//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: A Sea of Parchment 
// Story: Spike's Mark 
// by mikemuir0178 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 5:  A Sea of Parchment


The next morning, Twilight made arrangements to have everyone meet at the Castle of Friendship to discuss their findings in the throne room.  She found she did not need to wait long before Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash entered the room.  However, as they entered, they appeared slightly distracted.

“Hey girls.  Is everything okay?” she asked as she looked at each one.

The three ponies looked at each other as if they were debating whether to tell her something.  After a moments pause, it was Applejack who broke the silence.

“We’re okay, but you might want to brace yourself,” Applejack replied.

“Huh?” Twilight looked at her friends in curiosity.

“We’ll let Fluttershy explain since she’s the latest victim of bad drama,” Rainbow Dash replied as she and the others began to take their seat at the conference table.

Twilight stood perplexed as she watched the ponies take their seat.  She then turned back and looked to the entrance to see Fluttershy slowly entering the room.  Her head appeared to be slightly drooping.  “Hi Fluttershy.  What’s going on?” Twilight inquired.

Fluttershy approached Twilight nervously. “Um….Twilight.  Is it true you’re separating Spike and Rarity?”

The question caught Twilight by surprise.  “What are you talking about?”

Fluttershy looked back at the entrance to the room. Twilight followed her gaze back to the door, but saw no one there.  She then looked back at Fluttershy in confusion.

“It’s just that…Well…Rarity was practicing an apology in front of us,” Fluttershy responded, “She’s worried you might separate Spike from her.”

At first, Twilight wasn’t sure what Fluttershy was talking about.  However, after a brief moment, memories of Rarity’s dramatic apology to Spike and Gabby surfaced.  “Oh no,” Twilight said as she braced herself for the onslaught.

As Twilight said this, a record player came floating into the room and landed off to one side of Twilight.  As soon as it landed, the record played a violin tune used to represent sorrow and ask for forgiveness.  Rarity then jumped into the room and kneeled in front of Twilight with tears in her eyes.  “Princess Twilight!  I beseech you!” Rarity cried, “Please don’t take my Spiky-Wiky away!”

Twilight rolled her eyes and groaned.  In truth, she should have guessed Rarity would do something like this after what happened in the Dragon Lands.

“We were young!  We were in love!  We sought comfort in the cold storm!  Spiky-Wiky helps bring meaning to my life!” Rarity pleaded.

“You mean he helps you carry your bags!” Rainbow Dash shouted from her throne.

“Yes…Well…That too of course,” Rarity admitted.  She then resumed kneeling in front of Twilight. “But we were meant to be together! I ask for your-“

“I forgive you, Rarity,” Twilight said casually.

“Forgiveness and-“Rarity’s eyes shot open as she heard this. “You forgive me?”

Twilight sighed as she realized she should not just apologize to Spike, but to Rarity as well.  Rarity’s dramatic acting was punishment enough.  “I’ll admit, I was a little overprotective,” Twilight apologized.

“A little…” Rarity grudgingly implied.

“Okay, a lot!” Twilight reluctantly admitted.  She then let out a sigh to calm herself. “But Spike is special to me too. He’s like a little brother.  I’m sure you can understand that.”

Rarity picked herself up and smiled.  She could relate because of her exploits with her younger sister, Sweetie Pie.  “I understand completely,” Rarity responded happily.

“Just remember.  Spike really does love you,” Twilight replied as she looked into Rarity’s eyes.

Rarity did her best to keep herself composed, but tears of joy formed in her eyes as she heard Twilight’s words.  Quickly she wiped them from her face to avoid the embarrassment she was feeling.  She took on a regal posture.  “My heart will remain forever true!” Rarity said triumphantly.

Twilight and Rarity then made their way to their respective seats.  As Twilight took her own seat, she saw Rarity giving a subtle wave to Spike who was seated across the table.  The little dragon waved back while blushing.  It brought Twilight some comfort in knowing that Rarity and Spike really did care about each other.

Twilight then glanced around the table to make sure everyone was settled in.  “Now that everyone is here, let’s begin,” she then turned to Applejack, “So what did you find at the cabin?”

Applejack frowned in disappointment as she took a moment to look at the other ponies who had been with her.  “Not much.  We searched everywhere inside but found nothing.”

