Chapter 1
The last book, Spike was relieved Twilight hadn’t spoken about her guest; she had just said to Spike to expect some company. Spike looked around he had waxed the floors, dusted everything, made a nice salad, and even changed Owlicious’ paper. That bird owed him big time. Twilight said she was going to the spa so it must be somepony important if she wanted to look her best.
“Wonder who it could be?” Spike thought aloud
“Who?”
“Twilight’s guest.”
“Who?”
“The one coming over tonight.”
“Who?”
“Sometimes I think you enjoy messing with me Owlicious.”
“Who?”
“You!” Spike huffed and stomped over to the coffee table. “I was just wondering what Twilight’s guest is going to be like” The Owl opened its beak “And don’t you say “Who?” again!” Owlicious shut his beak and glowered at Spike. He began pacing “What if it’s some really important professor or something? What if I don’t look fancy enough?” Spike began to rush up to get his tuxedo. Twilight had stored it away in the attic, because of how infrequently he would use it. It was in a big sturdy strongbox. Spike gave it a tug removing it from the pile it rested atop, and careened backwards. He thudded several times down the ladder before face planting atop the chest.
His eyes rattled around his skull for a moment and Owlicious offered a “Who?” asking if he was alright.
“I’m fine Owlicious, but if my fancy duds aren’t here I’m going to feel really stupid.” Spike lifted the lid, but it wouldn’t budge after about an inch. He adjusted his grip and pushed again. Still no movement.
“Who” Spike turned and Owlicious was holding something useful in his talons. Spike took the heavy metal crowbar and after wedging it in the narrow opening. After attempting to open it by pushing Spike wrapped his legs around the bar and attempted to use his full weight to open the crate “Owlicious a little help?” The owl landed atop the bar, and the slight change in weight was the tipping point. Spike crashed to the ground with a resounding thud as the lid opened to its full extent.
Spike rubbed the back of his skull. He seemed to have a knack for blunt head trauma tonight. The case sure enough did have his tuxedo folded and pressed, but it also had Twilight’s gala dress and shoes stored away, several of his baby fangs and old scales, ancient tests and papers Twilight was particularly proud of, and finally a photo album and a series black books labeled “Property of Twilight Sparkle” the top one though had an address he did not recognize “Comet Tower Room 1102” Spike scratched his head. He didn’t remember ever being in that tower, he was pretty sure that wing was for royalty only. Then again Twilight was the Princess’ personal pupil, so it makes sense that she might get to stay there.
“Well Owlicious looks like we’ve got a mystery on our hands fetch the detective stuff!” Spike shouted pointing his claw into the air for added emphasis. The owl returned with a magnifying glass and two deerstalker caps. Placing one on his own head and one on the owl’s Spike produced a bubble pipe from out of nowhere and began pacing.
“Well it wasn’t her room when she was living at the School for Gifted Unicorns. And it wasn’t part of any of her magical graduate studies for the Princess.”
“Who?”
“Yes my dear Owlicious, the solution is quite elementary. We must have lived in North Comet Tower before I could remember it” The owl rolled its eyes “Don’t sass me mister.”
“So this must have been when she was just a little filly.” Spike chuckled at the thought, with the exception of his one disastrous growth spurt Twilight had always been bigger than him, the thought of her as a child he found amusing. He opened the photo album, sure enough there were several photos of him at a very young age, a few of him with Twilight, and a few with her parents. He flipped through the pages, most of these photos he had seen copies of; there was one of him with his tail in his mouth which he vainly hoped Owlicious didn’t see. Spike swore that beak broke the laws of physics and twisted into a smile. Finally there were a couple of crudely drawn pictures of Twilight and Spike some initiated “TS” one even had Spike scrawled in crude handwriting, but a few were signed “BB.”
Spike opened the journal, and began reading some of the early entries. Most seemed to be about books her parents had gotten her to learn about magic. One described she was going to the school for gifted unicorns. Finally he came to an entry that wasn’t boring.
