//------------------------------// // He's been dreaming of a true love's kiss... // Story: My Little Disney: The Movie // by DagaYemar //------------------------------// Twilight burst through the door of her library and magically slammed it shut behind her. One is normal, two is a coincidence, but three? Three is a conspiracy. And she had run into two other singing groups on her way here and had felt the pull to join in with them. Not just a desire, a pull! “It must be compulsion!” she said aloud, her mind ablaze with the possibilities. “Some kind of magic forcing everypony to sing against their will! The amount of magic necessary to affect the entire town would have… to be…” Twilight became aware of the state of the room around her for the first time and her jaw dropped. It was clean. Sparklingly clean. Twilight could see her face reflected in the shine on the closest bookcase. Every book was in its proper place, every table was free of crumbs or spare papers, and there wasn’t a single thing lying on the floors anywhere she could see. “…Spike?” Twilight called anxiously, walking carefully forward as if fearing to suddenly stumble across an invisible pile of trash. Spike never kept the place this clean when she wasn’t here to goad him into cleaning. She might believe a roving band of rogue cleaners had broken in and fixed this place up before accepting Spike had suddenly developed a neatness streak. It was just further proof that something was very wrong with Ponyville. “Spike, if you are here, you really need to help me! I think somepony has cast a spell over the whole town!” Her pleas just echoed around the empty room. Where could he have gone at a time like this? Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something out of place. The door leading to the basement was hanging slightly ajar. Cautiously, Twilight nudged it open and peered inside. Whoever had cleaned upstairs had not bothered to come down here apparently, if the thin layer of dust coating the floor was any judge. For that matter, Twilight didn’t think she had been down here herself since that one time with Pinkie. Making a mental note to sweep up after the crisis was averted, she was about to back out before a disturbance in the dust caught her eye. A tiny trail of dragon’s prints lead down the staircase and back up. Grinning in triumph, Twilight levitated a candlestick off the wall and channeled it alight. “Why would he have come down here?” She asked herself as she slowly descended the stairs. As she reached the bottom, she became aware of a soft glow coming from a large book lying open on a table at the other end of the room. The dragon tracks lead right up to it. Carefully, Twilight approached the tome and peered down into the open page. “…Blank?” she said in confusion. Lifting the book up with her magic, she peered closely at the paper as if she could make out words if she squinted hard enough. The empty page glowed softly as if lit from within, but otherwise remained the same. Humming to herself under her breath, she flipped through the pages until found one covered in a very ornate scrawl. As she watched, the words slowly faded off the page one at a time from top to bottom. “Definitely magic.” She flipped the book closed and stared at the cover. There was no title or author, just a strange design comprised of three black circles, two small ones next to each other over the third. “A paw print? What kind of creature only has only two toes? Perhaps a pad instead…” With the book closed, Twilight noticed that some of the pages were glowing brighter than the rest. In fact, the very first few pages were glowing brightest of all. Flipping open to the first, Twilight found that the words on this page were shining brightly and weren’t vanishing. Settling down into a more comfortable position, she began to read. … Spike started forward and froze for the third time. What was he thinking? He gazed at the front door to the Carousel Boutique, and the familiar pain shot through his chest. What possibly possessed me to think that today would be any different? Turning, he stomped back the way he came, but stopped again after only a few feet. Something was different about today, he could just feel it. He patted the pouch hanging over his shoulder as if to draw courage from its contents. If only he had the courage… “So many times out here…” the words seemed to bubble up as if on their own. “I’ve watched a happy pair of lovers acting so carefree…” He started pacing idly around the building, lost in his own musings. “A happiness that I envy them; wish I could be with Rarity.” Spike stopped and looked up at the nearby window as a unicorn’s silhouette passed in front of the glass. The sight made him feel both weak in the legs and light on his feet at the same time. But some small part of him still shied away from taking that first step. Grimacing, he turned away from the window and moved on. “I thought I’d never know, a way my love could show, though I might wish that it could be!” His hands strayed once more to the shoulder bag, but depression fell on him all at once and the arm dropped. He sat down with his back against the wall and scrunched up as tight as he could, tears