It was a relatively peaceful afternoon in Ponyville.
Celestia's sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and ponies milled about in the marketplace buying and selling their wares. Five mares in particular were busy with their own affairs. Down at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was hard at work preparing for the next Applebuck Season. Rarity had made an impromptu trip down to her boutique in Manehattan to make sure everything was on the up-and-up. Rainbow Dash had flown off to Las Pegasus along with the other Wonderbolts for a reason she refused to explain to the other girls (all they were able to get out of her was that it was, "Gonna change everything!"). Pinkie and Maud had gone back to their family's rock farm for a Pie family reunion and Fluttershy had gone with Tree Hugger to some seminar about trees.
Over at Twilight's Castle, Starlight Glimmer was helping Spike put the finishing touches on the last of three hay bacon, lettuce, and tomato subs.
"Remind me again," asked a bemused Starlight, "why are you going to use dragonfire to toast the subs?"
Spike let out an exasperated sigh and turned away from the tray of subs to fully face Starlight, "Like I said before, dragonfire produces way more heat than regular fire." He turned back to the subs, checking to make sure the ingredients were perfectly placed. "All you need is a quick burst of dragonfire and BAM" - Spike slapped his claws together - "perfect sub."
Starlight raised an eyebrow at the dragon, skepticism written all over her face. "Can you even control how much heat you put out?"
Spike waved a claw dismissively, eyes still glued to the subs like a chess player plotting their next move. "Twilight taught me how to control my fire breath ages ago," he straightened up and gave a nod of approval before turning back to Starlight with a cocky smirk, "I got this."
Starlight couldn't help but chuckle at Spike's confidence. "Alright, Spike. If you're sure you can do it-" she waved a hoof dramatically towards the tray "-fire away!"
Spike gave a mock salute and turned towards the tray of subs, "Alright, here we go." He cracked his neck a few times, took a deep breath and-
"SPIIIIKE!"
Starlight and Spike both jumped, startled by the sudden outburst. Unfortunately Spike had chosen that moment release a very uncontrolled burst of dragonfire. The painstakingly crafted and carefully prepared subs didn't stand a chance. In the wake of the super-heated fire the subs were reduced to ash. Starlight winced and placed a sympathetic hoof on Spike's shoulder.
"SPIIIIKE!" whined the voice again from somewhere in the castle, "I NEED YOUR HELP!"
The voice went ignored for another minute as Spike stared forlornly at what was supposed to be the perfect lunch.
"It's not fair," Spike sniffed, a tear rolling down his cheek, "It was gonna be perfect."
"Come on, cheer up, Spike," Starlight tried to reassure the despondent dragon, "we can always make more." She picked up the blackened tray in her magic and dumped the failed lunch into a nearby trash bin. "I'll clean up in here," Starlight offered as she moved towards the kitchen sink, "You better go see what Twilight wants."
"But-" Spike began to protest before Starlight cut him off.
"Spike," she said, giving him a pointed look, "she doesn't sound too happy right now and you know how... intense she can get when there's a problem she can't deal with on her own."
Spike wiped his eyes and gave a heavy sigh of resignation, "Yeah, okay." With that, he turned and walked out of the kitchen, heading towards Twilight's study. "This better be good," he grumbled to himself, "haven't eaten all day and those HBLT's were gonna be god tier."
"Nope."
A magenta colored aura released a crumpled-up piece of parchment into the wastebasket. For a time, there was silence, save for the frantic scratching of a quill. And then...
"Ugh... no!"
Two more pieces of parchment made their way to the wastebasket.
More silence.
More frantic scribbling.
SNAP.
"AAAAARGH!"
Another roll of parchment and a broken quill slammed into a now overly full wastebasket which, itself, flew across the study and slammed into the door just as a certain disgruntled baby dragon made to open it.
"Whoa!" cried Spike, quickly moving behind the door just as the basket smashed into it. "Geez, Twi, chill out!"
Twilight quickly turned towards the door at the sound of Spike's voice. "Oh my gosh, Spike," she cried, concern momentarily replacing her previous aggravation, "are you okay?"
Spike pushed the door open the rest of the way and walked into the study. "I'm fine, Twi," he replied, eyeing Twilight warily, "I'm more worried about what's going on with you." As he walked over to Twilight his foot bumped the overturned basket. He blinked and looked down at all the parchment that had spilled out. He picked up one of the non-crumpled rolls of parchment, looked at it briefly, and then looked back at Twilight with a raised eye ridge, waiting for an explanation.
