Restless night
The purple little dragon was about to polish his prangles, making them shine like some tasty gems. Since it took a lot of time, he could not do so when Twilight was around- she sure kept him busy, making lists, sorting books or take letters to Princess Celestia.
"You are some handsome dragon" he said to his reflection in the mirror, admiring himself and his work- when he picked up noise coming from outside, so he ran for the next window to take a closer look – to find the mane six heading for the castle.
"What they are doing here?" he asked himself, when his eyes keep stuck on a white unicorn, which looked irresistible as always. "Aww. Rarity" he sighed, blushing as he leaned him self out of the window in order to get a better look.
The group now was on the doorstep, which made Spike lean out of the window to the point he almost lost balance, when he heard Twilight's voice coming from downstairs "Spiiiikee...... i'm back".
The dragon was about to run downstairs, when he came back to take a last check in the mirror, licking his paw to make a last correction before heading down.
As he came into the entrance hall he was greeted by his employee and friends.
The Alicorn didn't waste any time, asking Spike if he would be so kind and leave for they slumber party.
"Not again..." the little dragon moaned "cant i just stay? This place is now freaking huge!"
"I´m sorry spike, but those are the rules" she said once more hoovering a book out of one of the shelf's.
Spike could not resist to close his eyes and lay his paw on his forehead "Twilight and her books" she sighed. She really done everything "by the book" – and quite literally at that.
"This our first sleep over with all of us here, you sure understand its something special, don't you?" his dream pony asked him, with her irresistible Manehatten accent, which made his knee go soft.
"Well,... its just ....." the dragon started, not knowing what to say. He may could talk back to Twilight - they often had their smaller arguments, but Rarity? That was on a howl different level.
"You could crash on my door, i don't mind" Rainbow Dash threw in.
"He ain't a pegasus, he cannot stand on clouds Rainbow" Twilight reminded her.
The pegasus was a little embarrassed "Oh yeah, i forgot about that part again, sorry".
"Well, if its only about a place to sleep, my cows ain't use the barn, he could get him self there put" Applejack suggested.
"A barn? You cant be serious, i'm not some cattle" he argued.
"He got a point, i would not sleep in a barn either" Rarity said conceited.
Applejack shrugged of that comment "don't ya worry Spike, its the finest barn there is".
He was outnumbered on this one. His sigh wandered from one to another, when he looked at Fluttershy, she gave him a kind glimpse "Please... if, you don't mind of course...".
Spike now noticed the owle which had watched the howl conversation "What about him" he said, pointing at the owle.
Twilight followed spikes finger to find Owlowiscious sitting on a shelf "what about him?"
"Why don't he has to leave" he asked.
"Who" the owl replied.
"You, why don't you have to leave too?" the dragon said a little ouder.
"Who" the owl said once more, getting the dragon started.
"You, i'm talking about you up there" pointing again his finger at Owlowiscious.
This kinda conversation sure could take a while, so Twilight stepped in "Owlowiscious, would you mind to leave us for tonight?"
The owl didn't ask this time and just flow of through one open top window, leaving Spike behind frowning.
The little dragon though about that for a moment and took a deep breath "alright alright, i go" he replied grouchy..." rolling his eyes about what just happened and still grumbling "everytime the same......"
"Party!" Pinkie Pie shouted and ran straight for the kitchen, in order to fatch some snacks for the sleep over.
He sure wasn't mad before he left, since Rarity stepped up to him, giving him a small kiss on his cheek "this is really kind of you spike-wikey" she smiled, making his heart race like it was on fire.
Half way to the barn, still holding his cheek which this magnificent pony just had kissed, lost in his toughs "Oh Spike, one day you will tell her..." still feeling all fuzzy over his body "but i guess, i could need somepony to help me".
Holding to this very though he stumbled onto the farm, when he tripped over an apple "ouch" he grunted as he hit the ground "not my lucky day..." starting to reconsider, holding again his cheek "... but i guess i had worse".
As he lifted him self back up he noticed the great sigh in front of him, he sure wasn't into apples, most time he ate some crunchy tasty gems, but still the sunset above the distanced hills made it quite special.
Some couples asked the Apple family to stay here for romantic pick-nicks or even got engaged while spring, when all the trees still carried bloom´s – setting the perfect mood to form a bond which might last forever.
Some day he might also would stay on this ground, doing so as many did before him with their special somepony, but for now he just would stay for the night and hopefully find a nice place in the barn.
As he got closer to the barn it became bigger and bigger, casting a long shadow which reached out to cover everything into darkness, giving it a frightening look, similar to a hounted house.
