thought of what it was.

"Well, yesterday this new magic showpony came into town and set up shop. Thunderlane, Derpy, and Blossomforth all went to see it and Thunderlane was all like 'Whoa, it was really cool She did stuff with ropes and flowers and stuff.' and Blossom was like 'It was totally amazing and like the best thing I've ever seen' so then Derpy says-"

"The point, Rainbow, get to the point." As much I enjoy hearing Rainbow try to imitate other ponies, her imitations are always good for a laugh even when her point of view isn't quite as at odds with reality as it usually is, I wanted to get back to work.

"Ugh, fine. I bet that this new pony isn't as all powerful as she says she is and I figured you would be the one to know. Now can we go please? The show's about to start."

"If somepony claims to be 'all powerful' that's the first sign they're not. First off, beings who really are powerful don't go around advertising it unless they want to end running afoul of one of their fellows, second, it's a traveling magic show. Those things run on hyperbole. She's not all-powerful, now can I please go back to work?"

"We haven't been to a show in a while." Spike said, breaking out his begging voice when he saw a chance to ditch work. "It sounds like fun."

"Yeah! See! Spike wants to go!" Rainbow said, pointing unnecessarily at the young dragon on my back. "You don't want to let him down do you?"

"Even if it's bad we can laugh at how stupid it is, just like when Celestia used to watch those soap operas." Spike said, scooting up onto my neck and leaning down into my field of view, giving me his best cute face.

"I really do have to get back to work." I said, hearing the hesitance in my voice and hating myself for it.

"Oh come on, Applejack's going to be there, and so is Rarity, practically everypony will.." Rainbow said with a smirk, knowing she just won.

"Ooh!" Spike said, perking up instantly when Rarity's name was dropped. "Yeah! We haven't gotten together with everyone in a while and this is a good chance! You said yourself you were just doing makework until the new shelves got installed. Let's go Dusk!

Dammit, I have enough problems without worrying about Spike's cross species crush and the potential havoc it could wreak if it grew out of proportion. Rainbow really wasn't helping by provoking it even further, and I was probably going to have to have a word with her in private about not doing it again in the future. Still, Spike would be mopey and whiney for the rest of the day if I didn't give in now. Son of a nag.

"Fine." I sighed, ignoring Spike's cheer and glaring daggers at Rainbow. "Lead the way."

"Heh, I knew you'd come 'round." She said smugly, fluttering up to her usual ponylength above ground and beginning to fly towards the town square. I grumbled something shockingly offensive in Old Equestrian in response.

"Something Celestia got quite cross with me for saying to the Griphon Ambassador once." I replied. Stupid magic show. Stupid Rainbow. Stupid crush. Ugh.

When we got to the town square it wasn't hard to find the show in question, as there was already a large crowd that we had to wade through to get a good view, and by 'we' I mean 'I' since Rainbow just flew above it. When I finally managed to get through the crowd I was able to see the spectacle for what it was. A rather ornate wagon had been set up in the town square. It had a red roof and wheels but the sides were butter yellow sides and had inset windows with hearts in them. Speakers had to have been hidden somewhere on it because almost as soon as I got to the front of the crowd a female voice could be heard blaring from its general direction.

"Come one, come all, come and witness the amazing magic of the great and powerful Trixie!" As the speaker shouted her introduction, trilling her 'r's far more than necessary, a musical sting played and the wagon unfolded to reveal a proper stage with a red curtain, a large teal pinwheel...thing, with attached stars popped out of the top. With that done, there was a very theatrical pop and a cloud of smoke appeared on stage, masking the entrance of the performer herself.

Trixie was...well, a spectacle. Just a shade or two darker than Rainbow Dash with violet eyes, a light grey mane, and wearing a ridiculous purple cape with stars and sparkles galore that was clasped at her throat with an obscenely large faux-diamond. She also wore a fake wizard's hat that matched her gaudy cape. Beside me I heard Rarity murmur something in disgust and couldn't help but chuckle. It was pretty heinous, even for a showpony.

"Watch in awe as the great and powerfu Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony kind!" Right on cue another musical sting played, accompanied by some pyrotechnics launched from what had to be hidden compartments near the stage. Credit where its due, they were very nice fireworks, but I had to wonder how she hadn't burned down the wagon given the sheer volume and how close they got to the curtain.

"My my my, what boasting." Rarity muttered under her breath in a fashion that could be construed as quite unladylike.

"You just don't like her because of her outfit." I muttered back, snickering at her affronted look and Spike's glare. "It's a traveling magic show, of course it's going to be cheesy. Besides, the show hasn't even started yet. She may actually be good." I highly doubted it, but Spike dragged me into this (indirectly) and I felt a need to tweak his tail.

"Even if she is talented there's no call for...this." Rarity sniffed, flipping a hoof at some the rest of Trixie's introductory spiel which I had mostly tuned out.

"Yeah, there's nothin' wrong with bein' talented, but she's showin' it off like a schoolfilly with brand-new ribbons." Applejack joined in. She was looking up on stage with her eyes narrowed.

"Actually she's pretty good." I said, turning my attention back to her act with an appraising eye as she 'conjured magical flora from dimensions unknown' (read: teleported a bunch of trick flowers from back stage) and 'magically transformed them into the rarest of lunar butterflies' (translation: reversed the teleportation and used illusory magic to create some prismatic butterflies). "Granted, she's not moving mountains or splitting atoms, but she's dual casting and she's got to have a good grasp on the higher tiers of light magic to pull off some of those sparkles. That's not half bad."

"Just because one can perform lots of magic doesn't make one better than the rest of us." Rarity said derisively. I was about to ask her if she was indirectly referring to me when Rainbow jumped in.

"Yeah! Especially when you've got me around being better than the rest of us!...uh-" She quickly backpedaled when Applejack gave her a dangerous look. "I mean...yeah! Magic shmagic, boo!"

"Well well well, it seems we have some neighsayers in the audience!" Trixie said, transitioning out of her act with a smoothness that let me know she was well-accustomed to hecklers. Dammit. If one of the Elements of Harmony gets caught doing something stupid, like Rainbow is sadly given to doing, it could be bad. Very bad. Celestia may not be above manipulating the press every now and again, but there are limits, and I'd rather not become a tabloid article, even by proxy. "Who is foalish and ignorant enough to challenge the might of the great and powerful Trixie? Do they not know that they are in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria?"

She said the word 'challenge'. Rainbow Dash is in aural range. This is going to end badly. Horseapples.

"Just who does she think she is?" Rarity said, (understandably) annoyed by the constant bragging.

I clamped his muzzle shut with telekinesis and gave him a glare over my shoulder. I wanted no part of the coming train wreck. Unfortunately, the time it took me to silence Spike was time I couldn't spend curbing Rainbow's impulsive tendencies and I knew the instant I felt the wind and grit of her takeoff that the inevitable disaster was about to start.

"So oh 'great and powerful Trixie', what makes you think you're so awesome anyway?" Rainbow asked, flapping into her personal space. Trixie, for her part, didn't give an inch and instead polished her hoof on her cape and basked in the growing drama, preening in a way that reminded me strongly of Rainbow.

"Why, only the great and powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to banish the dreaded...Ursa Major!" This was accompanied by a burst of fireworks that resoved themselves into the outline of a glowing blue bear, further proof that she had planned for hecklers ahead of time.

Okay, imminent disaster aside, that's hilarious. I clamped down on the belly laugh that welled up deep in my gut even as the pyrotechnic bear proceeded to wave a paw around. Ursas, both major and minor, are sentient masses of pure magic and classified as walking natural disasters. There's no way in tartarus one pony, no matter how powerful, can take one down without outside intervention or a very clever plan. Everypony knows that. The urge to laugh only got stronger as she continued her speech.

"When all hope was lost, and the ponies had no one to turn to, the great and powerful Trixie stepped in, and with her awesome magic, she vanquished the Ursa Major and sent it back to it's cave deep within the Everfree forest!" Trixie is the only pony I've ever met with a more dramatic speaking style than Rarity, and that's saying something. My laughter was abruptly curbed, however, when the crowd proceeded to swallow the line she was feeding them hook, line, and sinker. Some foal near the stage started singing her praises, followed shortly thereafter by the rest of the crowd. Sweet Celestia, do schools even teach critical thinking anymore?

"How do you know? You didn't see it happen." Spike asked the foal in question before I could stop him. Though I had to admit he was voicing my exact thoughts.

"Oh, it's true my enthusiastic admirers! The great and powerful Trixie is the best in Ponyville!" Trixie purred, oozing the sort of narcissism that I normally associated with the old-blood nobility in Canterlot. "And if you don't believe it, I will prove it! I hereby challenge you Ponyvillians! Anything you can do, I can do better! Any takers? Anyone? Or are you conceding that I am the greatest Equine that has ever lived?"

If there was ever a line that was guaranteed to set Rainbow off, it was that one. In all honesty I was surprised she had stayed quiet this long, but if there's something I've learned over the course of my association with Rainbow, it's that if she's bound and determined to do something she's going to do it. Applejack looked pretty fired up too, though I hoped she would be sensible enough not to do anything stupid.

"Please, Dusk, she's unbearable!" Spike lamented in a manner so dramatic I momentarily wondered if he had taken lessons from Rarity at some point. "Ya gotta show her! Ya just gotta!"

"No Spike." I said firmly, ignoring the look he gave me. Unfortunately, Trixie caught his little outburst and she began theatrically scanning the crowd, but keeping her eyes on me the whole time. Son of a nag.

