//------------------------------// // The Day Before // Story: Backfire // by Zoom zoom //------------------------------// The tinkle of a music box chimed. The like fire bird next to it sang along with it for extra effect. Spike rose from his bed slowly to notice that despite the pleasant noise Twilight snored loudly on her own bed. She had a lot of work to do all that night even after showing up to the welcome party for Wishful with which she had done all in her power to avoid him after her greeting. And after giving Spike more of an earful for insisting he would help clean up instead of Pinkie she was likely drained with a full nights work. Spike wasn’t sure why Twilight didn’t like Wishful outside the fact he never said her name and even when addressing her would just call her TS to her face with little respect. The two were basically the same age after all and Twilight didn’t even dislike Trixie that much. Pushing that thought out of his mind he focused his attention to the music box. A land dragon like himself and a sky dragon danced in the center as it chimed. The inside was customized by the giver with a double lid that could open to hold gems. Rarity had filled them with baby blue sapphires she had left over from an order and a small white diamond acted as the lifting piece to the compartment. She had given it to him for Hearth’s Warming Day along with other various custom gifts to all her other friends. Spike liked to think however that his took especially long and a lot of care. The baby phoenix by the music box chirped up to its master. Spike had trained Peewee to open the box for him when it was time to get up. Taking one of the baby blues into his mouth and savoring it as long as possible before closing the box and going downstairs to get started on his work. He had a lot to think about to get this wish right. Wishful wasn’t the type to kid around. “Okay maybe he is”, thought Spike, “but he never kids about his powers.” The Work would not take long today. It was the day the library was closed and everyone was taking their pets out for a play date. Peewee was still too young to fly but it was his favorite day of the week so he couldn’t disappoint him. And he’d get to see Rarity again before going to Wishful’s. It would help him consider exactly what he wanted. Wishful Thinking stretched as he winked and started to make breakfast for himself. He wasn’t worried about messing up the wish magic. He didn’t practice it much on this scale, but he used the magic in his horn for nearly anything so he was about to gauge his powers nearly as well as Twilight Sparkle did. Twilight, Wishful wondered himself why she didn’t like him despite how friendly he tried to be in the past. Even at the welcome party she was only there because she wanted to keep an eye on Spike. “What am I to her?” he thought, “The way she acts it’s like I was going to hurt him or something.” He got a vague memory flash of his younger self, this constantly happened every time he even thought of Twilight for too long. Memories of some of the dumbest things he ever did in magic kindergarten to try and get her to recognize him as a rival. That was before he got his cutey mark and found out his talent was to make other’s dreams come true. Before he granted his first wish without knowing the consequences of his spell. Before he had been saved by Spike, which had started them being friends. He pushed it out of his mind. The colt in him was still furious that the pony he most wanted to overcome not only did so much better than him in life, but the fact she didn’t even think his own magic was worth learning so he could hold it over her head. He was more mature now, and with that he had granted many wishes and learned much more about his wish making spell. By the time Twilight and Spike had left to live in pony-ville Wishful had become so jaded he started to hate his powers since he knew his own wishes couldn’t be granted by this spell and anyone who needed more than some passing help with a wish would always want to undo the work and energy he used to grant it. A meaningless effort, that’s all it was to anyone. And in return he had gotten nothing. It was only because of the fact he assisted a wonder bolt by chance without his magic that he even had the money to move to this town with not much of a night life so he could find it easier to sleep early. He’d need to find a job soon but for now he could relax as he had to get used to the new surroundings. After breakfast he went to his bookcase. He’d forgotten to get a new book to celebrate his new house. So not wanting to waste the trip he got out one of his favorites: “Treasure of the Lost Lamp.” He related a lot to one of the characters in this one, a genie that couldn’t