“May 17th
Today was an exciting day. First I found out there was a test to get into the school and I passed! Then I found out Princess Celestia wants me to be her personal pupil! Then I found out I got my cutie mark! It’s a big sparkly star! Then I found out I get to keep the baby dragon I hatched! I need to come up with a good name for him. I think he’d make a great Claude. It would totally fit him. I get to move in to my new room in Comet Tower tonight. I’m going to miss Mom and Dad, but this is exciting”
Spike seemed perplexed “I owe whoever talked her out of Claude big time. Can you imagine Claude the Dragon?”
“Who?”
“Me. Can you imagine if my name was Claude?”
“Who?” Spike growled in frustration.
“Never mind. One of these days I won’t fall for your tricks Owlicious. Then we’ll see who’s number one. Get it “Who’s?”” The owl rolled his eyes “Everyone’s a critic.” Spike turned the page.
“May 18th
I got to meet my new neighbors today. It seems like I get to live with the Princess’ personal staff. My neighbor is a very nice Earth pony named Dusty. Claude seems to like the guards. He makes little babblings at them, and when they are off duty the love making faces at him. Then there is my other neighbor, he seemed nice enough. But he said Claude isn’t a very Dragon-y name. He says Spike would be much better. Claude seems to like him, and he seems to like being called Spike. I like Claude though, but if Claude wants to be called Spike I guess its ok.”
Spike added a mental note to thank whoever Twilight’s neighbor was. If he had to go through life as Claude… He didn’t want to think about it. Owlicious looked at him impatiently and motioned with a talon for him to turn the page.
“May 20th
Mom and Dad came to give me a good send off before my lessons start. I introduced them to Dusty and BB. They seemed to like BB. I can’t believe Mom asked me if I thought he was cute. I mean he is, but she just embarrassed me so much. They took me and Spike to dinner. I never knew baby dragons could eat so much. He liked the harder things better. He kept munching on that whole Cantaloupe! I’m going to miss Mom and Dad. Dad said I have to be brave, but if I want to come home he’ll be here as soon as he gets the message.”
Spike was familiar with Twilight’s shorthand. She often abbreviated pony’s names with their initials. BB had to be this pony’s initials.
“May 21st
Had some of my first classes today. I really like basic transformation spells. It’s really tough, but all the spells are really interesting. Then there was the class about familiars. All the other unicorns had all sorts of different animals, but I was the only one with a dragon. Spike seemed to get along well with the other familiars, except the one unicorn’s Timberwolf pup Barky. They kept growling at each other, and it was funny because neither of them have any teeth. That unicorn seemed really nice, she said her name was Moondancer. Professor North talked about how these familiars because they were birthed by magic would be smarter than their wild counterparts. That means Spike is going to be really smart. Most dragons can talk and even understand magic! So Spike is going to be the best familiar. He’s going to help me study and learn all sorts of spells. I can’t wait!”
Spike didn’t feel smarter than the average dragon. Then again the only one he ever met lived in the Everfree forest and seemed prone to grumpiness. Spike had to make a note of that next time he was trying to sneak food out of Twilight’s picnic basket. He is smarter than the average dragon.
“June 3rd
I finally got to see the royal library today! Princess Celestia showed me so many books! I can’t wait to read them all. BB said he’s seen the library a million times. He says he has dinner with Princess Celestia everyday, and that now that I’m her student maybe I’ll get to have dinner with her as well. BB says he’d like to have another pony his age there for a change. He’s really nice and charming like one of those princes from an old pony’s tale.”
Spike really wanted to meet this BB guy. It seemed Twilight had a pretty big crush on him, and Spike was never one to pass up a chance to pull a good joke on Twilight. He laughed manically to himself, receiving a stare of mild concern afterwards from Owlicious. He cleared his throat and resumed reading the diary.