"How about...you?" She asked, pointing a hoof right at me. Then she sashayed down the length of the stage until she was standing almost directly over me and staring me in the eyes. "Well? Is there anything you can do that the great and powerful Trixie can't?"

Ah buck. There was no good way out of this one. Rule number zero of Celestia's school of Magic is that magic is not to be used to win arguments. I've got a bad track record with that one, and with the my recent blowup at the girls over the gala tickets I've been trying extra hard not to fall into that bad habit again. No matter how much I wanted to show her up, and Celestia in Elysium did I want to smack her arrogant flank from here to Griffonia and back, I couldn't do it. It would be one of the very few things that would get Celestia genuinely angry with me, and even if I wouldn't have to face her wrath there would be the law to consider. The Gendarmes tend to take property damage pretty seriously. So, in light of all this, I restrained my indignation (with some difficulty I must admit) and kept my voice level as I replied to her.

"I'm not going to get into a bout of magical one upsponyship." I said evenly, meeting her gaze without backing down but trying not to be aggressive about it.

"What's wrong little hayseed? Afraid to be humiliated in front of the whole town?" She taunted.

"Magic is not meant for winning arguments or showing off." I replied, quoting one of Celestia's famous essays. "Magic must be the servant of ponykind, but never its master." It was a bit rich for me to be quoting that particular line given my checkered past, but it was one of Celestia's most well-known quotes and it resonated with a great deal of the general populace, especially the unicorns of course.

"Ha! It does you no good hiding behind high minded rhetoric! The great and powerful Trixie can see right through you!" She pointed an accusatory hoof. "You use the quotations of Celestia to hide your fear of defeat, but do not worry, I understand." She lowered herself down so that her muzzle wasn't more than six inches from my own. "Why fight fate? After all, there is no shame in cowardice."

"I'm sure you don't, bumpkin, I'm sure you don't." She actually reached out and condescendingly patted my cheek with a glowing hoof, temporarily mingling our magical auras like a mother would do to calm her foal. I flinched away from the unexpected magical contact reflexively and took a step back, flaring a bit of my own magic to clear out the residue she left behind.

"Alright, that's it!" Applejack snarled. "Ah cain't stand no more of this. Can your magic powers do this?"

She grabbed a rope from her saddlebags and hopped up on stage, proceeding to perform a series of increasingly acrobatic lasso twirling tricks including some I recognized as being a part of a routine she was working on for some sort of cowpony competition. She really was quite adept with her tail, though I was unable to really enjoy it as I still felt like Trixie's hoof was still on my cheek. The crowd was suitably awed though, particularly when she snagged an apple off of a nearby tree and yanked it through the air right into her mouth. Trixie watched the whole thing with an air of patronizing indulgence until Applejack was done and sarcastically clopped her hooves together afterward.

"Bravo, oh ye of little talent. Watch and be amazed at the magic of Trixie!" Her hat floated up and her horn glittered as she lifted the end of Applejack's rope, waving it in front of her face and distracting her while the other end snagged another apple. Then she hogtied the cowpony in a flash and had her suspended upside down with the apple in her mouth. Then she left Applejack to hop her way off the stage as she bowed to the crowd. "Once again Trixie prevails!"

"There's no need to go struttin' around and showin' off like that! That's my job!" Rainbow was behind Trixie in a flash, saying perhaps the most ironic thing she'd ever said. Still, the nag had the nerve to meld auras with me without permission, so I was willing to look past Rainbow's comment if she could buck the showmare down a peg or ten. Unfortunately I was fairly sure that no matter what she did Trixie would find a way to turn things back on her.

"Yeah! Just watch this!" Rainbow replied before rocketing off. I couldn't help but wince internally. Nothing good ever happens after somepony says 'watch this'. In spite of my initial worries though, Rainbow's little exhibition went fine. She shot over to the windmill on the outskirts of town, flew a circuit around the vanes and making them spin much faster than they'd ever been designed to go, then she shot up into the sky, piercing a row of clouds as she made a beeline for the sun before she abruptly reversed her course, dragging a cloud of turbulence-formed raindrops in her wake. When she finally made it back to the stage the water hit her at speed and sent up a cloud of fine mist that a rainbow showed in. "They don't call me 'Rainbow' and 'Dash' for nothing!"

"When Trixie is through, they only thing they'll call you is loser." She said, reaching out with her magic and using a hybrid illusion and telekinetic spell I hadn't seen the like of before to grab and rapidly spin Rainbow before launching her off the stage. Rainbow landed in a heap of splayed limbs a few feet away and just laid on the ground, feebly twitching and groaning.

"Well, it seems like anyone with a dash of good sense would think twice before tussling with the great and powerful Trixie." Then her horn lit up again and she used one of the errant bits of cloud that followed Rainbow to shock her just as she was getting up and I felt my teeth starting to grind. That wasn't showponyship, that was sadism. This nag was getting off on humiliating my friends, and I couldn't do anything about it. If I stepped in there's no way I'd be able to keep my temper in check and I'd probably end up destroying her wagon or injuring her, either way I'd end up in jail and have Celestia furious with me. Unfortunately, Spike chose that moment to put in his two bits.

"What we need is a unicorn to challenge her. Someone with magic of their own." He said pointedly, staring at me.

"Yeah!" Rainbow said, having walked over just in time to hear Spike's comment. "A unicorn to show this unicorn who's boss!"

"A real unicorn to unicorn tussle!" Applejack interjected, apparently having no idea how illegal that was.

"Enough, enough. I get your hints, but Rarity is above such nonsense." Rarity said, breaking her long silence. I wasn't sure if she was trying to be funny or not, but she sounded too much like Trixie for me to be laughing, and I couldn't help but facehoof. Still, at least she won't end up taking Trixie on too.

"Ooh, what's wrong? Afraid of getting a hair out of place in that rat's nest you call a mane?"

"What?!" Rarity snarled, whirling around to face Trixie with righteous indignation in her eyes.

"Please Rarity, don't rise to the bait." I begged. "You know what could happen! Think of the lawsuits!"

"You may think you're great with all your so-called power, but there is more to magic than your brutish ways." Rarity declaimed as she hopped gracefully up on stage. "A unicorn must be more than just magical muscle. A unicorn must have style." In a flash a section of nearby curtain was flowing through the air and swirling around Rarity, blocking her from view, and I had to admit it was quite the sight. Say what you will about Rarity, she's nothing if not an artist, even with her magic. "A unicorn must have grace and beauty!"

The flowing, glowing cloth suddenly fell away to reveal Rarity, who had managed to make an elaborate costume out of it including a golden saddle piece, and piled her mane into a gravity defying beehive like construction that I was sure had to involve magical supports somehow. The crowd oohed and ahed, and for the first time Trixie seemed genuinely annoyed, which worried me. If she was playfully malicious before, who knew what she'd do when she was actually angry. Sure enough Trixie's horn flashed and Rarity's mane was partially transmogrified into an olive greeen rat's nest, complete with tails. The hiss of the crowd's intaken breath covered up Rarity's squeak, and when the first and largest of the tails dropped down between her eyes I thought for sure she was going to pass out, but instead she shrieked and bolted from the stage, Rainbow and Applejack close behind, leaving Trixie laughing and polishing a hoof on her cape. Nag.

"Come on Dusk! You gotta do something now! You're better than her!" Spike said desperately, stinging at the insult paid to his crush.

"Ha! You think you're greater than the great and powerful Trixie? You think you have more magical talent? Well, come on! Show Trixie what you've got! Show us all." The maddening pony made her way across the stage, a triumphant grin on her face.

"I've already told you, I'm not going to do this." I sighed, wishing Spike hadn't said anything.

"But-" Spike opened his mouth but I gave him a warning look and he stopped before he could finish his protest.

"Oh come now, don't disappoint the crowd. They all want to see you try." She waved her hoof expansively.

"I'm not going to waste my time in a horn measuring match." I replied, trying to keep my temper out of my voice and picking Spike up telekinetically. It was past time to get out of here. "Come on Spike, let's go."

"Ha! Go ahead and leave! You'll be better off keeping what little dignity you have!" I ignored the urge to punch a gaping hole through her stage and made sure I was ready to restrain Spike as I left in the direction I'd seen Rarity go. She was going to be too emotional to undo what Trixie did to her, and if I knew anything about Rainbow or Applejack I would probably need to at least try to keep them from doing something stupid. No matter how much I wanted to join in.

I found them all at the Carousel Boutique, unsurpsisingly. I could hear Rainbow and Applejack's angry voices and Rarity's sniffling from outside, so I ignored the closed sign in the window and poked my head in, finding pretty much what I expected. Rarity was staring into a mirror, tears running down her face as she repeatedly tried to dispel the enchantment on her hair, but in her emotional state there was no way she was going to be able to pull that off anytime soon. All her efforts did was provoke the rat tails into increasingly frantic wiggling, which only made her more upset and less able to use her magic effectively. All the other two could do was sit and watch, muttering angrily to themselves. Spike had resigned himself to a sullen silence on the way over and slid off my back as soon as I was in the door.

"Hang on Rarity, I'll take care of it." I said, announcing my presence. I expected the fresh bout of tears from Rarity and even Rainbow's twitch of surprise. What I didn't expect was for Applejack to round on me furiously.

"What the hay was that Dusk?" She asked, getting right into my face. "What's wrong with you?!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, my temper straining against my willpower once again.