A shiver ran down his spine, as he remembered last time he had a feeling like this, making him sick to the stomach.
befor Discord had build his new home for him and his future wife, the old ruins which used to be there was once a castle in which Princess Celestia and her younger sister Princess Luna used to live. This had been about a thousand years ago and it was called the Castle of the Two Sisters, until in one faithful night, the younger sister could not take the darkness in her heart anymore and turned into Nightmare Moon.
This was the part when spike slapped him self in order to keep him self focus "this ain't the castle, there is no dark princess here!" he said as brave he could afford, pushing open the big doors to take a look inside.
It was pitch black inside, only a few crack of light found their way into it, giving everything a disturbing unfamiliar silhouette.
As he put his first step into it, searching for lamp he could light up with his breath there was something on the back of the barn, right in front of the window.
Spike stopped in his motion and observed what ever was moving over there as he noticed black wings spreading slowly in the moonlight, when suddenly two deep red eyes shimmered at him.
"Its ... its Nightmare Moon!" was all he could shout, as the creature closed distance between them in just a moment, forcing the dragon to throw him self to the ground in a attempt to get cover – making the monster miss him by just a few inch, as it swiped over his head with a long shreek.
"Ahhh! Spare me!" he stammered "i.. i taste awful! Please!" his howl body shaking in fear.
He slowly took a look between the fingers of his claws to figure out what was going on, but he could not see a thing, so he took a closer look, getting on his knees in order to find out where she did go as he noticed on the sky the black winged creature heading for Ponyville.
It was just a bat - a fruitbat to be precise. Those would not eat him or anypony for that matter, they only ate apples and other fruit, living in a small remote part of Sweet Apple Acres s.
"Just a bat!?" he was so relieved to find out, letting his shoulders fall and catch his breath "good thing nobody saw this" he sighed, wiping the sweat of his head going back in the barn where he finally found a lantern.
The young dragon took a carefully breath, creating a small magic flame to light up the wick.
A barn was surely one of the places where you didn't want to get a fire out of hand.
Everything was dry to the bones and careful pilled hay balls standing on the walls in order to be used as food for cows or once in a while building a scarecrow.
As he adjusted the lamp a little to make the flame bigger, the barn didn't look so freighting anymore, in fact it really looked cozy "its not that bad at all, i guess Applejack was right" he said, as he put the lantern on a hook and jumped on a stack of hay near by "... and its all for me" cuddling him self onto it like a bed.
Not every creature would consider hay to be really comfortable, but despite him being a young dragon, he already had a thick skin covered with scales, so he didn't felt a thing.
Inside the family domestic Apple Bloom was woken up by a noise coming from outside.
Still sleepy she walked up to her window and took a look around "must fallen alseep for a few hours" rubbing her eyes, failed to find the source of the noise.
Than her wandering sigh crossed the barn and she pinched her eyes "why is there light?".
This was odd, nobody would work at this time anymore.
The filly walked out her room, to Applejack's room "Applejack, you are there?" she asked, slowly pushing open the doors, but the room was empty as well her bed "hu, strange" she said to her self.
She turned around to go for Big Macintoshs room, trying to open the door, but it was locked from the inside "hey, somepony in there?" she asked out loud but didn't get a response, so she put her ear against the door to listen carefully in order to figure out if somepony is in there.
There was a noise inside, a deep long snoring, which she instantly reconciled to belong to her brother.
It was quite a hard task to wake him up since he had a really deep sleep, resulting of his hard work.
She though about to knock on the door and wake him up, but let go of the idea. She didn't even know whats in the barn, so she didn't want to bother her brother.
"Could been Applejack" she was thinking to her self and it kinda made sense to her, so she went downstairs, passing by old granny, which she also didn't want to wake.
Granny Smith often got overly excited when her slumber got interrupted and it wasn't easy to calm her down again, so she just sneaked out of the front door heading for the barn.
As she got closer she found the barn doors open and stuck her head in.
There was no Applejack to be found, only a lamp burning, bathing everything in a slight orange touch.
"Applejack?" the filly carefully asked "... are... you in there?" waiting for something to happen.
She now stepped inside, checking to the left and right, walking closer to the lamp. Somepony had to put it there, they sure would not forget to put out a fire in the barn.
A though occurred to her "nobody of my family would let on a light in here, so it must be somepony else" getting nervous, trying to make her moves more silently.
"Nnnnnrrrr" was the first thing she picked up, it just sounded like Big Mac, just not as loud,
so she got down and crouched behind a straw-ball next to the source of the snaring, still it could be an wild animal after all "no wait, makes no sense, those don't light lamps" she figured out.
Leaning slowly around the corner she was released to find a dragon laying on the straw.
If it was for any other dragon in Equestria, she would been out of the barn by now, running for his life – but this dragon was nothing to be afraid of, she knew him well and smiled at the cute appearance of him.
