//------------------------------// // How to lend a claw // Story: To save Twilight Sparkle // by TwiwnB //------------------------------// Spike opened his eyes and yawned. A quick glance at his alarm-clock informed him it was still the middle of the night. He tried to go back to sleep, put the cover back over his head, then turned back, rolled to the other side, made a few groans and gave up eventually. He was simply awake. And if he was awake, there was no reason why he couldn’t use the opportunity to go to the kitchen and finish the party’s cake. He got up and made his way through the castle’s corridors. As he approached the kitchen though, he noticed the light coming out of the open door. Scared at first, Spike quickly realized there were only two possibilities. Either a burglar had come to steal something out of the castle’s kitchen, which was ridiculous for so many reasons he didn’t even know where to begin or, more probably, Twilight too had gotten up for a little midnight snack. He looked inside and, as he had predicted, saw Twilight with her face stuck in the midst of the remaining of the cake. She wasn’t eating though. In fact, she wasn’t moving at all. “Hum… Twilight?” Spike called out. She immediately raise her head and looked straight at him. She didn’t respond anything though, she just intensely fixed him for a while and, as the situation was slowly becoming pretty awkward, she made one step in his direction. It looked like she would have lost her balance for a second, but she stayed up and made another less clumsy step toward Spike. “So… hum… you couldn’t sleep either, right?” Spike asked. He wasn’t feeling very comfortable though. With each step, Twilight was closing in on him and with each step a bit faster, so he started walking back to avoid contact until he felt the corridor’s wall against his back. “Twilight, what’s going on? What are you doing?” He asked. She was very close now. Spike looked for an exit but saw none. He felt a drop of water form on his front and run down along his nose then down to his chin. He heard the sound of the drum louder and louder in his chest. When Twilight’s hoof left the floor and extended in his direction to reach him, he felt the cold touch of fear slapping him on the back. “Wait, I won’t say anything about the cake I swear! I wasn’t even here. Twilight!” Spike yelled. But Twilight’s hoof didn’t stop. Twilight’s hoof didn’t even slow down. Twilight’s hoof approached, approached even more and then, at the most critical moment, it pressed slightly against his nose. “Twilight!” Twilight shouted while her face lit up with a giant smile. Spike stayed still for what felt like an eternity and then asked: “What?” But Twilight moved her hoof again and, smiling even more at each time, started to repeatedly hit Spike’s nose harder and harder while shouting “Twilight, Twilight, Twilight!”. Surprised the first few times, Spike eventually dodged the attacks and very amateurishly parried with his left claw before he pushed Twilight back with a spin. Twilight started crying. “Wait, what?” Spike let out in total disarray. He instinctively approached Twilight to help her calm down, leading with his right claw and saw with horror as Twilight’s head turned to him with the speed of a ninja to let her jaws closed down on his innocent claw. Then she meticulously started to chew, which did seem to make her kind of happy again. “Okay, great, you can let go now.” Spike asked. She just kept munching with obstinacy. Spike waited for a bit but, as it didn’t seem that it would end anytime soon, he decided to take matters in his own claws for lack of a better expression. “Give it back!” He ordered. Twilight refused. He pulled to get his claw out of her mouth but she just tightened her grip and got up on all her four hooves to pull in her own direction. Spike fought for his freedom and Twilight fought back with apparent glee. They rolled on the floor, bashed against the kitchen table, found themselves up on the shelves and everytime they moved faster, pulled harder, made a mess of the kitchen as what was left of the cake fell down on the floor and the whole content of the shelves followed, putting carrots, lettuce, floor and eggs everywhere. Suddenly, Spike managed to free his claw and took the opportunity to flee. Twilight chased after him. He was pretty sure he could hear her giggle. They ended up in the living room where Spike tried to hide behind the couch only to have Twilight knocking it over. He went on top of a cupboard only to be followed by Twilight who clumsily climbed it and made it fall down. To escape, Spike jumped on the chandelier but the chain didn’t hold and both him and the chandelier fell on the ground. He saw Twilight spotting him as well as the smile of satisfaction and victory on her face. She ran towards him but suddenly fell. She had tripped over the carpet and fallen face first onto the floor, putting an end to the chase. She started crying again, louder this time. With her hooves, she reached for her face but only achieved to make a mess of her mane. Spike slowly approached and started to gently caress the top of her head. She looked at him with begging eyes and then looked at his claw. He understood and sighed. “Alright.” He held his claw out to Twilight who immediately started chewing on it, which calmed her down. Spike looked at her and sighed again. “What am I going to do with you?” He wondered. There wasn’t much to be done though, so he just sat at her side, let her munch as much as she wanted and just waited. A few moments later, they were both sleeping, exhausted by the midnight chase.