"Magical pissing matches aren't exactly smiled upon by the Gendarmes." I replied, taking deep breaths to stay calm. "If I got into a fight with her, I would most likely have been thrown in jail."

"No, he's right." Rarity said, her voice creaky. Applejack and Rainbow started guiltily and turned around to face her. She was still facing the mirror and trying to cast, but apparently she'd been paying attention after all. "The more powerful the unicorn the stricter the laws are. For a low level Talent like mine the worst that can happen is a fine, but for somepony like Dusk a prison term is not unheard of."

"Just for knocking a two bit tramp like her down a peg?" Applejack asked skeptically.

"Justice is blind to circumstance." I said dryly, walking over to Rarity and settling down next to her, scruitinizing Trixie's work. It was, though I was loath to admit it, very good. It was a fully tangible illusion anchored to Rarity's own magic. The more she tried to dispel it the more she fed into it and reinforced it. The only way she would be able to get it removed was by another unicorn, and it would disappear on its own only when Rarity's reserves were completely tapped out or the residue of Trixie's own magic degraded enough that the structure of the spell popped, either way it would have taken hours, or maybe even over night. The side effect, aside from the obvious inconvenience, was that the invasion of a foreign mana connected directly and invasively to her own magical circulatory system was causing a sort of allergic reaction. I couldn't imagine the kind of migraine she was probably getting. "Alright, I've figured it out, now just hold still a second."

Rarity sniffled an affirmative and I lit up my horn, sending streamers of energy into the spell's matrix, disrupting it as quickly and painlessly as possible. It was like poking holes in a pile of foam, with each new hole the overall structure weakened and within a minute Rarity's mane was back to normal. Then I set about the more tedious, but just as necessary, task of cleaning out the residue. I very carefully structured my own mana until it matched her own aura as closely as possible and went to every affected mana node, essentially scooping out Trixie's magic. The process was similar to what Trixie did to me earlier, but in this case it was actually meant to be soothing, like it was supposed to be. Rarity calmed down significantly once her mane was back to normal, and by the time I cleaned out as much residue as I could she was just about back to normal, if a bit tired.

"Yes. Thank you Darling." She said when I withdrew my mana entirely. "I feel much better with that awful brute's magic out of me."

"Casting is probably going to be a bit painful for a while." I warned her. "And you won't have as much fine control until the inflammatory response calms down."

"I will make do." She said, smiling at Spike who had settled beside her with a brush. "Thank you Spikey."

"No problem." He said, starting to carefully brush her mane as she wiped her eyes.

"Believe me, if I wasn't worried about going to jail, I would've done something."

"You're Princess Celestia's student. Couldn't she get you off the hook?" Rainbow asked, settling down beside Applejack.

"Absolutely not." I replied, much to her apparent surprise. "Celestia made it very clear to me from day one that if I ever harmed somepony with magic she wouldn't lift a hoof to help me out legally. It would be showing favoritism and defeating the purpose of the justice system to begin with."

"You wouldn't have had to do nothin' harmful, you just had to have done somethin'." Applejack replied. "We were defendin' yer honor!"

"She was bullying you in front of all those ponies." Rainbow said, her wings twitching. "We couldn't let her get away with that!"

"I...you didn't have to do that." I was oddly touched. No one's ever done that for me before, except Celestia of course, but in her case the defense was much more literal. Now that I thought about it, I wasn't surprised that Applejack at least had been acting out of chivalry. Rainbow was unexpected however.

"Of course we did." Applejack said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Yer the only stallion in the group. Someone's gotta stand up fer ya." Apparently she's a bit more old-fashioned than I thought...

"I appreciate it Applejack, I really do, but she didn't do or say anything I haven't dealt with before. Besides, I'm more than capable of defending my own honor." I said with a smile.

"Heh, my mares in glinting armor." I chuckled. "Seriously though, I don't want to see anypony get hurt on my behalf. If she had crossed a serious line I would've launched her narcissistic plot into the magnetosphere. As it stands there's not much we can do. We technically have cause to slap her with Misuse of Magic charges, but she'll claim it was part of a competition or defense."

"What about that shiny hoof thing she did to you? That was some kinda fancy magic stuff right?" Rainbow asked.

"'Mr. guardspony, mr. guardspony, the mean pony over there touched my cheek, go arrest her!'" I deadpanned. "Yeah, that'll go over swell."

"Nothing you need to know about yet." Rarity said, sternly, covering his ears with her hooves. "Really Rainbow, must you bring up such topics with a foal in the room? What you do on your own time is your business but Spike is much to young to be hearing about...such things." She finished, coloring slightly.

"Yes, well, I'm officially changing the subject. Anypony know how long Trixie's going to be in town? I'd rather not run into her again if I could avoid it."

"She only showed up yesterday." Rarity supplied, removing her hooves and leaving a confused but curious young dragon I was going to have to placate later. Dammit Rainbow. "So one would think she is going to be a while."

"I didn't exactly look at her showtimes." Rainbow said, proving to be about as useful as she usually was in matters like this."

"Mmph. Ponyfeathers." I grumbled. "Avoiding the town square is going to be inconvenient."

"Rainbow, you do know that Equestria has these things called laws, right?" I rolled my eyes. I'm absolutely sure Rainbow has a juvenile record, and there have been times I've been extremely tempted to pull a few strings in order to take a look at it, but that's the kind of privacy breach I won't stoop to...unless ordered. "If they didn't exist,we wouldn't be having this conversation to begin with."

"It's not worth getting in trouble over. Just stay away from the show. If, on the off chance, she comes to us and does something stupid we'll call the guards on her and get her for harassment. Other than that we can't do much of anything."

"Oh yes we can." Rarity said, gently taking the brush away from Spike with a smile of thanks and began working on her tail. Spike smiled back and ambled over to me, choosing to flop down and use me as a back rest. "I will spread the word around that she is an absolute ruffian."

"Ooh, good point. One of us should make sure to get around to Fluttershy and Pinkie...but especially Fluttershy." I winced at the scenario that played itself out in my mind. Fluttershy inspires parental instincts in everypony she interacts with, and since she's the town's only vet she has a lot of very loyal customers who wouldn't take it well if she were to be harassed. Hay, if she had been at Trixie's show and treated the way Rarity was I'd be sitting in a jail cell right now.

"Yeah, good point. I'll fly out to her place." Rainbow said, her expression telling me she had similar thoughts running through her head.

"Ah gotta pick up somethin' from Sugar Cube Corner, so Ah can talk to Pinkie." Applejack volunteered.

"Good." I said, glancing at the clock above the door. "Well, Spike and I should probably get going. I've got a few things to check on in my lab and Spike has some homework to do."

"Yes. Because I'm a horrible horrible pony who makes sure you get your assignments done on time and that you eat your borax so you grow up big and strong. Oh, and bed times, can't forget the tyrannical bed times." I grinned and lifted him onto my back, where he promptly started grumbling.

"I should go too I guess." Rainbow said, standing and stretching her wings. "See you guys on thursday for our get together."

"Yeah, Ah got an early mornin' tomorrow. See y'all later." Applejack hopped up and joined the pony train heading for the door.

"Good bye." Rarity called, standing up to see us out. "And thank you again Dusk Shine, I appreciate it."

"No problem. If you still have problems tomorrow morning it wouldn't be a bad idea to go to the clinic and get checked out."

And with that we walked out into the late afternoon sun, our course set towards home.

I was grateful to get home after that train wreck of a day, and seeing as I had a few hours of free time once I set Spike down with his reading assignment and his History of Equestria essay (and ignoring his grumbling about pointless assignments and sadistic teachers), I ambled on down to the lab to set about doing what needed doing, setting up the privacy wards along the way to ensure I couldn't be bothered.

I couldn't help but smile as I entered my lab and the lights flickered automatically to life, revealing the large space that had been hollowed out far underneath the roots of the library tree. My lab was divided into two roughly equal sections. Immediately when you came down the stairs you entered into the airlock/decontamination chamber which resembled nothing so much as a large shower stall with a plethora of glowing magenta runes on the walls that facilitated the cleansing and purifying magic that was the room's sole purpose. The decontamination and cleansing field was unpleasant to walk through, like fever warm static electricity, but it kept my specimens safe from outside influences and me safe from my specimens, so I tolerated it.

After that you walked into the part of the lab dedicated to the material sciences. Five long tables loaded with more laboratory equipment than some small hospitals filled the rectangular space. The walls and ceiling were set with large metal tiles with a matte finish, each containing thousands of tiny runes that worked together to create the powerful wards that sealed the lab off from the outside world. Directly to the right of the entrance was a stainless steel desk that held my inbox, outbox, a few office supplies, and a special teleportation device specially designed for sensitive samples and delicate equipment. It was also the second most secure means of transmitting written messages there was, the first being Spike.

The other half of my lab, the part that didn't get as much use was the half dedicated to magic. The two portions, separated by magically reinforced polycarbonate, couldn't have been more different. Where the material science area had microscopes, centrifuges, and even a mass spectrometer, the magical area had crystals, wands, and grimoires stacked on it's warded tables. That was where the equipment I used to study the Everfree was located, along the far wall closest to the forest itself. A giant growth of clear quartz crystal carefully grown to specific sizes, lengths, and dimensions that let it resonate with and reflect the constantly changing aura of the blighted forest. That last bit of arcanotech was the main reason my lab existed in the first place. The army's Battlemage Corps had a keen interest in keeping the blight from spreading out of Everfree, and they were more than willing to throw money at somepony who wanted to set up another monitoring station dedicated to the forest.

