Celestia’s sun broke the dawn and chased away the lingering shadows of Luna’s moon. A glorious vibrant iridescence settled all around the horizon making an unending belt of pinks, oranges, and light grays all below the ever-illuminating dark blue sky. Any pony up early enough to witness the birth of the day In all its glory could revel in the growing warmth of the light as it warms up their chilled shadows. Truly, the rising sun is something to treasure and witness.
Then there’s Spike.
The young drake started to stir from the confines of his subconscious as the growing daylight broke through a crack in his curtains and fell on his eyelids. Spike turned away in an attempt to get back to the dream which was now slipping through the claws of his mind. He returned to his dream, but everything was out of place and not as he remembered nor wished it to be. Spike let out a low grumble as he yielded to his stubborn dream and settled on trying to snooze away the approaching day and the work it held. The battle for Spike’s consciousness was eventually won out by both his empty stomach and fear of Twilight complaining about him oversleeping again.
Spike put what effort he could muster into getting out of his bed. Unfortunately for him, he was successful and slumped out of it. He wasted no time in trudging out of his room and down the cold empty halls of the castle. His drowsy mind already starting to run through a mental checklist of what he had to do that day. After being the glorified sidekick to a mad-mare who made checklists for everything she did his entire life, he couldn’t help but make checklists himself.
He of course had his daily chores which consisted of cleaning the library,
This kinda included the whole castle but Twilight rarely did anything outside the library,
buying necessary things,
mainly quills and ink because Twilight went through them by the bucket load.
At that thought Spike shuddered as he could only imagine the fate of the hundreds of quills that Twilight went through, not even he knew what happened to most of them. It was probably best not to think about it.
Anything else?
“GAGCTHmeee!”
Spike suddenly squealed and soon found himself on the ground nursing a stubbed claw. He bit his lip as he glared at the offender, which was the corner of a counter. It was only then that he realized he was in the kitchen. His feet were on autopilot while his mind was in la la land and carried him to their predetermined destination. Spike took in the kitchen for a second as if trying to remember why he was even there before his stomach reminded him with a short rumble.
Oh yeah, cooking.
Spike was the cook for both him and Twilight as you didn’t want to let her near the kitchen if you favored living. The last of her culinary creations had grown sentient and is now in E.M.P Everfree’s maximum security prison for assault and attempted murder.
…and it was supposed to be Jello.
Spike grew an amused smile as he recalled the memory and got up off the floor. He walked, or rather limped over to the counter and hopped up on top so he could start getting breakfast started. They had bacon and eggs yesterday so he decided some prench toast sticks would be good. The idea itself made his stomach voice its urgency and Spike got to work
———-————————-
Twilight’s dreams were plagued with a seemingly endless loop of impossibly large things falling inside of unfathomably small things. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. It felt like her entire body was falling along with the large masses of nothingness and into a singularity that would never come. The feeling was powerful enough to stay with her even as she stirred. She would have whimpered had her mouth not been so dry that she instinctively knew any use of it would do more harm than good. The horrible feeling subsided as her lucidity grew. She could already feel the slow burn of a growing aching in her temples as she cracked her eyes open.
“Big mistake”
Usually, the curtains in her lightly regal fit room would be enough to keep the light out unless otherwise warranted. A shield to allow for nice and easy adjustment to Celestia’s sun. Here she found no such comfort. Twilight fought through squinted eyes to reveal the vast crystalline library around her. The green light of the tinted windows reflected off of the purple walls in a shimmering spectacle that would be admired by anypony who got more than 4 hours of sleep. Twilight smooshed her face with her hooves with a begrudging hum as if trying to rub away the pain. She looked down at her desk which contained pages upon pages of notes, some of which had drool mixing with the ink; she could retake those later. Things had started to flow after Twilight’s futile attempt at having a healthy lifestyle. She was able to source multiple books that were more oriented on the subject matter of Proofs and studied them rigorously. After finishing just the first 3 books (a small task for an in-the-zone Twilight), her fascination skyrocketed. As it turns out, In mathematics, you cannot say that something is always true just because it works in a few cases, instead you have to develop rigorous logical arguments that lead from results that you already know to be true. That is, in essence, what a proof is. This all made Twilight speculate over previously solved friendship problems, and if their solutions could even be used to solve the same problem at all. This idea sent Twilight into a six-hour frenzy of thoughts, theories, and mathematical postulation. The same environment that Twilight used to live and thrive in for years. Until she passed out.