brimming in his eyes. Doubts assaulted him from all sides. “No face as hideous as my face, could ever stay with Rarity…” Scrubbing the tears away sharply, the bag slipped down and overturned. Spike barely caught the top before its precious contents could fall out onto the ground. The light glinted off something golden inside arrested his attention. Slowly he pulled it out, the dark thoughts blowing away with each bit revealed. “But suddenly an angel, she appeared to be. She kissed my cheek without a trace of fright.” He put his other hand wondering to his cheek, remembering that amazing birthday. Standing up with renewed energy, he set off around to the front of the store. “I dared to dream that she might come to care for me. And now I hope with all my might…” The front door loomed in front of him again, and he almost turned and walked away once more. Steeling himself, he looked down at what he held in his hands. The sunlight shone on the giant blue gem, the very same gem he spent hours hunting through the dark tunnels trying to recover. The painstakingly etched ‘R’ on the front matched the ‘S’ on the other in style, and the golden casing and chain had cost him months of savings. “My cold dark fears seem so petty… I swear today I’ll ask Rarity!” Before he could second guess himself one more time, he slipped the necklace back into the bad and pushed open the door. The ringing chimes over the door seemed to snap him out of his daydream and he suddenly seemed to realize what he was doing again. Looking around timidly, he couldn’t decide if he was glad or terrified that the front area of the store was empty. Almost deciding to leave again, Spike caught the faint sounds of the sewing machine running from Rarity’s work space in the back. Curious despite his nervousness, Spike trotted to the open doorway and peeked in. Rarity was busy at work on what looked like five different dresses at once. Several half finished pieces orbited around her head as she dashed between the sewing machine and her work table, various scissors, measuring tapes, and needles floating along in their wake. And it seemed he wasn’t the only one who had been singing to themselves. “I remember Hoity told me,” Rarity sang as she dashed about, clipping this, stitching that. “Your fashion dreams can come true. But you’ve got to make it happen, it all depends on you! So I work real hard each and every day, so the business soon will come my way. Just trust in doing what I do…” The drawer right next to where Spike stood suddenly sprang open, several ribbons levitating out in a glow of blue magic. “Um… hello Rarity!” Spike said, trying to sound casual. “Not now, Spike, there’s so much to do…” Rarity barely glanced over him before returning to her work. She didn’t say it with any malice; in fact, she just sounded more tired than anything else. Looking over to the side of the room, Spike saw several racks filled with dresses very similar to the ones she was working on now. Seeing an opening, Spike hopped into the room and started picking up some supplies littering the floor. “Maybe I could help you out for a bit?” Rarity smiled gratefully and several of the items she was levitating settled down into Spikes waiting arms. “Thanks, Spikey-Wikey. I’ve just got this very important order I’ve got to finish, and I’m almost there!” “You’re almost there!” Spike put in happily, following her closely as she darted about the room. “Ponies are going to wear these everywhere, and I’m almost there…” Rarity’s gaze passed over the finished dresses and something akin to doubt flitted across her face. “But are these designs good enough… that is my fear…” She seemed almost on the verge of deciding to start all over from scratch, or at least making alterations to each of them. And judging by how tired she already looked, Spike though she might drive herself into the ground trying to alter them all. He reached up and turned her to face him instead of the dresses. “Rarity, you’ve sewn for the Gala and the Princess’s wedding, you’ve nothing to fear!” Encouraged by her slow smile, he gestured to the few pieces that were nearly done. “And you’re almost there!” “I’m almost there…” Rarity sang slowly, her confidence returning. She favored him with a quick hug before launching herself back into her work. “We’re all!” “Most!” Spike harmonized, trailing happily after her. “There!” The two of them sang together, holding out the last note for all it was worth. The last few alterations blew past in no time at all, and soon the last dress was complete. Rarity floated the dress onto a hanger with a relieved sigh. “Thank you, Spike. I might have spent hours yet trying to improve these if it wasn’t for you.” “Oh, don’t mention it…” Spike said, fighting the butterflies in his stomach. He looked over to where his bag lay by the door, but shook his head. Go slow… Spike didn’t know why that thought slipped through his head right then, but it felt right. “Would you…” he paused to swallow and tried again. “Would you like to go down to the café for tea? With me? To celebrate finishing this big order?” Rarity stopped cleaning up the debris around the room and smiled at him. “You know, Spike… that sound just lovely.”