I couldn't help but smile as I walked in and took a deep breath of the sterile, recirculated air. My lab was my sanctuary, away from the bustle of life in Ponyville, protected from my fellow ponies and their bizarre and confounding idiosyncrasies, and surrounded by the firmament of facts and logic that was science I was truly at home. The symphony of clicks, whirs, beeps, and dings that my instruments emitted was a balm to my nerves. It was impossible to think about Trixie and how aggravated I had been when I was recording fluctuations in the meteorological data from the Everfree or checking up on the ongoing experiment tracking how certain types of luminescent fungi reacted to prolonged exposure to specific levels and frequencies of magical energy. In here I could truly be at peace, and I could feel the stresses of my day melting away as I donned my hermetically-warded lab coat and my favorite pair of safety goggles, the ones I enchanted with built in magnification.

A quick review of my inbox told me that my first task was to send a report about the levels of magical taint seeping from Everfree Forest to the Eldritch Defense Battalion, which worried me slightly since that particular batch of monster hunters didn't usually tend to bother those of us monitoring that tartarus pit unless they thought something was about to (or already was) going wrong. Now, don't get me wrong, Everfree Forest is fascinating, it isn't every day you can literally see what happens when two different polydimensional realities meet and clash, but its something I like to watch at a distance measured in miles at the very least. I have no idea how Fluttershy can stand living even under the outskirts.

Oh well, no sense in borrowing trouble, so I gathered my readings for the last month and a half, wrote a quick half page summary amounting to 'nothing's changed' and put it in a magically sealed envelope before dropping it in my outbox to have Spike torch later. No sense using the teleportation locker and the massive amount of energy it drained from my mana capacitors when I could just have Spike torch things instead. Then I made a note to myself to keep an ear to the ground about potential Everfree-related trouble. It also wouldn't be a bad idea to send a note to Mayor Mare, I've found her to be pleasantly proactive about matters of public safety and I'm pretty sure she'd appreciate a warning.

The next thing on the list was to run some comparison tests on bacterial samples shipped in from a few hospitals across the realm. The official wording on the envelope attached to the stack of petri dishes in the secure teleportation locker rambled on in a disinterested sort of way about antibiotic resistance in differing strains among the pony subspecies but judging by the urgency of the note and the frequency of spilled ink I suspected there was a slip-up in another lab and the strain in question wasn't exactly naturally occurring. One more thing to tell Celestia about. The tests themselves were fairly simple, all I was looking for was a specific mutation on the genome of the bacteria in question, a particularly nasty strain of streptococcus, but the sheer number of samples meant I was at it for a while. In other circumstances I actually enjoyed running tests like these since I didn't have to bother using any machinery to do it, I was able to use an advanced medical visualization spell to look directly at the chromosomes in question. It was an awesome spell, very colorful, and I was lucky to have studied under the doctor that created it. He was a bit of a jerk, but his results were unquestionable.

In the end I came to find that the mutation that rendered the little bugger resistant not only to the typical antibiotics but the standard healing spells was unique to the northern regions of the realm. Not too surprising there, since the further north you get the more unicorns there tend to be. Still, any time a bacteria was able to develop a resistance to magic was bad, so there was something else I'd have to keep an eye out for in the future, so I made another note to myself after I destroyed the specimens and loaded up my second secure envelope of the night.

Next up was a pleasant surprise. Celestia wanted me to canvas local opinions on an educational decree she was thinking about bringing up in Parliament. That would be easy enough. I scanned the summary she attached to the note and mulled it over as I destroyed it for security's sake. Nothing too outlandish, shortening the school year by cutting down the number of holidays and leaving the foals with a longer summer vacation. Part of her constant tweaking of the educational system. I would be able to get that information pretty quickly, since I ran the only library in town I got a lot of parents coming in to help their foals check out books for homework assignments. I could also get in contact with Cheerilee through Rarity or Applejack. She'd probably have a few things to say about it. I could even talk to Mayor Mare, seeing as she'd have to deal with the complaining parents after Cheerilee and the other teachers passed the bit. I dashed off a quick reply telling Celestia that I'd have the information she wanted in a week or two and used yet another one of my special envelopes.

Back once again to the inbox and I couldn't help but groan, it was a letter from the Board of Directors of Canterlot University. The university was doing a study on the genetic traits of the original twenty four noble houses of Canterlot and their offshoots, and I was slated to compile lists of common ponies descended from dead houses so the University could contact them to further the study. Translation: the pureblood families that comprised the board of directors were trying to find excuses to either A: leave somepony out of a will, B: include somepony in a will at the expense of somepony else, or C: hunt down somepony technically related to them but genetically different enough to continue the family line.

What that meant for me was days of digging through genealogies and reporting innocent civilians to be hunted down and harassed by the plotholes from the University. I pitied the fool caught up in a binding contract with one of the old houses, legal, financial, nuptial or otherwise. My family's been a rabid pain in my flank for years, and that was after they accepted me as the black sheep. Thank all that is good and just that they realized that I wasn't ever going to play ball not long after I became Celestia's student, otherwise I might not be the sane and well adjusted individual I am today.

I didn't have a choice about the study though, I couldn't exactly blow off a direct order from the people that determine whether I got my degree or not, no matter how unqualified they were. So it was with a heavy heart and a bevy of profanity that I started hauling out the lists of family trees that the University had been thoughtful enough to provide me only to find that they wouldn't be nearly enough to do what the directors wanted. The books in questioned only covered six of the twenty four families, and a quick skim of the indexes showed me that even that data was sparse at best. Terrific. I'd have to dig through my own records at the library and send off to the University for more complete documentation before I could even start.

"Diamond dog bucking, minotaur licking, developmentally delayed plotholes." I growled to myself as I marched out of my lab, annoyed at the fact that I'd have to go through the decontamination field a few more times since there's no way I'd get all the books I'd need down the narrow staircase in one go. Even worse, with the library closed down for a few days I'd taken the opportunity to reorganize things again, meaning the books I needed wouldn't be on the shelves and I'd have to dig them out of the boxes they'd be entombed in. "Son of a bucking nag. Why the hay did the board of inbreds have to drag me into this? Ugh, oh well. Better check on Spike and see how he's doing."

Changing course from the main floor of the library and up to my apartment above, I thought I felt the ground shake for a second, and I almost stopped to investigate but decided not to. There wasn't a fault line within a thousand miles of Ponyville, meaning an earthquake was one of the few disasters that hasn't befallen the town at some point or another. I quickly trotted up the stairs and opened the door, finding Spike sitting in his favorite spot under the window in the living room. The lights were on and there was a box of rubies next to him that he had obviously been munching on. He was frowning at his history book and writing lines of notes in his impeccably neat cursive. In the few seconds it took me to cross the length of the room to where he was I took a deep breath and switched mental gears to make sure I wouldn't give him any undeserved grump, noticing another odd tremor as I did and deciding to look into it after I was done. If the tree had termites in it and they were eroding the foundation I'd have to get on top of that quick.

The rest of his response was cut off by a bone shaking, eardrum shattering roar. I flinched and reared in shock, and had just enough time to see the wall of the tree get torn open and Spike fall screaming into the resulting hole before half a bookshelf hit me in the temple. Then everything went black.

It was the blood that brought me back. The salty, coppery tang that invaded my mouth and nose made my stomach roil and an instinctive fear flickered to life, a light in the darkness that I'd been floating in for I didn't know how long. I weakly tried to spit, only managing to dribble a thick gob of saliva across my cheek. My neck and head hurt abominably, my ears were ringing, and I felt incredibly weak. As consciousness and control slowly returned to me I became more aware of my surroundings. Something large and heavy was pinning me down and making it hard to breathe. My spine around the base of my skull was throbbing fiercely, as was my forehead near the base of my horn. The rest of my body felt mostly fine except for the parts the heavy thing was pressing directly onto.

Opening my eyes was a struggle. Try as I might, the just wouldn't open. Fear of blindness spurred me onto greater and greater efforts until I was finally able to force my eyes open, realizing that it was dried blood that had gummed them shut. With my vision restored, I felt a bit better and I was able to focus better. Everything was fuzzy, but I remembered something. One of the first lessons I ever learned. If you were hurt and you couldn't see anypony, flare your magic. Your magic would help. It took everything I had, but I managed to force my horn to glow and spread a glowing aura of mana through my body. Immediately I started to feel better. The pain faded and the ringing in my ears died away, only to be replaced by a much more frightening sound. Screams. The citizens of Ponyville were screaming.

Looking around as the pain and stiffness in my neck lessened I tried to remember where I was, things were getting easier to do as my magic continued to heal me and I was better able to focus on healing myself, but I was still confused. Nothing around me looked familiar. Then a familiar roar shook the world around me and it all came flooding back. I had to take a few deep breaths to fight the panic that threatened to overwhelm rational thought. Deep breaths, just like Celestia taught me. Whenever you're in a crisis take a deep breath and take stock of the situation before you act. Breathe and then act. Breathe and then act.