“It almost seemed like she had packed up and left in a hurry,” Flutteshy added.

Twilight looked at the ponies slightly perplexed. “What do you mean?”

“Well…We didn’t find a satchel or anything to carry stuff in, she had some notebooks, but no quills, and unless that fireplace was the only light for the cabin, there were no candles or a lantern,” Applejack explained.

Twilight admitted to herself that was odd.  It certainly sounded like Grey Shire left in a hurry.  But where would she go and why?

When Twilight did not respond, Spike decided to chip in. “Did you find anything related to my egg?”

Pinkie Pie raised her hoof, “I sniffed around the entire room and all I found were notebooks with scribbles that talked about herbs and medicines.”

Twilight cringed a little as she pictured Pinkie Pie actually sniffing around like a dog for any clues.  Based on the reactions of the other ponies that had accompanied her, she probably did.

Fluttershy then decided to change the subject. “Were you able to find out anything from the dragons?”

Twilight took a moment to look at Rarity.  “I’m afraid not much,” she then turned back to look at the others, “The dragons assumed that Spike was hatched in the Dragon Lands and had merely wandered into Equestria.  They were not happy when they found out we had his egg.”

“That’s an understatement,” Rarity added as she remembered Ember’s outburst.

“If Spike’s egg didn’t come from the Dragon Lands, where did it come from?” Applejack asked.

“And how did Grey Shire get it?” Rainbow Dash added.

Almost immediately, Pinkie Pie raised her hoof in the air.  “Ooh! Ooh!  I know!”

All the other ponies looked at Pinkie in surprise.

“Maybe she laid the egg herself!” Pinkie shouted happily.

The expression on the other ponies quickly switched from surprise to disdain.  There was a moment of silence before Applejack spoke up.

“A pony…laying an egg,” Applejack repeated.

“Why not!” Pinkie shouted, clearly not fazed by the looks the other ponies were giving her.

At first, Twilight found that she agreed with Applejack. A pony laying an egg sounded preposterous.  However, she began to remember that despite Pinkie Pie’s strange behavior, somehow she knew what she was talking about.  This gave Twilight pause to think about what Ember had told her.  “Wait.  Pinkie Pie might be on to something.”

There was a collective moment of surprise as all eyes now fell on Twilight.

“Ember mentioned another dragon named Ash, who was supposedly lost.  What if….” Twilight pondered the idea for a moment, “What if Ash and Grey Shire were the same pony-er-dragon?”

Seeing where this was going, the ponies found themselves now looking at each other, wondering if that was the case.  There was a collective pause as they pondered the idea.

“Can dragons actually change their form?” Fluttershy asked.

Rarity pondered the same question before answering. “I don’t believe so.  They don’t have the magic to do that.”

Twilight considered the question as well.  She was unable to recall any moment when a dragon changed their form.  Dragons preferred strength and power over anything else.  It seemed unreasonable that they would want to change into a pony.

However, Ember had said Ash was an Exile. Assuming a Roc had not got her, maybe she did find a way to turn into a pony.  But how could they prove that?  “I guess the question we should be asking is how much we know about Grey Shire,” Twilight pondered out lout.

“What do you mean?” Spike asked.

Twilight took a moment to gather her thoughts. “Well…All we do know really is what was in the missing pony report and the records concerning Spike’s egg.”

“What I would like to know is how she got Spike’s egg. Doesn’t the Dragon Lord guard the hatchery?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“They do.  In this case, it would have been Torch,” Fluttershy responded.  She could still remember how she partook in the last dragon hatch.  “But I don’t think a pony could sneak by him.”

Spike mentally agreed.  He had met Torch a few times and knew very little could escape the dragon’s eyes.  He also doubted Torch would willingly hand over a dragon egg he was entrusted to guard. It was hard for Spike to fathom how his egg ended up in Equestria to begin with.

“So how do we proceed with the investigation?” Rarity asked.

Twilight gave this some thought.  If they wanted to know how Spike’s egg came into Grey Shire’s possession, they probably needed to know more about Grey Shire first.  Was she a dragon in disguise, or was she really a pony that somehow acquired Spike’s egg.  “For starters, we need to find out as much as we can about Grey Shire.”

“How do we do that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“We’ll have to search thru all the records of ponies who lived in Ponyville at that time,” Twilight replied.