Spike was laying on his back, snoring a bit and moving his arms and legs, probably dreaming of something.
Stepping next to him she tried to be gentle "Spike..." she said, poking him with her hoof.
The dragon didn't response, waving once at her hoof and turning on his side.
"Spike" she said louder than before, poking the dragon once more.
The young fire breather sure reacted disturbed, again waving into the air, mumbling something to himself.
"Wake up now!" she yelled at him, stepping on his tail.
The dragon woke up and jumped behind the next cover he could make out "Help, its Nightmare... " holding his breath as he noticed the young filly "... Bloom?" relieving a sigh.
"Oh ... its just you..." he said, coming out of his cover.
"What your doing here?" pointing her hoof on him "don't you live with Twilight?"
"Urm... well the thing is, she asked me to leave"
The filly raised a eyebrow "she threw ya out like this? ain't you friends anymore?"
Spike hold up his hands "No its not like that, they got a sleep over, and well, its just a girls thing you know? So ... they asked me to leave for tonight" he explained to her.
"So how you come to be in here? A dragon in a barn doesn't seem a good idea" she pointed out.
"Well, to be fair it wasn't my idea..." he started "... your sister said its alright if i hang out here" shrugging his shoulders.
Her sister sure didn't use her head sometimes. For Applejack everyone was equal, she didn't treat anypony different by appearance, not after she learned her lesson on Zecora.
"Hey, Spike, would you like to come with me?" the yellow foal asked "I want to go to Zecora... i wanted to go tomorrow, but since you are here i thought we could go together".
He wondered where this idea came from "Zecora? Isn't it a bit late to go there?"
"Don't worry she wont mind, also if we go together we can be there in no time!"
"But its getting dark, who knows if we come across some wolfs or monsters" he shivered.
"Oh i´m not worried, if you come with me i got a big strong bodyguard" she teased him "i mean, you did save ma sister from timberwolfs and saved the Crystal Empire, didn't ya?"
This was how she would get Spike. He might not be the bravest, but he had his moments.
"I guess you are right about that, i'm quite brave" he said a bit arrogant, stretching his muscles like a bodybuilder "and strong..."
"Well, then lets go!" she nailed him on his words, heading for the exit.
"Wait! We cant go just like this...." he said, trying to hold her off.
She glanced over her shoulder "well, if you don't come with me, i just will go alone..."
This young filly was so stubborn. Its kinda like a family tradition with them- being stubborn and not willing to give up, so there was no point trying to stop her after she set her mind.
"alright! alright! I come with you! ... but we have to be careful and if there is any problem, we will turn around, no questions asked" he settled the rules for their little adventure.
"That's okay to me, lets move" she smiled at him, walking of.
Spike rolled his eyes "oh Spike, you are such a push over" he mumbled about to leave the barn, when he ran back and picked up the lamp from earlier, so they had a light along the way.
The sun was almost gone behind the hills of Ponyville and their lamp conjured scary shadows along the path which did lead directly to the zebras home.
Along the path they seen a lot of strange things. Trees seemed to have faces when you didn't look at them directly, strange blue plants growing along the path and sounds of animals was to be heard in the distance.
"I'm not so sure this was a good idea" Spike said, while looking out for wild animals about to jump them.
"Oh don't be such a baby" the filly tried to hide her fear "we will be there in a minute".
So they did go on, getting followed without noticing what was right behind them.
As they walked along the path deeper into the woods, the lamp which Spike had brought along started to run low on fuel and was about to go out when there was another light source between the trees.
As they came a little closer they noticed shadows moving trough the house, Zecora must have been still up, maybe working on some new recipe.
"There it is, that's her house!" the filly cheered "we made it, you see and there ain't a monster anywhere!" she said, turning around to spike which was behind a few steps.
It was this moment when the thing which had followed them came in sigh.
All she could make out was that it was for sure a lot bigger than both of them and had yellow glowing eyes.
The filly instantly started running towards the house "Spike run!"
He didn't quite get it at first, so he turned around in confusion to find the source of her behavior – his eyes growing wide "wait for me!" she yelled and ran after her towards the door as fast he could.
They both hit the door almost in the same moment, starting to hammer against it in order to get let in "Zecora, its me and Spike! Please open!".
"Who?" they got asked from the inside.
"P-please! You know us, l- let us in!" the dragon stuttered, but it was to late.
Their follower had closed distance on them and the two leaned with their backs against the door, holding up their arms in order to protect them self.
"What you two young brought you in this sphere, don't you know its dangerous out here?"
The too of them looked up, Zecora was standing right in front of them in her typical robe, caring a bag full of leaves and roots.
"Oh its you Zecora, we thought ur a monster of some kind!" the filly sighed.
Spike also was more than confused "If you are out here, who is in there?" he asked, when the door opened behind him – to reveal Owlowiscious.