I was still trapped, and a glance upward revealed that it was nothing worse than a couple of bookshelves. I was fortunate too, if I had been a little further to the left I would have been covered in broken glass from the windows. As it was I was still trapped, and the weight on my barrel was making it painful to breathe. Right, that had to be taken care of first. Another look at the collapsed bookshelves told me that they weren't wedged on anything, they'd just fallen over when the wall had been blasted inwards. A quick telekinetic shove had them off of me and somewhere where I wouldn't have to worry about them. Then I carefully rolled onto my belly and tried to stand up. The floor was covered in broken glass and other assorted debris, but I was in a relatively clear area so I felt okay trying to stand. My living room had been obliterated, a huge hole in the wall and floor had been opened up presumably by whatever was doing the roaring, but the rest of the place seemed intact. No debris in the kitchen and the bedroom was completely unscathed, being located in the core of the tree far away from the affected wall.

I was a little wobbly at first, but that passed quickly and I was able to focus on some of the less urgent injuries. I could feel blood oozing from my forehead and I took a second to close the wound with magic. It was a quick and dirty job that probably left a scar, but I was beyond caring. Looking down at myself was pretty gruesome. I was covered with splinters, blood and dust. What the hay happened? I was just walking upstairs to check on Spike when...wait...

"Spike?" I called, looking around. It was dark, twilight was falling and the lights were out. He could be somewhere nearby, hiding. "Spike?" I could hear the fear pitching my voice up an octave. My head whipped around painfully, scanning the wrecked room for any sign of him. Nothing. "Spike!"

The roar sounded again and I had a brief flash of purple scales falling through a gaping hole. Oh Celestia. Oh sweet diarchs. Spike was alone out there with whatever the hay had blown up the wall. I couldn't lose him. I couldn't lose Spike. Not him. Not ever. No. What was I supposed to do? I had no idea how long I was out. He could be buried under some rubble, he could have run out of town, he could be d-no. No, he wasn't...he was alive. He was alive dammit. He didn't die. I refused to believe he could have died. No.

"Come on Spike, please be okay, please." I begged, lighting up my horn and activating the most powerful tracking spell I could. Years ago I'd planted a tracer on him that would let me find him in case something went wrong. A magical beacon. It resonated with my magical aura and it would let me find him no matter what. As long as I was able to get within a square mile I'd be able to feel him out and track him down. My horn flooded with magic, frequencies were changed, my optic nerves were bathed in mana, and a link was formed between my horn and my visual cortex was linked to my horn, turning me into a magical radar.

"Buck!" I cursed, deactivating the spell, my eyes watering and tingling. Something nearby was putting out so much raw magic it had overloaded the spell. Probably whatever was roaring so damn much. I growled and flared my magic, clearing the last spell's mana pattern out of my horn and set up another spell, a simpler one that I could key to a different sense than sight. I tied it into a tactile sense of warmth. I'd literally get warmer the closer I got. This time the spell went off without a hitch and I was able to orient myself to his general direction. He was in or around the town square. I could also sense another presence near him, one powerful enough to cause magical interference great enough to nearly break the spell. Spike was in danger, I was still lightheaded from casting so soon after a concussion, I had deep tissue bruising on my barrel, and I was trapped in a wrecked room on the second story of a building of which the structural integrity was suspect. I wasted no time blasting the debris between me and the hole in the wall out into the street and used a convenient plank to levitate myself to the ground.

Ponyville was in chaos. Whatever was destroying the town, and was it ever destroying the town, had carved a swathe of ruination that beggared belief. Amazingly, my tree got off easy. The damage was confined to my living room and the wall of the library directly below it. Other buildings nearby hadn't been so lucky. Carts were lying in the streets abandoned by their owners, houses were collapsed, and there were pillars of smoke curling up from multiple places across the town. There were also bodies. Still bodies. I didn't let myself look at them as I sprinted through the wreckage, following the trail of destruction as it was the most direct route to Spike.

I ran through lawns and houses, shops and outbuildings. I vaulted fences and skirted housefires that were raging unchecked, all the while listening for Spike's voice in the cacophony that rose up around me. The screams were constant, and constantly changing, but they had a pattern to them, almost like some kind of infernal symphony. Individual voices called out for help, shouted the names of their loved ones, or just screamed in pain or fear. It took me only a few minutes to make it to the town square, but they were some of the most horrendous minutes of my life, and I was sure they would be coming back to haunt my sleep for years to come.

What awaited me in the town square wasn't much better. There, stomping across the area Trixie's crowd had been just hours previous, was a translucent ursine giant. Even without my tracking spell I could feel the mana radiating from the raging creature, it felt like standing near a bonfire twenty feet high. As I jumped over one last bit of rubble to get into the lawn of the square itself the Ursa raised a paw and swiped down at something in front of it, bellowing furiously. The strike rebounded off a glowing shield and I realized what was going on.

Somehow, despite all odds, the guardsponies had managed to stop the Ursa's advance at the far end of the town square. Now that I was paying attention I noticed that there was a three pony team of unicorns at every street attached to the square, each of them working together to put up a shield to stop the beast from rampaging into the center of town and the residential neighborhoods therein, while still others were doing whatever they could to keep it from simply walking through a building. They were fighting a losing battle though. Without a squad from the Eldritch Defense Battalion or maybe twenty of Royal Army Battlemages there was no way they would be able to subdue it. My stomach twisted as I realized their true purpose. They weren't a containment force, they were a rear guard. A sacrificial company sent out to buy time for the civilians to be evacuated.

I came to a stop, breathing hard. My barrel and my head ached despite my enhanced regeneration, I was lightheaded either from the Ursa's influence, the ill-advised casting I'd done, or maybe even blood loss, and I wasn't even able to sense Spike anymore. The Ursa was putting out too much interference. Standing there, watching the furious bear repeatedly pound on the guards' wavering shield I was struck by a profound sense of uselessness. I couldn't find Spike, I couldn't run away, and I couldn't help the guards. Ursas were alien intelligences formed when the moon's magical aura clashed with Equestria's. The turbulent area where the two fields met was full of eddies and swirls that occasionally spawned the fragments of crystalized mana that Ursas really were. When the crystals fell to Equestria they absorbed ambient energy and projected it into the bodies ponykind is familiar with. They're literally beings of pure magic. You could throw all the spells in the world at them and all you would do was temporarily destabilize their bodies. They'd reform in a matter of minutes and all you would've succeeded in doing was make them angry.

Another roar and another strike befell the guardsponies and I knew it wouldn't be much longer before it broke through. The other teams were moving to support the one blocking its path, but they wouldn't get there in time, not if they had to move through rubble. I felt my teeth grinding together and tears fell from my eyes as I watched helplessly and waited for the inevitable.

As I watched the closest team to the battered one struggling to find their way through what had been a grocery store within paw's reach of the Ursa, a flash of movement in the wreckage caught my eye. It wasn't random enough to be shifting detritus, it was quick, purposeful movement. Furtive movement. I strained my eyes to see closer and after a wasted second I belatedly remembered that I was a wizard and cast a sight enhancing spell, cursing my stupidity and clamping down on the almost painful surge of desperate hope that caused my throat to tighten. In the twilight with the shifting shadows caused by the fires it was hard to see, but...

"Spike!" I shouted, seeing a flash of purple and green. He was crawling desperately, trying to get away from the Ursa without being seen. When he heard my voice his head shot up and he looked around wildly, trying to find me. "Spike! I'm here!"

Without thinking I started to run towards him, injuries and weariness forgotten. All that mattered was getting to Spike and getting the hay out of town. Everything else would sort itself out later.

"I'm coming Spike!" I shouted back, wishing I could teleport to him, but I was so close to the Ursa that any kind of spatial manipulation was simply impossible. The local gravity well was distorted all to tartarus and the ambient magical field was being drained into the Ursa's core. It was a wonder the guards' shield had held so far.

"Dusk!" Spike screamed again, getting to his feet and sprinting blindly out into the open.

What happened next was sickeningly predictable. The Ursa saw the movement out of the corner of its eye and turned with terrible, predatory swiftness. I shouted something about ducking or moving out of the way, but I knew it was useless as I did and all I could do was watch as the Ursa's paw lashed out with perfect accuracy, gouging up divots of turf as it got closer and closer to Spike. He tried to run, he tried so hard, but he was too small and the Ursa too fast. The translucent blue paw smashed into him at bone shattering speeds and the next thing I knew Spike was just gone.

Images flashed through my head. Jumbled bits of physics and physiology clattered together, forming into a terrible conclusion. At that speed with that force even dragon scales wouldn't have saved him. Splintered boards would become spears, trees would be like stone pillars, the ground would be like a giant anvil to the Ursa's hammer. Tissue would be compress, bones would shatter, organs rupture, scales crack...there wouldn't be anything recognizable. I stopped running, rooted to the spot by horror. Tears welled up in my eyes and fell down my muzzle one after another, turning the dried blood and dust in my coat into a clumpy mess. I heard myself make a few small, meaningless sounds of pain and grief as my legs threatened to give way.

He was gone. Just like that. Gone. Spike. My Spike. Gone. Gone forever. He'd never ride on my back again, we'd never go to the Geology museum in Canterlot again, we'd never go see Celestia again. I would never be able to read to him or tuck him into bed. I would never see him grow up and fulfill the wishes of his sire and dam, he would never become the ambassador to the dragons that he was meant to be. He would never have a mate, he wouldn't have dragonets. He was gone.

I'd known Spike since I was ten and he was barely a year old. I'd started helping to take care of him since I was twelve, taking more and more responsibility until I was his parent in all but name when I was fifteen. Now, three years later, he was gone and all that was left was a series of divots in the ground. I felt like somepony had reached inside me and ripped out something vital. My insides burned and I thought I would vomit right there. It wasn't fair. He was too young. He should have had hundreds of years ahead of him, maybe even a whole millennium, but it had been taken from him.