“ALL of them?!” Rainbow Dash replied in surprise.

Twilight nodded.  “I know it’s a tall order to fill, but it might be our only chance to find out more about Grey Shire.  If she was a dragon in disguise, we need to find ponies associated with her.”

For a brief moment, there was silence as the ponies looked at each other, unsure what to do.

At this point, Spike decided speak up for his self. “I know this is asking a lot, but I’m asking for your help.  All my life I wanted to know where I came, who my parents were, and why…why I was abandoned,” Spike tried to suppress a tear, “I need to know the truth, but I can’t do it alone.”

The other ponies remained silent as they looked at each other.

Rarity then broke the silence.  “I agree.  Spike is very special and I think we should do everything to help.”

Applejack smiled, “Yeah.  We can’t let the little guy down.”

Fluttershy nodded in agreement.  “It would be wrong to ignore him.”

“I’m all in!” Pinkie Pie cheered.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.  “This is going take all night,” she said, “But I’m not backing down.”

Twilight smiled at her friends and then turned to Spike. “Spike.  Send a letter to Princess Celestia asking for all the records for the ponies in Ponyville around that time.”

Spike saluted and immediately picked up a quill and some parchment.  As he finished writing the request, he rolled it up and unleashed a small jet of flame on it. The note vanished almost immediately.

“How long do you think it will take for Princess Celestia to send those records?” Rainbow Dash asked.

As if to answer Rainbow Dash’s question, hundreds of boxes full of files appeared magically in midair and crashed down all over the room.  The ponies became buried in a sea of parchment.

“It seems not long,” Fluttershy replied from under some boxes, “Can someone help me?”

Twilight could only groan in response.



X  X  X X  X



It took the better part of the afternoon for the ponies to stack some of the records back up so they could move around the room freely. Of course, once some organization had been obtained, the real challenge began.

Twilight sighed as she scanned through each folder in what could be considered break neck speeds, hoping to either find a clue or find the actual file on Grey Shire.  She was used to reading quickly, but looking at the same format for each folder had been tiresome.

How long had it been?

A couple hours at least.  Of course most of that time had been spent trying to stand the boxes on top of each other and create a pathway through the room.  Twilight had considered trying to alphabetize the folders to make it easy, but that would take a day or two at least.  Hopefully, they could find information on Grey Shire before then.

That is assuming she was a pony.

If Grey Shire was something else, Twilight suspected that they would only find a partial record or reference in another pony’s record.  In truth, she hoped that would be the case.  It would be a step closer to finding Spike’s parents and they could assume that Ash was in fact Grey Shire.

Still, Twilight had her doubts that was the case. Ember had been fairly adamant that Ash was too young at the time.  She also found it hard to believe that a dragon would break their code.  Dragons always remained steadfast in their beliefs.

Twilight set down the latest folder she was looking at and glanced around the room.  She could see that Rarity, Spike, and Fluttershy were paging thru the folders at a much slower pace than she was.  Applejack was in the process of moving some boxes to make more room to walk around.  Rainbow Dash had tried to read some folders, but had fallen asleep shortly after.  As for Pinkie Pie…

“Oh Where, Oh where can Grey Shire be?” Pinkie sang, “Oh where? Oh where can she be?”  Pinkie was literally all over the room.  One moment she was bouncing around in circles, the next she would be diving behind a pile of boxes, only to appear in another part of the room.

“At least someone was enjoying themselves,” Twilight thought.  However, she suspected the Pinkie would come thru in finding something.  She always did.

Applejack walked up to Twilight’s side after pushing another box out of the way.  “Twilight, are you sure this is the right way on handling this,” Applejack asked, “Don’t get me wrong.  I want to help Spike find his mom, but so far we’ve been turning up empty.”

“I know,” Twilight replied.  She understood what Applejack was saying, “But there has to be something.”

“You know she may not be here.  If she came from another town…”

Twilight sighed.  “We would need to search those records as well.”

Applejack cringed at the idea.

“But Grey Shire lived in the Everfree Forest.  She must have come to Ponyville at least a few times.  There has to be something here,” Twilight assured her.

Applejack was not really convinced.  “This is like finding a needle in a haystack.  We’ll never find her in this mess.”

“FOUND HER!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she erupted from a pile of folders in the center of the room.  She held the file over her head as the others stared at her in disbelief.