have a real life and was forced to grant wishes for all time without even the choice of whose he granted. The end was the best in that the old stallion that found the lamp used his last wish to grant the genie his freedom. In return the genie was powerless, but he now had a life and friends, something Wishful was a little short on. Not everyone was like Spike, most ponies he befriended only did so for a wish, but Spike was different. He stayed his friend even after a wish went wrong. It had been the time he and Spike had found out about a dragon’s magic resistance. Something Twilight already knew and yelled at Wishful for not knowing before trying whatever it was he tried that caused the mess in her room. And Spike even tried to help however he could with fixing things, when that blasted Twilight didn’t keep him under her hoof for assistance herself. That was the other reason he moved here, to be close to his only other friend. Another stupid flash, this time to Twilight and his magic kindergarten teacher yelling at him after his first wish granting. What was it again? He couldn’t remember that part. His life consisted of what he was doing now that he had sort of quit trying to make wish granting a job and didn’t bother telling anyone what the cutie mark was about. Avoiding the night so his powers wouldn’t be enhanced and thus he’s be more tempted to grant under Luna’s moon, not trying to befriend others himself anymore since wishing was all they would be after in time, and hiding in fantasy books that didn’t really give him anything but a wish that his own talent was something, anything but what he got. Wishful finished his book quickly; of course he had since it was his millionth time through so he was just reading his favorite scenes. With nothing else to do he decided he might as well get any shopping he needed out of the way first and then start looking for work. Finishing with a stop by the library to get a Daring Do book he may have missed so he had something new to read at least. Peewee chirped happily on Owlowiscious’ back. The Owl had taken a habit of letting the little phoenix ride his back on the way to the pet play date, echoing his master as she carried Spike too as he looked through various notes in Twilight’s saddlebags. Peewee loved to feel the wind on his face. The only thing he loved more than this was Spike, so of course he couldn’t wait till he could fly. His ride landed in a tree and Peewee hopped off as he always did so Owlowiscious could play with Twilight. Spike took him from the branch and thus the fun would commence. Peewee still noticed how Spike’s heart wasn’t into playing with him today. The poor guy had Rarity on the mind again. Twilight Sparkle and Rarity were always higher then Peewee on the love scale that was Spike, but he was still higher than everyone else and was perfectly happy with that. Every now and then Spike would stare at Rarity as they played before turning his attention back to him; which is why Peewee had guided the play date so that Spike could be closer to Rarity more and more. Opal had already learned not to mess with him the last time he tried this. Granted it meant Rarity was mad at Spike for a week but all was well in time. Opal wasn’t even freaked this time and just ran up a tree to which Peewee gave chase since even an idiot could see what Peewee was doing and decided to further things along. Lucky for Peewee Rarity was oblivious and Spike was dumber than a bag of hammers in front of Rarity. The two bumped into each other giving chase to the tree and fell over. “Oh Rarity I’m so sorry,” came Spikes clammy tone as he helped her up. “Oh it’s quite alright Spike,” replied Rarity shaking her head and fixing her mane. She coughed and Spike released the hand he had forgotten was still holding onto the hoof he had lifted her from. Peewee took this as a clue to jump onto Rarity’s snout. Causing Spike to again worry but Rarity just giggled. “Oh hello cutie.” Spike removed the baby phoenix from her nose before biting the bullet and asking now that they were face to face. “So Rarity how was that guy you were with the other night?” Peewee jumped onto Spikes head and looked around. The other five mares had looks of both curiosity and shock. Rarity seemed to freeze in place for a moment before replying. “Well if you must know. It didn’t go very well. He already had a mare…..and two colts.” Peewee wasn’t paying attention after that. It was too confusing with all the ponies suddenly moving and talking over each other. All he could see was that Spike was sort of relieved, but mostly concerned and hung his head and just listened more intently to Rarity’s tale. Boring. So Peewee just played with the other pets he could until everyone decided to go