Then the ursa roared again, snapping me out of my state of shock. I looked up at the creature that had taken Spike and I knew I had a choice: do nothing and let fate decide whether I lived or died, or fight. It was an easy choice to make.

Something deep down in my gut changed. Shock and disbelief faded away, the tears stopped. Pain gave birth to anger, and that anger grew. It was a primal sort of anger, the kind of anger that drove ponies to do unspeakable things. As the Ursa spotted me and its attention focused on me I expected to be consumed in the kind of burning rage you read about in books or see in movies, but I wasn't. It was a cold, sickly fury that gripped me as I faced down the Ursa. It was going to die here. That was that. No hyperbole, no threats, just fact. It was going to die. Because I was going to kill it.

"You like picking on little ponies huh?" I muttered as chains of logic cascaded through my brain. Disparate facts and ideas coalesced into a plan. "Well, why don't you pick on someone your own mystic weight class?"

I reached deep inside myself into the primordial well of my being and called to the Element of Magic. The golden helm that was the symbol of my power appeared in a burning surge of energy as I was overfilled with pure mana. My own magical aura pulsed out and crashed into the Ursa's, causing a sound like a gong struck by lightning. The Ursa bellowed and whirled around to face the new threat, reacting with the smooth speed of a hunting predator. I deflected the paw with a concussive blast of magic powerful enough to temporarily destabilize its leg. It roared in what I hoped was pain and staggered backwards, nearly crushing the guards as it did. Perfect.

Four giant streamers of energy flew from my horn and capitalized on its temporary distraction, plunging themselves into the Ursa's half corporeal body, one above each forelimb and the other two into its flanks, each one perforating deep into the amoeba like structure of the star beast and hunting for its core. Finding nothing I pulled two of the tentacles out and struck again, keeping the Ursa at a safe distance as I searched for my prize. It struggled and swiped at me, but I was able to skate backwards with a burst of mana and keep just out of reach. Each time I gouged at it I was weakening it, just like I had disrupted Trixie's spell. All I had to do was poke enough holes in it and cause it to lose so much power it would disanimate.

It fought back as best it could with two of its limbs effectively disabled, it roared and snapped, bathing me in a cloud of wild and chaotic magic that would've singed or outright burned most ponies, but my own aura was so dense the assault evaporated before it could get close to me. As I struggled to find the core I distantly noted that the guards had formed up into a single group and were hitting it with all they had. Their attacks barely registered, but every little bit helped and I would need all the help I could get. In order to keep the Ursa from absorbing the mana I was using to attack it the tentacles I was using had to be so dense the mana was almost a liquid. The amount of power it cost wasn't an issue, as my mana well was literally endless due to the Element of Magic, but I was straining my body well past what it should have been able to take without breaking down on a cellular level. The constant overflow of mana I'd experienced since I was bonded to the Element of Magic had allowed my body to adjust to high-mana conditions somewhat, but nothing could prepare it for what I was putting it through.

To make things worse, the Ursa seemed to be aware of that somehow, because it started absorbing mana and reinforcing its shell as fast as it could to make up for what I was disintegrating. I couldn't win a war of attrition, I just couldn't, I'd literally cook myself from the inside out first. I needed to find the core. Once I found that it would be over. The problem was that it kept moving around and slipping out of my grasp like a wet bar of soap. I had no idea if the Ursa was consciously controlling it or if it was normally a free floating part of the Ursa's anatomy, but I had to find it fast. My whole body was starting to ache with the strain and I began to feel the telltale tingling around my forehead that indicated the beginnings of mana burn. If this went on too much longer the tingling would give way to numbness as nerve cells started to die, then muscle and epithelial cells along with them, and on down into my vital organs if it went on long enough. The tentacles wavered for a second and I put the potential damage I was doing to myself out of my mind, refocusing on my goal.

All I had to do was find the Ursa's core, once I got my tentacles on that I shouldn't have any problems destroying it. The Ursa continued to roar and struggle, flailing around and hitting a few more buildings as it did. A split second of thought later I spawned two more tentacles and speared the Ursa through the hips, effectively immobilizing it. The added strain was severe and I felt my body temperature rising dangerously, but I had it where I wanted it now, and the desperation I could see in the Ursa's eyes felt good. Now, with four stationary ruptures and two constantly moving ones to its shell, it was having a much harder time regenerating and the core stopped moving around as fast.

The guards, seeing my success, redoubled their efforts and began hammering it with synchronized strikes targeted next to my tentacles for maximum damage and distraction. Good thinking. It struggled and thrashed against the rods of semi-solid energy holding it down, going berserk in rage and pain, but there was fear as well, it could sense its end coming and it was afraid. That fear was ambrosial to me, the motherbucker took Spike and I had no intention of giving it an easy passing.

My legs started to shake and my horn was felt like a branding iron, but I finally managed to grab the core. Instantly the Ursa went still and its shell wavered and bulged oddly as my magic disrupted the most vital part of its being. Then I quickly moved all the tentacles to the core, surrounding it with my mana and completely dispelling the shell, leaving a smoking hole where it had been. The core was an unbelievably dense jagged spindle of crystal that continued to fight for its survival just as hard as it had before, and random pulses of blue energy seeped through my hold on it and blasted nearby buildings. I lifted it up high enough that they would dissipate before doing any real damage and started bearing down on the crystal as hard as I could. Then a bloody guardspony in battered armor galloped up to me, and I vaguely recognized him as the same lieutenant that had investigated me for throwing out the vandal from the library what felt like years ago.

"Dusk! Hold on! Just a few seconds longer and we can get a Containment Cube in place!" He shouted, turning to bellow something at his comrades who were busy levitating a heavy metal box in our general direction. It would be made of lead lined with depleted uranium and crammed as full of mana capacitors, converters, and vents as it could possibly be. Such devices were the only things that could hold an Ursa's core until it could be transported to a safe disposal site, and every town or city in the realm had at least one stowed away somewhere.

"No!" I snarled back, battering at the crystal I had in my grasp until i found what I was looking for, the weak points at the poles where the crystal was adding onto itself like coral growing in the ocean. I forced my own mana into the structure of it and began to break it down.

"Dusk, you have to lower it into the cube!" The lieutenant shouted, nearly panicking.

I ignored him and poured mana into it until I felt cracks appear. I was sweating profusely from the fever I was subjecting myself to and my vision was swimming horribly, but I was able to summon the effort for one last push that broke through the last defenses of the Ursa and shattered the crystal into hundreds of pieces. From there nature took its course

Bereft of the magical 'gravity' that held it together, any semblance of cohesion vanished and the crystal sublimated into pure cobalt colored mana with a concussive explosion that was followed by a sudden inrush of air and a deafening thunderclap that raised a huge cloud of dust and almost brought down a nearby building.

There was a long moment of silence as everypony's ears rang horribly and they tried to process what happened. I couldn't pay any attention to it though. I had pushed my body too far and I paid the price. My legs completely gave way and I hit the ground hard, my vision going grey and blurry. Half my body was numb and the other half burned like fire. The sudden lack of mana flow through my horn made it hurt so badly I would gladly have snapped it off just to get some respite. Then a tremor started somewhere in my gut and quickly grew into uncontrollable spasms that wracked my body and made me flop around in the dirt like a struggling fish. Sparks and lights started dancing across my eyes and I smelled sour cherries. My mouth was full of the taste of pineapple. Then I bit my tongue and I tasted blood instead.

Hooves held me down and multiple voices assaulted me from all directions. They kept telling me to hold on or stay with them or something as I felt myself get moved onto a stretcher and lifted off the ground. I didn't see how it mattered. I may have defeated the Ursa, revenge is cold comfort. I lost Spike, and no matter how many Ursas I destroyed, he'd never come back.

I woke up feeling like horseapples. I didn't even get the few seconds of blissful ignorance that normally comes with waking up. One moment I was unconscious and the next I was awake. Exhausted and in pain, but awake. I knew exactly what happened and exactly what I'd lost. I don't know how long I wallowed in the acute sense of loss that hurt more than anything the Ursa could've done to me, or anything that I did to myself, but sounds kept intruding on my mental solitude and kept me from completely shutting out the outside world. I could hear indistinct voices nearby, some quieter, some louder, but there were a lot of them. I also heard the steady beeps of a heart monitor, the constant hiss of pressurized gas I assumed was the feed to the oxygen cannula I was wearing and the rhythmic 'wheew-wheew' of a mana monitor.

Deciding distraction was better than despair I opened my eyes and looked around. I was in a hospital room, unsurprisingly. The windowless metal plated walls were etched with runes that glimmered the same dull purple of my magical aura. It was a suppression room I realized after a second of confusion. That and the ring I felt at the base of my horn explained why I wasn't hurting quite as bad as I expected to be. The room was devoid of any ambient mana and my own was suppressed to near nonexistence to give my abused body a chance to recuperate from the damage I'd done to it.

The bed was your standard issue hospital bed, complete with papery sheets and thin blankets, though a few extra had been piled on me and somepony had tucked me in thoroughly. I had been bathed at some point and my wounds were dressed with bandages and maybe even a few stitches, but the bandages were soaked in some kind of topical anesthetic, leaving me in the odd position of hurting everywhere I wasn't cut or gashed. I tilted my head towards the instruments I was hooked up to, going slowly to avoid as much pain as possible, and tried to make sense of the readouts. My oxygen level was fine, but I wasn't worried about that. My magic was at just about the lowest possible ebb, no surprises there. Pulse was slow but not troubling, again, unsurprising. Blood pressure was a little low, but not dangerously so. I was just about to try figuring out what meds were in the IV I was attached to when the door slid open with an irritating creak. I looked up weakly to see a weary looking tan earth pony in a lab coat followed by an equally haggard Rarity with a magic suppressing ring on her horn.

