Party Time…
Spike awoke at the middle of the night. A slight clinking sound was heard as a pebble kept hitting against a window near the kitchen. It was irritating to no end and Spike wanted to tell off whoever was keeping him up. As Spike opened the kitchen window, a stallions head poked inside and looked Spike right in the eyes.
“Sorry to bother you this late Tony.” The stallion said, giving Spike a sheepish smile.
“Bother? None at all, everypony just loves being awakened at the middle of the night!” Spike snapped back sarcastically.
“Oh good, for a minute I really started to think I bothered you.” The stallion let out a sigh of relief while Spike twitched, trying
his best not to yell at the stallion.
“Anyway, the party doesn’t start until around the afternoon today. Unless being this early is your kind of thing.” Spike joked.
“No, I’m here because Twilight is expecting Lawrence to be in town today.” The stallion replied.
“You don’t say. You must be him then.” Spike eyed the stallion with interest now rather with annoyance.
“That I am.” The stallion nodded his head.
“So, how is this diversion going to work? I need a head start before you guys start anything.” Spike asked.
“Fortunately, Kemp and Wick found roles in bringing some apple from Sweet Apple Acres. They have gathered a fair amount of changelings, which got disguises from some random stallions in other villages, to help them bring apples to the party and among other things.” Lawrence explained, nearly reduced to a whisper hoping not to awaken anypony.
“Excellent, but that still doesn’t give me some signal to be aware of.” Spike let out an impatient sigh.
“Fairly simple, just say “Riot” and we will do the rest.” The stallion explained. “Can we make this quick? My neck is starting to hurt.”
“What? Yeah, sure, go run along.” Spike slammed the window right on the stallions face.
Spike saw that the stallion was rolling on the ground outside, holding onto his nose. Maybe slamming the windows on his face was uncalled for, but being awoken in the middle of the night was no pleasant experience itself. The sunrise was starting to creep into the kitchen room and Spike knew rest was no longer an option for him. Spike waddled back to the window and opened it, finding that the stallion was still curled up and holding onto his nose.
“It’s morning, get a move on.” Spike alerted the stallion.
“Right, I’ll just knock on the front door.” The stallion replied in a muffled voice. He slowly got up and made his way to the front door of the library.
All too soon, Twilight came bustling down the stairs to the kitchen. She looked around the kitchen expectantly and it took Spike a few moments to catch on. The lack of breakfast was evident.
“I thought we could go out today!” Spike quickly muttered, hoping to avoid suspicion.
“That sounds great! Um, did anyone come by today?” Twilight asked sheepishly, her gaze resting at the front door.
Spike’s mind lingered back to the events of slamming the window on Lawrence’s face, but thought better to keep his trap shut. “Can’t say if someone dropped by.” Spike faked the curious look on his face.
“Oh, well maybe he is-.” Twilight was cut off by a loud knock on the door. “He made it!” Twilight yelled with delight.
Twilight was skipping as she made her way to the front door; Spike couldn’t help but gag at the sight of this. With a flourish, Twilight opened the door and revealed Lawrence standing behind it. Now that Spike looked at him properly, without the darkness hiding half his face, the stallion looked reasonably handsome. He had a jet black mane, a silver coat and was just as tall as that red farm pony that sold apples. True, the red stallion in town was more built for work then Lawrence, but the height difference wasn’t much.
“Lawrence, you made it!” Twilight gushed. Her face went from pure happiness to dismay. “I looked terrible! Give me a minute!” Twilight disappeared in a flash of light.
“That went well.” Lawrence muttered after Twilight vanished.
“Just don’t mess up! We still got a whole afternoon to wait out.” Spike warned.
“Tony, don’t worry you’re little head! We just take her out to breakfast and that should take up a nice amount of time.” Lawrence dismissed the warning without a care. This only made Spike froth at the mouth with green flames.
“I might not be a dragon, but I will gladly set you on fire through other methods.” Spike hissed, the green flames licking against the corners of his mouth.
“Spike, be nice!” Twilight yelled shrilly, nearly knocking over Spike from behind.
The green flames quickly died out and Spike slowly got up after being nearly planted to the ground. “Can we just go get
breakfast?” Spike asked.
“Shall we?” Lawrence offered his hoof for Twilight to grab, who grabbed it all too eagerly.
Twilight had stepped on Spike like a floor mat when she walked off into the distance with Lawrence. At first Spike wanted to shoot a spell right at the both of them, but he barely kept his temper in check.