The four of them sat in Zecora's brew room, while Zecora explained the situation to them.
"The owl you call a friend, sometimes reaches me a helping hand" she rhymed as she would do almost anything.
"So that's where you go when we are not around?" Spike looked at the owl.
"Who" the owle replied.
"You! You come here and help Zecora..."
"Who" came once again.
befor Spike was able to say something more, Zecora laid a hoof on his mouth in order to make him stop asking "It´s late to be my guests, you got some worries on your chests?"
The little dragon raised his shoulders ""I don't know, Apple Bloom wanted to see you for some reason, she didn't told me..."
The filly exchanged a the looks on her and asked Spike to leave the room for a moment.
He didn't even try to argue this time, its wasn't the first time today he got thrown out, but at least Owlowiscious had to leave too, which made him feel a little better about himself.
"What seems to be the problem of yours, you might need any cures?" the Zebra asked the filly.
"That's not it, i'm fine, but i wanted you to ask for advice on sumething."
Zecora smiled at her "Well, than tell me right away and i will find an answer for your pray".
Apple Bloom took a breath and explained to Zecora quickly about her ability to make a wish, without telling her who would be the one to cast it "... and that's why i'm here. My friends had so good ideas and i cant come up with anything."
"Hm..." the Zebra toughed about it, walking over to one of her brews "that question of yours might not hard to be solved, but to answer it you have to be evolved".
The filly laid her head on the side "whats that supposed to mean?"
The Zebra giggled at this "you search for a wish to become true, but it does not have to be for you" she said and threw in a hoof full of leaves into her brew, which made appear a small green cloud racing out of the pot, to form a grown pony – which looked at first happy, but fell onto it knees unable to get up by itself anymore.
"If somepony is in need, why don't be kind and share your deed?" Zecora closed up – and the green portrayal got up again, jumping around in glee like a young filly.
"So... you say i should use my wish for somepony else?" the filly started to understand "hmm... didn't think of that..."
"Can i come back in again? Are you done?" Spike shouted from the other room.
"Uhm. I guess,... we are done." the filly replied.
Spike and Owlowiscious entered the room.
"It was nice to have you here, but its getting late, i fear" Zecora said as she nodded them to follow.
She guided them trough the dark forest and also had the kindness to refuel the lamp of theirs with a special slow burning oil she had created. They sure could use it- as well as Zecora's lead, since fog had came up, becoming thicker by the minute – trying to mislead anypony who didn't knew his way around to get lost in the woods.
Only Owlowiscious had left behind at her home, she didn't mind him to stay over, as he had visited her quite often and did not took more space than a pot.
The walk was a quite one. Apple Bloom appeared to be distracted by her toughs, Spike on his side didn't want to make noise – afraid some monster could hear it... and as for Zecora, she had put over her coat and acted mysterious as always.
When they arrived the edge of the forest Zecora was the first one to speak "I will leave you now, going back to the owl" she said firmly, walking of back into the forest.
"Zecora wait" Apple Bloom said "... but how do i know who needs my help the most?"
The Zebra didn't stop, but replied "don't you worry about this, answers will come from where your heart is" with those words said, Zecora seemed to merge with the fog - disappearing like a ghost.
"Darn, she sure is spooky" Spike had to point out, but Apple Bloom didn't listen "answers from my heart? Whats that supposed to mean again!?" she grumbled to her self.
As they came back to Sweet Apple Acres, Apple Bloom invited Spike to come inside, giving him the Guestsroom which was for sure a lot harder to set on fire than the barn, bringing her self to bed afterwards.
As she was on her bed once more, starring at her ceiling, she tried to fire out Zecora's words, almost getting mad at that. "Why just couldn't she tell me? Always those darn riddles... by the time i figure it out, i will be an old mare!"
That's when it hits her like a brick wall. How could she so be so blind about what was right in front of her! Granny Smith was the oldest mare there is, also she was family and needed more and more often help on her daily tasks.
How old was she anyway? She didn't even know for sure, she never had asked her out and her brother and sister tried to avoid this topic all together.
Apple Bloom also did remember when Granny did fall for the Flim Flam Brothers – selling her a "youth potion". It sure was just a big fake, but the old mare at least had felt young, making her happy as she never seen her before...
So why not just make her feel younger and make her younger for real?
This was it. This was how she wanted to spend her wish. This was how she must spend her wish.
She didn't want to lose her, she really loved her like she does the others and her friends.
The really idea made her grin to the point it started to hurt. She barely could hold back her excitement – wanting to wake up everyone in order to tell them, so she rolled from side to side in her bed, giggling while doing so.
... but than all of a sudden she found her self crying. Granny Smith, she didn't want to let her go.