//------------------------------//
// Wandering and Wondering 
// Story: The Days Passed 
// by SilverEyedWolf 
//------------------------------//

Spike stood there for a full minute, his indecision freezing him, before he breathed out through his nose, pulling the air back in as part of the same motion. He knew she was coming, he had to have known she would have cleared her schedule as soon as the letter from Cadance reached her.

He let his mind settle on Cadance, on the office he just left, and sent a jet of green flame through the letter in his paw.

Standing there and breathing for another few minutes, he nodded slowly to himself, then started walking.

"I'll deal with tomorrow, tomorrow," he muttered. "Today, the rest of it, is for me."

He took the next left he came to, a swirl of butterflies in a field of daises his only thought.

Unfortunately, if only slightly, the next pony he saw was one of the crystalline guards, who perked up and headed his way.

"Mr. Spike, sir," the guard said with a small bow. "Apologies for the disturbance, but Princess Cadance has indicated that someone needed to tell you that you are, 'Expected to join me for dinner again tonight', sir. Her words, slightly paraphrased, sir."

Spike looked askance at the guard, then shook his head lightly. "Enough sirs, sir. Would you let her know that I'm going to find my marefriend right now, but I'll be there tonight?"

"Of course, uhm, Mr. Spike," he said with a nod, before he trotted back to his post. Spike watched him activate a crystal in the middle of his chest piece and speak quietly into it. After the guard finished he looked up and saw Spike still looking his way, and he nodded and saluted.

Spike nodded himself, and added a wave, before he started off towards the entrance to the castle.

With minimal wandering, he found the large entry hallway and made his ways to the outer doors. He hesitated in front of them for a moment, before he noticed a small servant's entry to the side. Not bothering with the, frankly, ridiculously sized doors, he was soon standing in the gateway of the Crystal Castle, looking around and peering closer at the surroundings.

"Alright now, Fluttershy said she was heading to the zoo... Oh, and then I saw her in the gardens," Spike was muttering to himself, "and she said she'd already done that, and was... heading for the... library..."

Spike sighed heavily and looked mournfully back at the castle doors.

"The castle library, or the public one?"


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Fluttershy was trotting happily on her way back to the castle, having just left the library near the edge of town. The custodian had been kind enough to allow her to borrow a number of tomes based on the castle's credit, and Bright Cluster had been more than happy to secure the books in his saddlebags.

The two of them paused at an intersection, looking first one way, then the other, at the long row of unrecognized houses on either side.

Fluttershy glanced at Bright Cluster, who glanced back at Fluttershy. After a moment something in his head clicked, and he mouthed an 'oh' as he reached into his armor for the map. He paled a bit, a feat for the crystalline stallion, before he turned and plunged his hoof into a saddlebag.

"Oohhh," he groaned before he searched his other saddlebag. "I think I left it at the library..."

Fluttershy looked at him, her eyebrows creased. "Should we go back for it?"

Sighing, he shook his head. "That's not necessary, ma'am. Prince Shining Armor had it enchanted so that it can't be copied, and it'll return to me after a while." He huffed. "He also had the enchantment set for six hours from the last time I touched it, 'As punishment for losing it'."

Fluttershy covered her muzzle and giggled lightly, before nodding. "Nothing for it but to go forward, then. Unless you think you can get us back to the library?"

Bright Cluster sighed before glancing around, making sure no one was around, before he lifted up his bag on the side facing her.

His cutie mark was a compass, but instead of one red arrow facing north, it had four that twisted around each other and pointed in three different directions, two joining to face the same south-easterly direction.

"Ah," said Fluttershy, nodding before looking up at the sun. "At least it won't get dark anytime soon. And we can see the castle, so we shouldn't get too lost."

"Right, right," said Bright Cluster, not at all reassured. "Just, uh, don't let me lead through anywhere I call a shortcut. Sometimes my brain makes claims my sense of direction can't deliver."

Giggling, Fluttershy nodded. "Then I suppose I'll lead." She looked up and down the street, then up at the structure in the distance, lofty spires just visible over the houses in between them. "Let's try this way first," she said, pointing a hoof down the street.

Bright Cluster looked ready to say something, until he caught a glimpse of her slowly wilting expression. "Better than standing here," he quickly supplied, nodding with a smile.

"Alright Fluttershy, time to lead the group to victory," she whispered to herself, no more than a breath on the wind.


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Fluttershy looked almost ready to cry when Bright Cluster perked up, almost two hours after they had left the library.

"Miss Fluttershy! Look, at the end of the street!"

Hesitating, not looking forward to seeing the same tavern for a third time, her ears still fell when she saw the building in the distance.

"The train station?"

"Yeah, the train station!" Bright said, trotting towards it with a spring in his step. "The main street that leads through town starts at the station, and ends at the castle! It'll be a straight shot once we get there!"

"Oh!" Fluttershy said, her ears perking forward as he face lifted into a smile. "Oh, well then, let's-"

She trailed off as a bright purple light appeared over the landing platform, appearing first as the size of a pebble, then an orange, then a grapefruit, then even larger as a seven foot sphere eventually spun from the middle of the area. The air itself was disturbed as eddies of dust made their way from the sphere, and a high pitched squealing noise started to emanate from it.

Then the orb seemed to flex, and with an audible, "Pt'oooey!" noise, the screeching noise became that much louder as a white unicorn fell out of the vortex, followed by the pattering of two suitcases. The pony came out spread-eagle, and her screaming was unmercifuly silenced by the wood of the platform.

Fluttershy and Bright Cluster froze, both staring open-mouthed and wide-eyed at this spectacle.

The orb quickly swallowed itself, and the noise of the air died down to an overbearing silence. Then, the unicorn muttered into the floor, slowly rolling onto it's back and groaning quietly.

"Uhm, ma'am?" called out Bright Cluster. "Are you alright, ma'am?"

The unicorn groaned louder, putting her forehooves over her eyes as her back hooves paddled in the air. She continued for at least half a minute before she stilled. Rolling quickly, she regained her hooves and swooped her long, indigo hair dramatically over her shoulder.

"Why of course I'm all right, darling," she said with a wavering smile. "After all, Rarity is back the Crystal Empire."