Rarity sighed and collapsed to the floor in a dramatic pose of exhaustion.  “Oh!  Thank the heavens!”

The ponies quickly gathered around Pinkie who held the file up for all to see.  The folder then glowed lavender as Twilight took it from Pinkie’s hoofs and began to page thru it.

“So what’s it say?” Rainbow Dash asked as she hovered over Twilight’s shoulder to get a better view.

“Well…” Twilight said as she finished scanning thru the first few pages, “She was born in Ponyville.  There’s a birth certificate and family tree here.” Twilight took a moment to look over the illustration that showed all of Grey Shire’s relatives.  Twilight was a little surprised to see that a few names looked familiar.  “From the looks of it, she may have been something of a distant relative to Pinkie Pie.”

“I HAVE A RELATIVE?!” Pinkie shouted happily.

“Sort of.  I guess you could say a distant aunt, but not really directly related,” Twilight clarified.

“I HAVE AN AUNT!  I HAVE AN AUNT!” Pinkie shouted as she jumped happily up and down in the room.

Rarity scooted over to Twilight’s side.  “So what does it say about her?”

Twilight turned to the next page.  On it was a picture of a cutie mark in the form of a tree with no leaves that was a lighter shade of grey than her coat.  There was also a picture of her when she was younger. Like the picture in the missing pony report, she ducked her head away from the camera in fear.  “It says here that her name was derived from how shy she was. Apparently she had trouble communicating.”

“She sounds kind of like me,” Fluttershy smiled.

Twilight shook her head.  “I don’t think so, Flutteshy,” Twilight said, “I think her condition was worse.  It says here she had no known friends and kept to herself.”  Twilight flipped to the next page of the record.  “She took classes in medicine and herbal remedies but….” Twilight cringed.

“What’s the matter, Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“Her grades…” Twilight groaned.  ”They’re...”

Rainbow Dash peered over Twilight’s shoulder. “What?  They’re just ‘C’s.” 

“You forget.  Twilight won’t settle for anything less than an ‘A+’.” Spike chipped in.

“How can anyone settle for such grades,” Twilight said to herself.

Applejack looked back at Pinkie Pie who was still bouncing around about having a relative.  “Are you sure she’s related to Pinkie Pie?”

“Like I said.  Sort of.  She’s Pinkie’s grandmother’s, cousin’s niece,” Twilight explained.  Twilight then flipped back to the page with the family tree. “At least I think that’s how it goes.”

“I don’t see the family resemblance,” Rainbow Dash said as she watched Pinkie jumping about.

“What about dragons?” Fluttershy asked, “Did she talk with them?”

Twilight skimmed through the file.  “Nothing.  It says here she did take long walks in the woods, and then moved out of Ponyville. Her last known location was the Everfree Forest.”

“You mean the cabin that Spike and I were at,” Rarity added.

Twilight nodded.

Spike felt his hopes slide away.  “So there’s no way she could have been a dragon.”

Twilight didn’t want to admit it, but she did not want to lie.  “I’m afraid not, Spike.  Grey Shire was a pony.  She was also a few years older than what Ash would have been.”

Spike let out a sigh of disappointment.  While he had been searching the records, he really thought he might find evidence that Grey Shire was a dragon in disguise.  It would have explained why she had his egg. “Well…” Spike replied, “It was worth a try.”

Twilight felt her heart ache for Spike.  She really hoped that finding Grey Shire’s file might answer some questions.  Instead, it only seemed to make more.  “Spike….”

As Spike heard his name, he quickly gathered his resolve.  “Don’t worry, Twilight.  I’m not giving up yet.”

Twilight gave a gentle smile as she saw how the events had not stopped Spike’s determination.

“If finding Grey Shire is the only way for me to find my parents, then that’s what I’m going to do.” Spike vowed.

Rarity was also proud about Spike’s resolve. Quickly she walked up to the little dragon’s side.  “And I will help all that I can as well.”

The rest of ponies all smiled as they glanced at each other and unanimously voiced their support as well.  There was no way they were going to let Spike search alone.

Spike looked at each pony and smiled.  “Thank you,” Spike replied as he tried to suppress a tear of joy.  “This means a lot.”

“What are friends for,” Twilight responded





To Be Continued…