"Oh, you're awake. Good." The doctor sighed and walked over to my bedside, examining the monitors as he did. "I'm doctor Healing Hooves, your primary."

"How long was I out?" I asked, my voice a dull rasp that sounded grating even to my own ears. The doctor offered me a drink of water from the bedside table as he answered my question.

"About two hours. You had a seizure after you...destroyed the Ursa." He stumbled slightly but caught himself quick. "The amount of magic you used seriously strained your body, and we were pretty worried about you for a while, but you're recovering quickly."

"Element of Magic." Explaining made me think of something besides Spike. It felt good to lecture. "Constant but slight mana overflow. My body had to adapt to it over time. Sore for days after I was merged with it. What about everypony else?"

"Hush darling." Rarity said softly, reaching out and stroking my neck gently. "It's okay now, just try and rest. You've done enough."

"She's right, you need to rest. Toughened magical circulatory system or not you still did plenty of damage. I'm keeping you here for observation for at least forty eight hours and I don't want you casting at all for at least four days, and then nothing more than minor telekinesis for at least a week."

"Tell me about everypony else and I promise I'll go to sleep like a good little colt." I said, annoyed. He mulled it over for a second before giving in with a sigh.

"At this point we just don't know much. New patients have stopped coming in for the most part. Most of the fires are still going and it's still pretty chaotic in the town proper. The suburbs, except for the ones the Ursa went through, are pretty much unscathed, and most of the damage was confined to the commercial district, but unfortunately it destroyed the firehouse and almost got the guard barracks too. The Mayor's mansion caught fire as well, but Mayor Mare got out fine and she instigated martial law. That's all I've heard."

"What Rainbow and Pinkie and...us?" I asked Rarity. She smiled a little weakly and fussed with the blanket at my chin.

"We are all fine darling. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow's homes were out of the Ursa's path. My boutique has some broken windows and a few water pipes burst when the Ursa went by, but that is all. Sugar Cube Corner is in a similar state. As for the girls themselves Fluttershy is on assignment from the Mayor, herding all the animals she can out of the town and keeping them corralled. Rainbow and her weather teams are split between hauling in rain clouds to douse the fires and acting as search and rescue teams, Applejack is with her brother as a part of a rescue team, and Pinkie is with a few others at the elementary school with the foals whose parents are lost or hurt."

"There now. I promise we'll tell you more as we hear it." The doctor said when she was done. "But you need to rest now. You saved a lot of Ponies today Dusk Shine." He added in an undertone.

"I'll stay with you as long as I can." Rarity said. "We will try to keep you company as much as possible."

The doctor took that as his cue to leave and walked out, closing the door behind him and leaving us alone. The silence that followed left me no recourse but to think about what had happened and tears sprung up in my eyes. For a second I considered keeping it to myself but I just couldn't. It hurt to think about it, and maybe it would hurt less if I told somepony.

"What? Took who?" She looked at me for a second and I heard confusion and apprehension in her voice.

"The Ursa. It killed Spike." It came out as a sob. "He tried to run, but it hit him and he was just gone. I saw him disappear."

"Oh Celestia, no." She whispered, but I couldn't talk anymore, I just curled into a ball and cried. A second later I felt a hoof drape over me and Rarity's cheek rested on the back of my neck, her own tears soaking into my fur as she cried with me.

For what felt like an eternity all I could do was shake painfully and occasionally call out Spike's name. Time passed, and took me with it, but I couldn't move on. I was still stuck in that single moment when Spike was taken from me and everything fell apart. Rarity cried until she couldn't anymore, but when her tears dried up she stayed right by me, a comforting presence that made the grief the tiniest bit easier to bear, and I knew I'd be grateful later, but I didn't have any room for anything but the grief.

Part of me refused to accept what had happened, and a gibbering voice in the back of my head kept saying that it was just a bad dream and that I'd wake up to find Spike still with me. Another part of me, a dark part that I was normally very ashamed of, began whispering about options open to me.

My magical background is diverse and multifaceted, including things that I'm ashamed of. When I was young and stupid I snuck into places I shouldn't have been and learned things no pony should know. There were things out in the wide world that could allow me to swim against the currents of time, ancient artifacts of long-dead races, spells written in tomes bound in leather made from the skins of newborn foals and written in blood, beings of the same mold as Celestia with far fewer moral scruples or no scruples at all. I could even harness the Blight in the Everfree if I wanted to. It would be easy, the voice said, all I had to do was hide from Celestia and the guards long enough to make it work, then I could have Spike back.

I knew I wouldn't do it though. Anypony with an iota of common sense could tell you how that would end. I would get caught, or worse, I would succeed. Even drowning in grief I knew that Spike wouldn't accept what I would have to do and become to bring him back. So I was stuck, buried under the weight of the love I had for him.

As the long minutes passed the tears slowed, and eventually halted, leaving me with a soaked pillow and a jagged hole inside. Rarity was still there, silently pressing her cheek into my neck. I wrapped a foreleg around her and we stayed like that until the door creaked open once again. Nurse Redheart held it open for and accompanied the lieutenant from earlier, minus his helm, and she didn't look too happy about it either.

"Just a few minutes, he's still in bad shape and even if your magic is suppressed it isn't good for him." Nurse Redheart said firmly, casting a jaundiced eye on Rarity.

"Dusk Shine, miss, I'm lieutenant Iron Shod." He greeted wearily, his chestnut coat was covered with soot and grime, and numerous small wounds covered the spaces on his body that weren't covered by his similarly-disheveled armor. "I was with the squad sent to detain the Ursa."

"I want to know what the hay happened." He said bluntly, apparently too tired for tact. "You disobeyed my order to put the Ursa in the Containment Cube and next thing we know it's gone and you're seizing on the ground. You didn't teleport it, did you?"

"It's alright Rarity." I said, forestalling her and saving him a serious reaming. "No, I didn't teleport it. I killed it."

"Look, it isn't that hard." I growled, my temper reigniting and taking me by surprise, but I didn't care. It felt better to be angry than sad. "After I grabbed the core I forced my mana into it and destroyed it. What did you think the burst of magic at the end was? A party favor?"

"No, I...sorry." He sighed, rubbing the space between his eyes. "The captain went down when the Ursa first hit and since the Mayor declared Martial Law I've technically been in charge of the whole town for the past few hours, I only just found out about it when we brought you in here and I've been pissing out fires ever since. Now I've got a company of Royal Army headed my way expecting to run into an Ursa at any second and a Captain that's frothing at the mouth trying to get a location for it. I need to know what happened and you'll have to excuse me if I find it hard to believe that one pony took down an Ursa, Element of Magic or not."

"Mmph." I grunted in acknowledgement. "How much do you know about what happens to captured Ursa cores?"

"They're carted off to special facilities out in the boonies for 'disposal'. Conspiracy nuts say the military uses them as mobile power sources and crazy nature types say its cruel and they should be let back into the wild." He said, rolling his eyes. At any other time I would've had a chuckle about that. The idea was absolutely preposterous, they were way too dangerous to be set free.

"I challenge anyone of them to think that after having their shop ruined by one of the brutes." Rarity grumbled under her breath.

"That's right." I ignored her well-deserved grumping and focused on Iron Shod. "The disposal facilities destroy the Ursas by channeling tightly focused beams of highly concentrated mana right into the poles of the crystals. I did the same thing, only less precise."

"Well, that would explain the huge amount of mana permeating the area, but you're telling me you did on your own what it takes a dedicated disposal facility to do?" He asked, understandable skepticism in his voice.

"Lieutenant, I couldn't have teleported it if I wanted to. There was too much distortion, I'm sure you felt that." I nodded weakly at his horn. "It's not a difficult thing to do, it just requires raw power. Lots of it. It nearly burned me out, but I killed that motherbucker and I'd do it again." I couldn't keep the satisfaction out of my voice, but it quickly faded away, leaving me with the hollow feeling again and when I continued my voice was much quieter. "It took Spike from me. Any other time I would've run, but not after that."

"Ah, so that was what made it turn around." His ears drooped. "I remember seeing somepony hiding in the store, but I didn't have time to do anything before the Ursa noticed us. I'm sorry for your loss...and I'll relay what you said onto the Mayor and the Captain coming to replace me."

"Thank you. Could you have somepony look for his..." My throat clenched up and I couldn't say it.

"We'll find him." He replied with false assurance as he turned to leave. "I'm going to station a few guards outside the door just to be safe. Never can tell what ponies will do when-." There was a mild commotion outside door and it opened as he was talking. Iron Shod stepped between me and the door, apparently thinking it was an assassination attempt or something.

"Oh git outta mah way, Ah gotta see Dusk!" Twanged Applejack. Iron Shod stayed in place like a good Guard until I spoke up.

"It's okay, she's safe." I said, eager for a new source of distraction. Iron Shod moved out of the way, allowing me to get a look at Applejack herself. She was sooty, sweaty, and she'd lost her hat at some point, but she was smiling. Nurse Redheart very much did not approve of another visitor in the room.

"Finally. Ah cain't believe how long it took me ta find ya." She said, trotting up to me.