Twilight buried her face in her hooves and groaned. "I'm sorry, Spike," she looked back up at Spike and grinned apologetically, "I was trying to do something new and I guess it kinda got out of hoof..."
"Yeah," Spike gave a quick glance at the desk Twilight was sitting at, noticing it was almost completely covered in discarded parchment, "I can see that." He turned back to Twilight with a questioning look, "Soooo... what, you're trying to write Celestia the longest letter in existence?"
"Well, no I'm trying t-"
"Oh, did you come up with another one of your insane theories?"
"What? No I... wait what do you mean insa-"
"Wait, no way," Spike gasped in horror, "did that creepo journalist from Fillydelphia finally convince you to help him write that article about Fluttershy's-"
"SPIKE!" Twilight shouted, cheeks flaming, "I'm trying to write up some ideas for a story!" she shook her head and glared at Spike, "and we all agreed to never bring that up again!"
"Ooooh," said Spike, giving a slow nod of understanding. He then grinned at Twilight sheepishly, "right, sorry, Twi." He walked back over to the wastebasket, set it upright and started filling it back up, "So what exactly did you need me for again?" he turned from his work to give Twilight a glare, "I'll have you know, I was in the middle of making what may very well have been the best lunch in the history of lunches-" he snorted and crossed his arms "-and because of your little emergency I ended up burning it all to a crisp."
Now it was Twilight's turn to look sheepish, "I'm sorry, Spike, like I said things just kind of got out of hoof and I overreacted... again," she then proceeded to prostrate herself before Spike, forehooves held together and her eyes big and watery, "forgive me?"
Spike glared at Twilight for another moment, but then sighed and shook his head with a small chuckle. "Aright, alright already, quit with the look. Seriously, that's something I should be doing to you, not the other way around."
Twilight got up and gave Spike a quick hug. "Thanks, Spike." She went back to the desk and floated another roll of parchment and another quill from her desk. "Now, Spike," she began, "the reason I need your help is because, as you can see" - she waved a hoof at all the discarded parchment and broken quills scattered about - "I'm not having very much luck coming up with ideas for a story." She then flashed Spike a winning smile, "I figured I could have somepony help me toss some ideas around, and who better than my number one assistant?"
Spike crossed his arms gave Twilight a flat look, "Really, Twilight?" he deadpanned, "you're talking to somepony who would sooner bury his face in a comic book for foals than read any real literature."
"Comic books are technically literature," Twilight replied weakly, winning smile wavering as she began to sweat.
Spike just raised an eye ridge and said nothing.
Twilight groaned in exasperation, "Okay fine," she relented "I wanted to ask the girls but most of them left Ponyville on one errand or another."
"What about Starlight?"
Twilight opened her mouth to respond and froze, Why hadn't she asked Starlight for help? She closed her mouth and put a hoof to her chin thoughtfully, "You know, Spike," she said slowly, "that's a good question." She looked back to Spike with a thoughtful frown, "I guess between the two of you, I'm just more used to calling on you for help."
Spike puffed out his chest a little with pride at that. "Well when you put it that way, it's only natural to pick your number one assistant as the go-to guy... but," Spike's look shifted to one of bemusement, "why would you even need our help anyway? In fact, why are you having trouble at all?"
Twilight tilted her head in confusion, "What do you mean, Spike?"
Spike slapped a claw to his face, "I mean, you're you!"
Twilight just stared at him with that same uncomprehending look.
"Ugh!" spike threw his claws up in irritation, "I mean you're Twilight 'Book Fort' Sparkle! Champion of Books! Lady of the Librarium! Paragon of the Written Word! How do you" - he pointed a finger at Twilight for emphasis - "not have any idea of what to write about?"
"..."
"..."
Twilight slowly raised an eyebrow at Spike who turned away and coughed awkwardly after a moment. "So... uh... yeah. Just curious."
"Okay, Spike," Twilight laid down on the floor, resting one hoof on the other and looked at Spike with no small amount of amusement, "I'll give you 'Champion of Books'," she shook her head, "but Lady of the Librarium? Paragon of the Written Word?" She let out a bark of laughter, "how long have you been waiting to bust that one out?"
"Longer than I'd like to admit," mumbled the now red-faced dragon.
Still chuckling, Twilight gave Spike another quick hug, "Never change, Spike... never change."
It was at this moment that Starlight Glimmer decided to walk into the study; tray of freshly made HBLT's floating in her magic.
"Hey, Spike, Twilight. I decided to make some more su - whoa." Starlight stopped and looked around the messy study with wide eyes. Her gaze eventually landed on Twilight embracing an embarrassed Spike, "Um..." Starlight blinked, "what... did I miss?"