Most of the entries were about boring things, she had noted the appearance of his first fangs and the destructive nature of his burping. Apparently he had built up several library fines for Twilight by belching too close to books. She learned a fireproofing spell, Spike was grateful for that it seemed like otherwise he would have had a very rough time in Canterlot, especially when he came down with that case of hay fever.
Spike read through almost a year’s worth of entries before he came to one that was substantial.
“August 20th
I don’t like moving out of the tower. Princess Celestia has arranged for me to be a teaching assistant at the school for gifted unicorns. It should be interesting though. I’ve never tried teaching before.”
Apparently she and Moondancer would share a small apartment and assist the same professor. Spike remembered this much, and he had a few memories of Barky the Timberwolf. He remembered Moondancer, they were supposed to go to her birthday party the night of the summer sun celebration. Instead they had come to Ponyville and the rest as they say was history. Moondancer was one of Twilight’s few friends back in Canterlot. She occasionally sent her letters still. Spike read on.
“I’m going to miss BB. He has been a great friend. Mom was right, he is kind of cute. He said he would sneak out to try and see me.”
Spike was surprised not only did Twilight like this colt, but it seems he liked her as well.
“Hey Owlicious how come we’ve never heard about this BB character?”
“Who?”
“You know this BB guy …You won’t get me like that again” he muttered to himself. It struck Spike as odd that he had never met this BB guy. If Twilight liked him so much and he liked her why had they never met. Spike continued reading about clandestine meetings mostly at Pony Joe’s. Occasionally bringing Moondancer with her, Twilight met BB off and on again with some frequency. He listened to her problems tutoring and assisting young unicorns. It seemed like Spike was always left behind. He moved through another diary. He read about his sudden ability to talk, going from incoherent growling to full speech in a matter of hours. She continued meeting with this BB guy. Memories Spike could recall began appearing things like the Summer Sun Celebration and the first time he used his magical fire breath to send a message. They celebrated Spike’s third birthday, and then his fourth. The years seemed to lessen Twilight’s interest in writing down her ideas. Moondancer appeared less and less in the entries, Spike never thought about it, but Twilight became more and more reclusive before she moved to Ponyville. The one constant was BB.
“December 14th
BB invited me to the palace Hearth’s Warming Pagent. He’s letting me watch it with him from his private box! I’m so excited. I don’t what to wear or how to style my mane or anything for this. I’m going to ask Moondancer for help she always was better with the high society stuff than I was. Oh I just know I’m going to make a foal out of myself in front of him.”
This didn’t seem like Twilight at all. She seemed far more preoccupied with appearance than Spike had ever seen her. She was crushing pretty bad over this BB guy. “Boy good thing I never went crazy like that over Rarity before.” Owlicious rolled his eyes and motioned back to the journals. Spike resumed reading.
“December 20th
The pageant is tonight. I’m so excited! Moondancer helped me pick out this great dress. It’s red with these great pleats and yellow sleeves.”
Spike remembered that dress, it was the one Twilight was originally going to wear to the gala. It too was buried in the chest underneath piles of graded assignments and essays still in need of a new button.
“This is going to be so much fun. This is going to be the best night ever!” Spike had heard that before, right before the debacle at the Grand Galloping Gala. The journal stopped there. The remainder of the book was just filled with arcane lines and notes about various spells. Memory spells if Spike was interpreting the gobbley-gook correctly. Twilight’s life in Canterlot ceased to be recorded at that point. It wasn’t like Twilight not to see things out to their end. Part of her overly meticulous personality was that she hated lose ends.
“Oh well Owlicious looks like it remains a mystery out the stuff away.” Spike put the book back in the trunk as Owlicious grabbed the detective gear and put it away. Shutting the trunk and pushing it away into the corner, Spike decided to practice his piano. Twilight didn’t like all his plinking away, she often claimed he was just making noise.