"What is it?" I asked. Ponies were good, even if they just wanted to talk. Talking made the thinking stop.

"He's had enough visitors already." Nurse Redheart said, putting her hoof down. "Now I must insist that you all leave and let him get some rest."

"No, I most certainly will not. He has a lot of healing to do and having a bunch of ponies around keeping him awake won't help him."

I tuned out the rest of their argument, which Rarity joined, and wondered who it could possibly be. If this was some kind of badly written book, Spike would walk through the door, but I'm not that lucky. Applejack not coming out and telling me exactly who it was set me on edge though, she was the Element of Honesty, even lies of omission were just about impossible for her. The only pony I could think of was Celestia, and that didn't make sense. She would just have come in unannounced. Regardless, I was about to get my answer. The door creaked open yet again, revealing a couple guards I didn't recognize. Then I looked down.

"Dusk!" Despite all the odds, despite what I saw, despite what knew was impossible, Spike was standing between them, tears falling down his cheeks as he sprinted across the floor.

Redheart and Iron Shod had to pin me down to keep me from flying off the bed to meet him.

"Stay still!" Redheart practically screeched, dropping her full weight across my whithers and damn near catching a hoof to the face. If my magic wasn't suppressed I would have launched her across the room with extreme prejudice.

Spike was alive. Beaten and bruised, but alive. Applejack gave him a hoof up to the bed when he got close and I pulled him against me, curling up around him as much as I could. Some of his scales were cracked, his tail had been set with a jury rigged splint and the tip of his largest green spike had been snapped off, but he was alive. Tears started falling all over again, but I didn't feel like my whole life was in pieces anymore. Instead I felt like when I was bound to the Element of Magic. Radiant joy welled up in my barrel until I felt like I was going to burst. Apparently my life is like a badly written story after all.

"I'm right here Spike, I'm right here." His whole body shook as he sobbed into my chest, the kind of frantic crying that foals do when they've been scared out of their minds. I hushed him gently and rested my cheek on his head as I forced all the grief and pain and confusion into a mental box and jumped up and down on it until I was sure it wouldn't pop open at a bad time. Spike needed me right now, I had to wait to break down until later.

"We found him by the Mayor's Mansion." Applejack said and I glanced up to see her regarding us with a tired smile. "He was unconscious on the shore of that big ole pond right out front. He woke up when the doctor with us started patchin' him up and we spent the next few hours tryin' ta find you."

"He must have landed in the water after the Ursa tossed him." Iron Shod said. In the back of my mind I noted that it made sense. Dragons bones are hollow like bird bones, and the internal gas bladders that stored the hydrogen and oxygen that fueled firebreathing made him very light for his size, and the large sinuses in his skull would have helped too, but his survival was still just a matter of sheer dumb luck, If he had ended up face down in the water or lodged under something...no, I couldn't think about that, not until I could be sure I was alone. Then I could curl up in a ball and have a panic attack, but not now.

"I-I woke up and everything hurt. I didn't know where you were and I was afraid you'd...you'd..." He dissolved into a sobbing mess and I clutched him tighter.

"I'm fine Spike, I'm not going anywhere." I nuzzled him and clumsily wrapped a blanket around him, struggling a bit without telekinesis. Then I looked back at Applejack and gave her a watery but genuine smile. "I can't ever thank you enough for this Applejack."

"Don'chu worry none about that." She said, leaning in and nuzzling Spike, followed shortly by Rarity, who whispered something to him and kissed the top of his head. "Just get better so ya can help us rebuild and lecture us about pre-Celestia architecture or somethin'."

"He will not be helping to rebuild anything anytime soon!" Redheart said, practically frothing at the mouth at seeing such repeated and flagrant violations of visitation protocols. "Now all of you out!"

"Spike stays." I said firmly, fixing her with a glare and pulling him tighter against me.

"Ma'am, he just fought an Ursa because it attacked the dragon. Pick your battles." Iron Shod said dryly as he turned to leave, following orders like a good soldier. "I'll have the guards posted in five."

"Fine, but he needs to rest. Now. No more talking. No more visitors until tomorrow." Redheart said, tacitly conceding Iron Shod's point while glaring at Applejack and Rarity.

"Good night Dusk." Rarity said, accepting the dismissal, though not before a final nuzzle for Spike, who had quieted down as I shushed him and nuzzled him. "Sleep well. Good night Spike."

"See ya tomorrow Dusk. Yer gonna have quite a story to tell." Applejack said with a sly grin. "Hay, you probably won't have to pay for a drink ever again."

I chuckled as Redheart escorted Applejack out the door, lecturing her (and being staunchly ignored) the whole way. It felt good to laugh again, even if it was a fragile sort of laughter that was just temporarily holding back the flood of fear, guilt, and panic I knew I was going to have to let out of its mental safe at some point down the line. I didn't care though, I had Spike, and that's all that mattered.

"Feeling a bit calmer Spike?" I asked when we were alone and he'd had a few minutes to compose himself. He mutely shook his head, refusing to separate from me.

"Yeah, I know how you feel." I kissed the top of his head and nuzzled him gently, a few tears falling from my eyes. I had a feeling that would be happening pretty frequently over the next few days. "It'll be okay though. It's over now, everything will be okay."

"Does anything hurt?" Ordered to rest or not, I'd make sure he was taken care of first.

"Everything." He whimpered. "Especially my tail and the scales on my right side."

"Yeah, when they brought me here House Call was waiting and he wouldn't let me see you until he finished fixing me. He said he did as much as he could but I still hurt." He said plaintively, his voice muffled by my coat. He was referring to the doctor that had taken care of me since I became Celestia's student and Spike since he was born. Dr. House didn't have the best bedside manner, but he got results.

"Tomorrow you can go see him again, I promise. Right now we both need to sleep." I may have defied Nurse Redheart's order to rest earlier, but now that The everything was winding down I was feeling the exhaustion all the more acutely. My eyelids were getting heavy and I was fairly sure I couldn't have gotten out of bed if I wanted to.

"I don't think I can sleep." He sounded exactly like he did when he was sure he was going to have guard pony nightmares, though in this case it was pretty obvious what he was afraid of.

"The Ursa can't hurt you Spike, it's gone forever." I assured him gently. "I'll be right here all night, nothing will get you. You're safe bud, totally safe.

"Promise?" He asked in a tiny voice that nearly made my heart break all over again.

"Promise." I whispered back. There was a long moment of silence, long enough that I was sure his own wounds and fear had caught up to him and he'd passed out, but he proved me wrong.

"Do you, uh, do you think you could..." He trailed off into levels of inaudibility that would have done Fluttershy proud.

"Do you think you could maybe sing the Annie Cat song?" He looked up at me with those big hopeful eyes and I felt something inside me melt a little.

"Sure Spike. I can do that." Back when we were both living in Canterlot Castle but before I had unofficial custody of him he was taken care of by some of Celestia's hoofmaidens, and one of those hoofmaidens had a cat named Annie who absolutely loved Spike. he would play with her for hours and hours, and she would sleep with him at night to keep the bad dreams away. Sadly, she was a fairly old cat and she died when he was still pretty young. He was completely devastated. I can still remember how hard he cried when he found out, and he didn't stop crying for most of three days. I ended up sitting down with my music teacher and writing a song about her to make him feel better. Well, I ripped off another one shamelessly, but it worked, and as time went on it just sort of ended up being his lullaby.

"Thanks Dusk." He said with audible relief. Then he snuggled closer against my side and nuzzled me. I couldn't help but smile and for the first time since the disaster earlier in the day, I felt like things were pretty good. The day Spike looked at me like he didn't know me, then I would know I'd crossed the line, but until then everything was okay

"No problem Spike." I whispered, tapping a hoof to get the beat of the song and smiling as I remembered the white and orange tabby.

Annie Cat, Annie cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat! Annie Cat, Annie Cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat! Annie Cat, Annie Cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat!
Call the kitty Annie cat, tell you why, ‘cause she’s sweeter than an apple pie, and when she does her shaky swayin’ dance, nightmares just don’t stand a chance!

We call her Annie Cat, Annie Cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat! Annie Cat, Annie Cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat! Annie Cat, Annie Cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat!

Softer than pillow, silky slick. Kiss those nightmares good bye! If you see her ‘round, pet her quick, but Annie Cat does fine.

We call her Annie Cat, Annie Cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat! Annie Cat, Annie Cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat! Annie Cat, Annie Cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat!

Sweet the way she holds me, tell you why, just like an angel from up on high. She loves to play with me the whole day straight, gee my Annie cat is great!
We call her Annie Cat, Annie Cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat! Annie Cat, Annie Cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat! Annie Cat, Annie Cat, oh Annie Annie Annie Annie cat…oh Annie cat!

I'll be the first to admit it wasn't the best example of the lyricists' art, but I liked it, and it put Spike right to sleep every time. His body was tightly tucked against mine and a small smile was on his face as he (hopefully) dreamed about the cat he loved so much. He didn't so much as twitch when I curled around him a little more tightly. His hot breath caused rhythmic blossoms of warmth to spread through my coat as I closed my eyes and felt sleep coming to my overtaxed body.

"I'll keep you safe Spike." I mumbled as I felt myself slipping away into sleep. "I love you, bud."

And with that I fell into a deep, deep sleep, the emotional stress and physical damage of the day catching up to me as I curled around the dragonet I loved like my own foal.

Oh, No! Not Another Dusk Shine Story!

by Nyxian

Star Studded Disaster (Episode six)