“You’ll pay for that later, Twilight Sparkle.” Spike hissed, his eye’s flashing green.
Spike walked back to the kitchen and made himself a cup of tea. Heading out to breakfast with those two was just begging for a gag fest. All the possible little corny moments could have cropped and Spike had a pulse of dread that “Lawrence” was getting attached to Twilight as much as she was getting attached to him. This was bad and the time might come when their relationship might have to be cut short. After all, their relationship was only for the sake of the Hive. Still, that plan did fall apart and “Lawrence” was still keeping in touch with Twilight.
Another problem was starting to nag at his mind now. Is it possible for Octavia to figure out who exactly he is? She was in love with Spike after all. Maybe she might be one of the few ponies who might see through his disguise. Spike threw his cup of tea at the ground in frustration. Too many things could go wrong and the party was not that far off. He had come way too far to fall flat on this now.
Spike stormed out of the library and wandered around the town to burn some time away. He had just rounded the corner, where Sugercube Corner stood, when Pinkie trotted over to him. The urgent look on her face unseated Spike a bit, it was rare to see her so serious.
“Come on Spike! We have to get to the train station!” Pinkie yelled, running past Spike.
“What do you mean?” Spike asked, scratching his head in mild confusion.
“Octavia’s train is coming any minute!” Pinkie’s voice sounded distant, but the note of urgency was evident.
“This is just getting too complicated for my liking.” Spike muttered darkly, running after Pinkie as best as he could.
Pinkie had been bouncing on the end of her tail, like a spring, to relieve some nerves as she waited for Spike to catch up. The closer he got, the faster she would bounce. By the time Spike made it by her side, Pinkie had become a pink blur.
“Great you made it!” Pinkie stopped her bouncing immediately, her eyes still bouncing around though. “Just on time too!” A
large train had slowly crept its way to the station.
As they train came to a stop, it ejected a large amount of steam. There was no seeing past the thick haze that taken charge of the scene. Spike even had a hard time seeing Pinkie, who was standing right next to him.
“Think she’ll see us?” Spike asked anxiously, trying his best to find a sign of Octavia.
Something touched Spike’s shoulder with the gentlest care. Spike turned around and noticed a gray mare standing there, a happy smile was plastered to her face. Now the changeling realized why Spike and Octavia’s love was just so strong. Just the look on her face from seeing the form of her beloved made her give off a feeling of pure happiness. It almost felt…wrong to assume the form of Spike now. Still, this was for the betterment of the Hive. This had to be done.
“I can see you from a mile away, my sweet heart.” Octavia whispered into Spike’s ear before pecking him on the cheek.
Even if the kiss wasn’t exactly meant for him, the changeling felt a pulse of warmth surge though him. This was something that the changeling felt like he can get used to. The haze started to die off and Pinkie noticed Octavia’s presence.
“Spike, get Octavia’s bags and bring them by your place. Octavia and I will be off to Sweet Apple Acres for a bit.” Pinkie laid out the plans before gesturing Octavia to follow.
“See you soon.” Octavia whispered to Spike before following Pinkie.
Spike just waved as Octavia looked over her shoulder to steal a glance at him. A random stallion walked to Spike’s side, without Spike’s notice.
“Don’t get comfortable with her Tony. We still got a plan going on.” The stallion whispered seriously.
“I know Wick.” Spike sighed heavily. “I just got caught up in the moment. Where’s Kemp? You and Kemp are inseparable.”
Spike looked around for another stallion to introduce himself. But none came.
“Kemp isn’t capable of coming today.” Wick replied with a strained look overcoming his face.
“Why? Kemp is always up for something. Something this big is bound to grab his attention.” Spike grabbed Wick by the shoulders. “What happen to Kemp?”
“Chrysalis sent her guards after him and me, someone snitched on us. They tried coming for me first, but Kemp stopped them. Once the guards roughed him up, they dragged him to the feeding grounds.” Wick whimpered, barely holding his tears back now.
“Kemp sacrificed himself to let you walk away from that. Sacrifices have to be made for something like this to work Wick. I’m really sorry this happened to him, but we can’t sit around and cry about it. You know how mad he would get to see us like this.” Spike offered a comforting one armed hug to his comrade. Wick took the embrace and fought back his tears.
“For Kemp.” Wick muttered at last.
“For Kemp.” Spike nodded in approval.
A stallion had been looking at them awkwardly. How long he had been standing there, Spike couldn’t say for sure.
“Do you mind? My friend here is having a rough time.” Spike hissed angrily at the intruder.