Owlicious happily perched atop the piano, as Spike began playing one of those old song’s that often played in Canterlot. He tried very hard to remember the words as he played away.
“Mare needs stallion
And Colt must have his filly
That no one can deny…”
The door swung open “Stop playing that Spike.” Twilight was far more agitated at Spike’s piano playing than usual. She usually just groaned and put up with it.
“What’s wrong Twilight? Didn’t you have a good time at the spa?”
“Same as always it was fine. Moondancer won’t be able to come here though. It turns out Barky is planking, and she needs to take care of him.”
“Moondancer? The unicorn you helped teach a class with?” Twilight seemed to stop in her tracks.
“How do you remember that? You were far too little to remember those times in Canterlot.” Twilight looked at Spike with an expression that could make a cockatrice flinch. Spike began squirming realizing he shouldn’t have known that. Owlicious looked nervously to Spike.
“Well… um … you see Twilight…”
“Yes?”
“We may have…”
“Yes?” She was growing impatient
“Possibly…”
“Yes?” She stomped her hoof
“Accidently…”
“Just say it Spike!” Spike was confidant Twilight’s mane would burst into flames any second now.
“Wemayhavepossiblyaccidentlyreadyourchildhooddiary” Spike panted after saying a sentence at speed’s rivaling those of Rainbow Dash upon meeting the Wonderbolt’s for the first time.
“YOU WHAT?” Spike and Owlicious ducked inside the piano vainly hoping it would hide them from Twilight’s wrath. “I am VERY disappointed in both of you.” Owlicious and Spike peeked out of the piano pleading for forgiveness with their eyes. Twilight focused and levitated her targets out of the piano.
“What do you two have to say for yourselves?”
“We’re sorry Twilight. It’s just…”
“Who.”
“Yeah that. You never talk about what happened when you first moved in with the Princess or my early years and we were curious.” Twilight’s expression softened a little and put her charges down.
“You could have just asked. You numbskulls. It’s rude to read pony’s diaries.” Twilight stopped and put a hoof to her
chin “Come to think of it I don’t really remember keeping a diary.”
“We know sorry Twilight. So… what happened with you and BB at the Hearth’s Warming Pageant?” Twilight turned her face away. Her voice had lost almost all its strength and was little more than a whisper
“I don’t really want to talk about it.” Spike tried to walk over to look at Twilight eye to eye. He’d only ever seen her this way after she thought Discord had won. She sounded heartbroken. Spike finally got a look at Twilight’s face. She had a few tears running down her face, Spike had never seen Twilight cry. She had always been so strong, so confidant, it was really quite jarring to see her so vulnerable.
“Twilight what happened?” Spike no longer cared about sating his own curiosity, his question was now rooted in care for his adoptive mother. He didn’t want to see Twilight sad; extending his short little arms he wrapped them as best he could around Twilight hugging her tightly. Owlicious landed on Twilight and wrapped his wings around her neck.
Twilight sniffed and wiped the tears from her face “Thanks guys. You two are the best.” Spike and Owlicious released their embrace and looked to Twilight. “Well it happened a long time ago, back in Canterlot.” Spike and Owlicious lowered themselves to the ground and listened intently to Twilight’s Story.
“Well Prince Blueblood-” Twilight wasn’t able to finish her sentence before Spike interrupted
“Whoa whoa whoa… whoa. You mean to tell me the pony who changed my name from Claude and charmed you is the same guy that was a complete jerk to Rarity? How could you be charmed like guy like him?” Twilight looked down at Spike
“Do you want me to tell the story or not?” Spike crossed his arms and huffed, but Twilight took that as a signal to continue.
“And then…” Twilight put a hoof to her mouth. “I can’t remember. All the memories are fuzzy Spike hand me my diary.”
“Okay but it’s just full of magical mumbo jumbo after the last entry.” Twilight looked through the book magically flipping through the pages. Her eyes grew wider as she flipped through each page.
“What is it Twilight?”