Now Twilight got to feel the other side of the coin that she seemed to have flipped one too many times back in Canterlot. It was like meeting the old bully from grade school again, with the same pains in the head and a slight squishing feeling in her bagged eyes. Not unfamiliar, but a pain nonetheless. Twilight willed her body up off her pillow chair and started out of the library. She felt her hooves pop as she took her first step and prepared to get the rest of the kinks out of her neck…
GONG!
GON–
SMASH!
The dinging of the grandfather clock was interrupted by getting enveloped in lavender magic and slammed against the crystal pillar next to it. The wood splintered into the sensitive gears inside it and a low ringing of the bell inside it bounced all through the refractant castle walls.
Twilight’s outburst turned from annoyed anger to guilt as soon as she realized what she had just done. She cupped her muzzle with her hoof and looked down at the well-shattered corpse of the clock. Her ears flicked toward the light pitter-patter of claws contacting the smooth hallway floors as it grew louder.
“Twilight! Is everything ok? What happened?”
Spike called, worry was evident in his voice; till he turned the corner that is.
“Oh”
Spike looks from his sister/mother to the shattered clock and back. His face slowly contorted into a smirk as he tried and failed to hold back his mirth. His giggle turned into a cough then into straight laughter.
“Y-you sh see the look on your face.”
Spike said an octave higher than usual as he continued to laugh. All the while Twilight was red from embarrassment, shame, and a bit of anger towards Spike’s enjoyment of this.
“Ugh, this isn’t funny spike. This was Applejack’s clock and I know she didn’t want to get rid of it anyway. She’s gonna be so upset if she finds out I broke it.”
Twilight said with a few tears in her eyes.
“Well I told you you should have taken it out of the library in the first place, all it did was interrupt you and anyone else in the library every hour. Was only a matter of time anyway.” Spike said matter of factly. Twilight glared at him.
“No one likes an, I told you so spike.” Twilight knelt and pushed on the splintered wood as if trying to push it back together before sighing. “Can you at least help me clean this up please?”
“Sure.” Spike droned as he walked past Twilight to get the broom from the closet.
Twilight had gotten as far as levitating the large chunks of wood and metal out of the pile before the distinct smell of burnt hit her nose.
“Is something burning?” Twilight said with urgency in her voice.
Spike’s eyes narrow to pin-pricks. He dropped the broom and left a cartoonish cloud of dust behind him as he dashed out of the library to the smokier kitchen. Twilight released her hold on the bits of the clock and ran after Spike. She arrived just to see Spike put a pan full of what she was assuming was the cause of the now smoke-filled kitchen into the sink. He turned the tap on and groaned.
“Well, there goes breakfast I guess.” Spike turned away disappointment in his eyes. Twilight’s heart hurt seeing Spike’s face like that, especially since she knew it was her fault.
“It’s ok Spike, tell ya what, how about after we get this mess cleaned up and maybe open a few windows, we go to Sugar Cube Corner? I’ll get you anything you want.”
Spike lit up at the mention of Sugar Cube Corner. “That sounds great Twilight, Thanks!”
“It’s no problem spike.” Twilight reflected Spike’s smile.
“I’ll start getting things cleaned up and in the meantime, I think you might need a clean-up yourself Twi.”
Twilight blinks before realizing that she probably looks like an absolute train wreck and blushes. “Yeah, you’re probably right Spike.”
Twilight went to take a shower while Spike busied himself with opening as many windows as he could, cleaning up the kitchen, and hiding the corpse of the clock inside the closet for “Future Spike” to deal with. The not-so-shattered clock had just hit 1:30 as the pair left the library.