Who is Stars

by ff0000

Only the Facts, Please

Chapter 2.7, Only the Facts, Please

Spikes day began simply in the morning. He woke up grumbling and complaining at how cold everything was. If ponies could control the weather, why would they bother having winter, anyway? He liked the summer, where it was nice and warm. But this day was one covered with an old layer of snow. The road had been cleared, and most of the fields had been trampled already. He slumped back into bed, but Twilight used magic to pull off his covers.

"Wake up, Spike," Twilight said.

"It's too early and cold for that kind of cheer," Spike grumbled. When he couldn't reach his blanket, however, he sat up, still seeing blurs around the room.

After breakfast, Spike was feeling much more awake and willing to do things, which was a good thing as Twilight wanted to clean up the library a bit for Pinkie Pie's party. Twilight used magic to levitate over books as he threw them onto the shelves. Everything went to their proper position, of course. Before they could get started on the quills, parchment and the like, Rainbow Dash dropped by.

Spike saw something glimmering, and saliva formed in his mouth. But it was wasted since Rainbow Dash wasn't holding a delectable gem. It was a nicely wrapped present that looked good but not tasty. He listened to their conversation while putting away the loose paper. The present was apparently from Princess Celestia. How nice for Rainbow Dash.

Twilight, however, was eyeing the present suspiciously. "Princess Celestia? What is it?"

"I have no idea!" Rainbow exclaimed. "I'm not supposed to open it until tomorrow." She placed the A card onto the table. "This is so wow. I've never gotten anything from Princess Celestia before."

They started arguing about the present and what to do with it. It ended with Twilight teleporting the present away to keep it away from Rainbow Dash. The alicorn wanted to do what she did best, research it.

She started her work immediately. "Spike, get me that book on magic detection."

Spike snapped to attention at the sound of his name. He slumped forward with arms hanging limp. "Aw. I just put that away." But as the ever-faithful assistant, he dutifully climbed up a stepladder to pluck out a thick, green book from the shelf. He merely held it out for Twilight to levitate over.

After Twilight prodded and poked at the present with magic, she raised a hoof, while leaving her head down. "Spike, get me the magnifying glass, and the book on detection spells, volume two."

After Spike brought over the magnifying glass, it was another thing, and then another thing. Their freshly cleaned library now had a mess again. He brought everything out with a bright expression, however, because that meant he was useful.

Soon, more of their friends dropped by, making it too difficult for Twilight to concentrate, so she stopped for the moment. They were mostly focused on the present, but Fluttershy made another suggestion.

"Um, we were talking, that is Applejack and I," she said, "about going out tonight. We think it would be nice to go out and enjoy the night."

Spike was the first to respond with a, "I think that's a great idea."

"You do?" Twilight asked.

The small dragon nodded. His claws were clasped together. "Yeah, you girls can go out, and I'll stay in here and clean up all the cakes, I mean mess of the party."

Fluttershy giggled. "You should come, too. We probably won't be outside for long. It would be much too cold."

"I'm not much for cold, or late nights, but if you really want me to. Let me make a note of it." Spike grabbed a quill and parchment from the newly-made stack. He scrawled down that they would be going out at one in the morning to see the stars, but with his off-claw since he was holding something else with his dominant one.

Everypony else was arguing about the present from Princess Celestia. Before anyone could get too riled up, Pinkie Pie burst. Her loud cheer instantly brightening up the mood and brought attention away from the present.

"I'm ready to start decorating!" she cried happily. "Everypony leave, so you can come back and be surprised."

One by one, they agreed, leaving the party-loving pony to her task.

"I'm going to go upstairs and look at the books some more," Twilight said. "I'll leave the present down here, for now."

"Okay," Pinkie said. "Hey, Spike, you want to help me decorate?"

Spike showed off his best cute-eyes. "Can I, Twilight?"

Twilight smiled and nodded. Using magic, she carried all the materials up to her room.

"Okay! Let's get cracking," Pinkie said. She pulled out a parchment that when unrolled went across the floor. But the only checkbox on it was, "Make Good Party."

He knew how to handle checklists. "Make good party. Got it."

Mostly, that involved grabbing a lot of balloons, confetti and streamers and then chucking it in a random direction. Somehow, they landed in all the proper positions, bringing a splash of color and festiveness. Spike was given the task to decorate the side rooms while Pinkie handled the main room.

He was tossing around streamers when a bubbling started in his stomach. The shaking quickly threatened to burst forth. It welled up so much that he wasn't able to suppress it. With a spew of green flame, a letter unburned in front of him. He caught it before it fell to the ground.

There was only one pony that sent messages this way, Princess Celestia. As usual, Spike looked over the parchment first. While it was a message for Twilight, he felt like this was something he could handle alone.

The message read, Dear Twilight,

By mistake, I sent the wrong package to you. The one I sent out was meant for my sister, Luna. Please do not open it and send it back to me as soon as possible. With the post office now closed, I'll send the present for you and your friends tomorrow.

Sincerely yours, Princess Celestia.