“It’s a memory spell Spike, a really powerful one. I think I cast it on myself. I wrote down the reverse spell here though. I think I can pull it off. Step back.” Spike and Owlicious took a few steps back as a layer of light enveloped Twilight’s horn and gradually expanded. The glowing purple energy spiked to almost four feet tall before vanishing suddenly leaving a short pedestal with a silver basin filled with impossibly clear waters.
The last beam of sunlight cracked through the window. Winds began blowing through the room before a light as the water lifted out of the basin and began dancing through the air. The trio looked on in a mix of fascination and horror as the library seemed to morph into a completely different location. They were in the theater they had performed the Hearth’s Warming Eve Pageant in. Rather than on stage they were looking in on a private box towards the back of the theater. It was empty except for two young ponies, this second Twilight was fidgeting nervously in her seat constantly adjusting her dress playing with the button that was now broken. Prince Blueblood was very different from Rarity’s description of him. He was nervously tugging at his collar. He was far from the self-assured egotist Spike had pictured.
He was acting like Spike behaved around Rarity, if anything he came across as timid and frightened. The play moved at an agonizingly slow pace. Both ponies launching awkward glances at each other.
“Gee Twilight, you really were socially awkward” Spike regretted his comment as an angry hoof poked him in the side. The only thing more awkward than the awful acting was the way Twilight and Blueblood would scoot closer together, and then they would avoid looking at each other.
The show finally ended and two did their best to sing the anthem. Twilight cringed at her own singing. It had mercifully improved over the years. The pair exited the booth Blueblood holding the door open for Twilight. The trio watching this noticed the scene morph again the walls blended together once more. It shifted to a more familiar location, their favorite donut shop in all of Equestria, Pony Joe’s.
The aproned unicorn levitated chairs and stools up on top of his tables and counters. He swished a rag around another table before turning to his last pair of customers. “Anything I can get you lovebirds?” Both Twilights and Blueblood blushed at Joe’s comment “Ah c’mon guys you’re having these secret meetings all the time. Anypony who knows that can tell you two dig each other.” Blueblood looked redder than Big Mac and his Twilight seemed to be hiding under the booth, while the modern one looked like she could drop dead from embarrassment at any second. “You guys know I love messing with you.” He levitated out a box of donuts and two coffees from behind the counter. “I’m closing up for the night, but you lovebirds can hang out here as long as you like, just don’t do anything too… exciting.” He flicked on the record player and it began belting out the same song Spike was playing earlier. Old Blue-Eyes sang it much better than Spike. The effect was Blueblood and Twilight squirmed in their resteruant booth. Spike was beside himself with laughter, as Everypony seemed to want to crawl in a hole and never be seen again.
Joe exited the door laughing. The younger Twilight finally broke the awkward silence. “So… do you?” The older Twilight gulped and was confidant she had the same butterflies in her stomach that her younger self must have had.
“Do… I what?” Blueblood’s face had gone from being flushed scarlet to looking clammy and nervous, a dry sweet creeping off his brow.
“Do… you…” both Twilight’s gulped in unison “Like me?”
“Of course I do.” Blueblood blurted out with great speed.
Twilight could feel the lump welling in her throat again “I mean like like me.”
Spike saw Blueblood squirm with the nervousness that he often showed around Rarity. He fidgeted in his seat before leaning closer and closer to the younger Twilight before very softly planting a kiss on her lips. Spike had an expression of revulsion. Her was the pony who was a jerk to the most beautiful unicorn in the world kissing his foster mother. Spike ran at them to break the scene up, but passed through Blueblood having no effect on the unicorn prince. Blueblood finally broke the kiss. Past Twilight had a look of pure ecstasy on her face. The elder Twilight seemed far more contemplative.
“I don’t remember any of this” There was a melancholy tone to her voice, as if she had snippets and shards of the past, but was ignorant of the whole picture. Twilight looked around to see the features of the room blur again finally reforming in the royal throne room. The past Blueblood was telling Twilight to shut her eyes.
