//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Reading Between the Lines // Story: Beware Geeks Bearing Gifts // by LadyMoondancer //------------------------------// Chapter Two: Reading Between the Lines To Twilight’s dismay, the decoy present exploded before the bomb squad could arrive. To her relief, it contained only balloons, cupcakes, and confetti. To Spike’s dismay, he was the one who had to clean up the library while Twilight went out for more quills. He was still scraping frosting off the walls when the moon rose, stifling his yawns until finally Twilight nudged her droopy-eyed Number One Assistant into bed. The next morning Spike came downstairs, rubbing his eyes, to find that Twilight had pitched in by cleaning up the rest of the cake and the balloons by herself. Then she promptly renewed the clutter by leaving books stacked and spread across the floor. With a sigh Spike began to sort the ones in the messiest pile for reshelving, though this hardly made a dent since Twilight was still running back and forth across the library, wearing an intent little frown and muttering to herself as she pulled more books from their shelves. Often she flipped them open to silently read a few pages before either pushing them back into their rightful place or—more frequently—casually dropping them with a thud, adding to the mess. “Twilight, what are you doing?” Spike asked. “Oh, good morning, Spike!” Her expression brightened as she smiled at him, pushing an unkempt lock of hair out of her eyes. “I’m just picking out a few books Kimono might like.” "But Minty said she can't keep books in her cave. And you're going to give her library books?" The horror in Spike's voice was not so much due to the thought of giving away library books, but more at the thought of Twilight Sparkle willingly giving away library books. "Spike! These books are community property! I can't give them away," she said, as disapproving as though it had been his suggestion. "I'm just taking them over so I'll have something to talk to her about!" Spike scratched his head. “Can’t you talk to her about the party?” “I have to lure her out of her house—I mean, cave—before the party,” she reminded him. “Since I don’t know any of her hobbies, I decided the best way would be to take over some books she might be interested in. So I looked at the kinds of books Sweetberry had been checking out for her—” “How’d you do that?” He picked up a book at random and flipped the cover open; sure enough, the index card in the front showed that Sweetberry had checked it out last. “We don’t keep a list of who checked out what in the past, do we? Just what’s currently out, right?” Twilight didn’t answer, burying her nose in another book. “Twilight?” Spike repeated, suspicions aroused by her tousled hair and her slightly bloodshot eyes. “How’d you figure it out?” “There are a lot of things you can find out with magic,” Twilight Sparkle said, giving an airy, carefree, and altogether unconvincing laugh. The little dragon crossed his arms. “You got up early to sort through the books one by one, didn’t you?” “No, Spike, I did not get up early to sort through the books one by one!” She rolled her eyes. “So, you stayed up all night?” “Oh, be quiet, Spike," Twilight grumbled. She telekinetically waved a mug at him. "And bring me some more coffee!” Spike took the cup with a sigh and disappeared into the kitchen, where several boards were now nailed over the hole in the wall. A few minutes later he handed a cup of double-strong brew to Twilight. “I don’t get why you’re putting all this effort into this. It should be a piece of cake. Speaking of which . . .” He fished a cupcake out of the trash as Twilight Sparkle wrinkled her nose in disgust. “First of all, that’s extremely unsanitary,” she said as she levitated the baked good away from him. “Second, I can’t let down Pinkie Pie. Third, have you seen the types of books Sweetberry takes out?” Spike licked the frosting off his claws thoughtfully. “Well, sometimes she checks out cookbooks. And sometimes she checks out big, thick ones without pictures.” “Exactly!” Twilight’s tone was no longer admonishing, but excited. “Serious literature! And my hypothesis is all those books were for Kimono!” Spike snuck another cupcake out of the trashcan. “So?” “‘So’? ‘So’??” Twilight stared at him incredulously. “Spike, do you know how great it would be to make friends with a pony who reads?” “You’re already friends with ponies who read,” Spike pointed out. “Even Rainbow Dash reads now.” “That’s true. And I’m really happy for them—especially Rainbow. It’s not that I think that their books don’t count or anything, it’s just that . . .” She sighed as she opened a little box sitting by the door, each index card inside representing a book that was currently checked out. Rainbow Dash had been in for the next Daring-Do book, Applejack was working her way steadily through a set of pulp westerns, and Rarity and Fluttershy each had checked out a paperback by romance novelist Lovey Dovey. “It’s just that I’d like to be able to talk about my favorite books with somepony, once in a while. I’d like to ask other ponies what they thought about Horsesense and Sensibility or talk about the themes in The Old Mare and the Sea Pony. Share my love of classic literature, you know?” “You can always talk about that stuff with me, Twilight. Just look!” He proudly pulled something out from behind his back. Twilight read the title of the wrinkled, dog-eared comic that he was holding out. “The Adventures of Sampo the Super-Deer were not quite what I had in mind when I said ‘classic literature’, Spike.” “It’s very classic,” he insisted, hugging the precious comic book to his chest. “It’s a reprint of the very first issue!” “That’s nice,” Twilight began, “but it’s not—oh, shoot!” She leapt to her hooves as she heard a knock at the front door. As Twilight frantically jammed an assortment of books into her saddlebags, Spike answered the door. “Hiya Spike, hiya Twilight!” Pinkie said as she bounced in. “Heeey you two!” Minty followed her in. “Excited about the party?” “You mean I’m invited too?” Spike brightened. “Of course you are, Spikey-Wikey!” Pinkie rubbed his head with a hoof. “A party without a dragon there to get his party-on is just a drag! Ready to go, Twilight? We don’t wanna be late. Although . . . it’s a surprise party, so she doesn’t know about it, so I guess technically we can’t be late!” “Just . . . a . . . minute,” Twilight puffed, forcing A Tale of Two Pastries into her satchel. “Okay! Ready!” Pinkie Pie blinked, perhaps surprised by the glint of determination in Twilight’s eye or perhaps perturbed by the way she was staggering under her literary burden. “Are you all right, Twi?” “You bet I am, Pinkie.” Twilight put on a wide smile to reassure her friend. Everything was all right, more than all right! She was going to meet a smart, literary pony and she was going to make a new friend. She was going to make a new friend or die trying.