home. Wishful Thinking finished his shopping easily. He even had a few places he could scout for work. Pinkie Pie had actually said she’d help find the perfect job for him when she had time tomorrow since she had to babysit the Cake’s twins that night. Combined with talking a bit to the townsfolk who didn’t ask about his mark at all he was delighted how friendly everyone was. “Maybe I was just freaked, he thought, after all everyone in class knew my talent because I was the first to get it in class and used it to become popular. Didn’t really work out but new place new start. Things are looking up for once.” And then he went to the library. True he should have known it was closed. But he figured Spike would be there and it would be a simple task to borrow a book to read a bit before resting up. He had gotten there just as Twilight and Spike had gotten back from something. And Twilight didn’t seem too happy, bad sign. “I can’t believe that guy,” she was exclaiming. “How could he fool her like that?” Spike wasn’t talking much. “What’s up?” Wishful was honestly curious by nature anyway and he figured it had something to do with this girl, Rarity was it? But that was only a guess, and an unfair one at that. Twilight finally noticed him. Was it just Wishful seeing this or did Twilight’s mood suddenly go from miffed to furious? “AND YOU!” “Me?” Wishful wasn’t sure what was going one but the colt in the back of his mind was loving any reason to have himself be the cause of her pain no matter how small. “Why exactly are you here?” Twilight’s tone was off. Wishful may have avoided her after magic kindergarten but he knew her well enough to see something was off. But the colt in his head plus trying to figure this wasn’t very easy to balance for him. “I just wanted to borrow a book. That’s no way to talk to a customer TS.” “Don’t abbreviate my name you cur!” At that Spike joined in if only for a bit, “what’s a cur?” Before Twilight could say it Wishful did with his eyes narrowed at his childhood rival, “It means a contemptible stallion.” “Contempi-what?” This time Twilight was first, “Contemptible means he’s a very bad guy.” “Exactly why I ask what make me a cur?” Wishful made sure to roll the r for no reason since he knew Twilight liked perfect diction. Twilight’s eye twitched before she sighed and gave up. Storming off into the tree. “Okay seriously,” said Spike. Whatever was on his mind had apparently left him in Twilight’s outburst out of nowhere. “What is up with you and Twilight? She wasn’t like this before we moved here.” “With my luck I used my magic to have someone get along better with his girlfriend, so in return my magic had the great fortune of making the one mare who already didn’t like me get irrational or something. My best guess anyway. That or I somehow timed moving here with that time of the month.” “What time of the month?” “Wait you seriously live with her and you don’t know?” “Well she does get really hot all of the sudden every month and tells me to visit the princess and you. But she hasn’t had time to send me off lately.” He face hoofed. “Well that explains some of the extra hostility, but how am I supposed to grant you a wish to make a girl like you better when you don’t even know about them going into heat.” “Hey trust me, if it was that important I’d know what you’re talking about I think.” “Point taken.” Wishful gazed at the door and then at Spike. “Guess it isn’t a good idea to go in there. Is there anything new that came in since last month in the fiction section?” Spike thought before answering. “Not really, sorry.” “Meh, that’s alright.” He noticed the little bird on Spikes Tail. “What’s that?” “Oh,” Spike replied as he took the little fire bird from his tail. “This is Peewee. He’s my pet phoenix. Guess I forgot to introduce him to you the last time I came up the Canterlot. Can’t exactly bring him to a party with his size.” Peewee proceeded to job out of Spike’s grip and chirped up at Wishful. Wishful smiled and handed him a bit of bread he had gotten while shopping. The little guy could barely balance as he walked to the library door. “SPIKE!” called Twilight, “get in here we have to organize these books by tonight. And tell that jerk outside to go home.” Wishful rolled his eyes and told Spike he’d meet him later tonight. And then with a voice loud enough for Twilight to hear he said, “And when she passes just slap her ass. Girls love that.” “Okay, who were you trying to annoy more?” asked Spike shaking his head and closing the door to the library. Wishful chuckled as he heard Twilight asking what he was telling Spike so loud the entire town might here. So he headed home to clear up his backyard for tonight. This wish had better be good, he thought to himself.