“I have a surprise for you, when you feel my magic open your eyes. I’m going to prove how I’d move the world for you.” Twilight nodded giggling nervously. Blueblood planted each of his hooves in a wide stance and looked out the window to the West. There on the horizon his aunt as she did everyday lowered the moon. He turned his muzzle back to the East.
Beads of sweat began running down his face as his horn began to glow. A second layer of glow and then a third appeared Blueblood seemed to be exhausting himself. The past Twilight opened her eyes as a wisp of Blueblood’s magic touched her forehead. She saw what Blueblood was doing as the first rays of golden sunshine peaked over the horizon. She reached out a purple glow enveloping her horn as they both lifted the sun as best they could.
Spike Twilight and Owlicious stood there in awe. The bright golden sphere began to peak over the horizon. It seemed like a normal sunrise. Both unicorns had strained expressions are their face. Their blue and purple weaved together into a magical braid, doing its best to hold the great sphere aloft. They weakened the mystic braid weakened a little in the air, bright colors fading. The sun wobbled it seemed to be falling from the sky. The two unicorns alone with all their power tried their best, but simply weren’t powerful enough. A gold stream of magic joined the twin colored braid almost outshining all the purple and blue magic as the sun began to return to its correct spot.
The past Twilight let out a yelp of fear as she saw Princess Celestia flying towards the East, to fix the sun. She turned and ran. Blueblood stood there a look of great sadness upon his face. The past Twilight looked back sadly over her shoulder as Blueblood shrunk into the distance. The throne room blurred as a white alicorn with a stern expression landed in her throne room.
The scene blurred once more, Twilight was sitting nervously outside Prince Blueblood’s room, Comet Tower 1103. Prince Blueblood walked up the stairs with a solemn expression. He spoke slowly and deliberately “Twilight Sparkle.” The past Twilight ran towards him but Blueblood motioned for her to stop with his hoof. “You left me. I took the blame for our failure of the sun. It was all my fault. I did it to show my…” Blueblood was choking over his words his voice wavering unsure of what he wanted to say “to show my love for you.” He was tearing up at his own words “And you abandoned me. Left me to face the consequences alone without so much as a word of support. You don’t think I would have taken the blame from my aunt? Do you trust me that little?” Blueblood’s sadness had turned to anger “Can’t you answer? You… you… You little peasant! To think I loved you. You abandoned me. You didn’t trust me!” Blueblood’s face was streaming with tears as he slammed the door to his suite.
All the past Twilight did was try to stammer a few words that sounded like “I’m sorry”. The memory whirled one last time to a crying Twilight casting a spell. She glowed with a purple intensity lifting herself up into the air. A flash later Twilight lay there sitting ignorantly on the ground as a silvery wisp stopped itself in the air caught by a unicorn’s magic. A saddened Moondancer raised a book into the air and pushed the silvery wisp into it. After several moments it morphed in the same simple black journal they had looked at the library.
Moondancer folded Twilight’s dress which she had torn a button from in her anger and set and the book inside her chest. Moondancer let a barely audible whisper escape her lips “When you’re ready my friend”
The scene blurred away and the owl, dragon, and unicorn found themselves in the library unchanged from Twilight’s spell. Twilight looked at the side of the book there at the base of the binding was a moon with a shooting star crossing it. Moondancer’s cutie mark. Even with all the neglect and skipped birthday parties, Moondancer still cared enough about Twilight to hold memories she didn’t want.
“Spike we are taking a trip to Canterlot now. Owlicious you’re in charge.”
“Who?”
“DON’T FALL FOR IT TWILIGHT! He’s trying to trick you!” Spike pointed accusingly at the owl. Who in return looked away in a fabricated innocence. Twilight rolled her eyes grabbing her saddlebags. They had ponies to see.