Spike rolled up the message again. The task sounded simple enough, just hold the present until tomorrow, when he could mail it back. With the message tucked under his arm, Spike ran off. The main room was empty at the moment, but he could hear Pinkie humming off in the second library room. The present Princess Celestia had sent was just sitting on the main table. It was carefully scooped up into the dragon's claws.

He returned upstairs, where Twilight was hunched over the table with her muzzle almost touching the book.

"Twilight," Spike called out, "this present was actually meant for Princess Luna. I'm going to put it in my bed so I can remember to send it back tomorrow."

"Okay," Twilight responded without looking up at all.

("Hang on a minute here," Applejack blurted. "Spike told you about this, Twilight?"

"Did, did he?" Twilight had a thick patch of red on her cheeks.

"Ooh!" Pinkie waved her arms. "Were you talking to her during one of her super serious concentration times? The time when she just tunes out the rest of the world and responds automatically?"

Spike nodded, and he looked as if that was a perfectly fine time to ask Twilight stuff. "What?"

Twilight let out a noise that was partially groan and partially a roar. It took all her energy not to hit her head against something. "What happened next, Spike?" she said sweetly.)

With the present carefully stowed away, the party happened next. Spike came down with Twilight a bit before the celebration was supposed to begin. His chest was puffed out upon seeing the main room, full of festive fun and colors. There were balloons, a plethora of streamers crisscrossing across the ceiling and even a banner. "I helped," he said.

Twilight nodded. "And you did a nice job."

Pinkie hopped with her hooves fluttering cheerfully. "My first two guests!" She tossed party hats on the two of them.

"The party isn't starting for a while, Pinkie," Twilight said.

"It's never too early! Here, have some punch." While speaking, she had already gotten them some of that tasty beverage.

Spike was staring curiously at the center table, where there was a present waiting. "Hey, Pinkie, about this." He raised the claw holding the cup towards it.

"Like it?" Pinkie asked. "It's a great center decoration for the table, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it really is." Spike just shrugged. A copy must have been made since it looked so good, something he couldn't really argue with. The room did seem less joyful without a big, mysterious and colorful box in the middle.

Their friends soon started to arrive. Spike felt his chest well up when he saw Rarity. She was wearing the most wonderful dress and looked even more magnificent than normal. Moving over to her, he almost felt like he was walking on air.

"Would you care for a dance, my lady?"

Rarity batted her eyes at him. "I would love to."

The party went great. Anytime he could spend with Rarity and be around her beauty and generosity was a great time. Everyone was enjoying the food, music, fun and great decorations that Spike had helped put up.

Spike’s recollection of the party mostly followed what everypony else had. Turning back to the present, he concluded the night the same as the others, with something breaking the window. The others were all feeling pretty silly about getting worked up over the whole thing. They all had sheepish grins when catching each other in the eye.

"And there you have it." Trixie spread her arms out grandly. "TGaP Trixie has solved all your problems. Bask in my light."

Spike still wasn't finished, however. He continued, "Anyway, this morning, I-"

"Ah!" Trixie gasped. In just one moment, she appeared by his side with a hoof shoved against his mouth. "I think that's enough story time, don't you?"

"Um," Fluttershy mumbled, "I want to know what happened this morning."

The others all nodded in agreement. Twilight moved over to her assistant, bumping Trixie away with her rump. "So, Spike, what happened this morning?"

"Of course, I woke up bright and early. That way, I could be first in line at the post office. You will never guess who I ran into along the way." Spike shook his head at several responses and gave a crooked look to Pinkie's guess of the cat that spewed a rainbow out from his butt. "No, no." He extended a claw towards their guest. "I ran into Trixie! I was really surprised, but we talked for a bit. She saw me with the present, so I told her all about it."

Trixie suddenly found six pairs of eyes glaring at her direction. She took a few steps back while trying to maintain a smile, but her face was twitching.

"So that's how you knew the truth about the present," Fluttershy said.

"Do you mean to tell me," Rainbow growled, "that you knew the answer all this time? And you had us go through all that anyway?" Her voice steadily grew to a shout.

Trixie scoffed and said, "Did you really think that account back in Chapter One of my coming here wasn't my own version of things?"

"What?" Twilight asked.

Trixie swept the cape up, leaving only her eyes visible. Hey gaze slid from left to right, then from right to left. A puff of smoke burst out from where she was standing. When it cleared, Trixie was taking off down the Ponyville streets.

"Get her!" Applejack yelled as she tore out from the library. There was still more than enough clean snow for a good snowball.

Trixie weaved left and right as snowballs pelted the ground around her. One well placed shot took off her hat completely. Still, she was laughing, as was Twilight and her friends. There was nothing like a first day of the new year snowball fight.

They hadn't even noticed the mailpony walking past. He went straight up to the open library door, where Spike was still standing.

"Delivery for Twilight Sparkle."

"I'll take that," Spike said.

This was a package that was also from Princess Celestia. It was addressed not only to Twilight, but also to Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and himself. It was something for all of them.

Comments

[Tome]

All's well that ends well.

Good stuff.

[Prince Leviathan]

Trixie scoffed and said, "Did you really think that account back in Chapter One of my coming here wasn't my own version of things?"

Looks like Trixie learned to break the fourth wall from Ponk.