Ascend

by xTSGx


Discoveries.

For copyright/disclaimer information, see Chapter One.

Version 1.0

Published 10/22/12

Chapter Four: Discoveries.

Spike nudged and poked Twilight.

“Twilight. Twilight! Wake up!”

She moaned.

“C'mon Twilight. You can't lie there forever.”

She roused from her unconsciousness.

'Watch me.'

“Spike, what happened?”

Spike relaxed once he saw Twilight was awake and coherent.

“You passed out.”

“I can see that, Spike, but why did I pass out?”

“You read this letter,” he held up the letter, “and had one of your overreactions.”

'The letter? The letter!'

Twilight's memory was jogged.

“Spike, what am I going to do!? They want me there on Tuesday and it's already Wednesday night!”

He sighed.

“You could send a letter to the Princess explaining everything before you go and perjure yourself in front of Parliament.”

Twilight let out a squeak.

“Perjure myself? Why would I do that?”

Spike raised an eyebrow.

“What do you think they wanna talk to you about? They'll want to know everything you know about changelings and I doubt you want to tell them that you're using a modified changeling spell.”

Twilight's eyes widened in realization.

“I-It'll be okay. I-I'll just dance around those questions.”

Spike shook his head.

“Twilight, your dancing abilities are terrible.”

I know that. It was an idiom!” she snapped out.

Spike tried a different approach.

“What I mean is, your ability to evade questions is just as bad as your ability to dance.”

“A-Alright then. I'll say 'I do not recall' or s-something to that effect.”

Spike gave her a look.

“You might as well paint a bright sign above you head that says 'I do recall but telling you would prove I'm guilty'.”

“B-But using changeling magic isn't against the law! Is it!?”

“No, but perjury is.”

Twilight mane began to become disheveled yet again.

'You should really buy a different shampoo. It might stop your mane from doing that.'

“W-W-Well then, I-I'll j-just-just...do you have any good ideas, Spike?”

Spike smiled brightly.

“I just got a great idea, Twilight!”

Twilight collapsed in relief in front of Spike.

“Y-You do?! Oh, thank you, Spike! I knew I could count on you. What is it?”

Spike gave her a flat look.

“Write to the Princess.”

Twilight huffed loudly.

“Why would you do that to me, Spike!? That's a horrible idea. I need good ideas, Spike, good ideas.”

“Fine. Well dinner's ready. Maybe getting something to eat will help you think.”

Twilight brightened up.

“There! Now that's a good idea.”

Twilight walked into the kitchen.

“And give me time to think of what I'm gonna tell the Princess.” Spike mumbled out.

“What was that, Spike?” Twilight called from the kitchen.

“Nothing, Twilight.”

**********

Dinner, which consisted of onion casserole and a light salad, went off uneventfully. The two of them sank into their chairs with full bellies.

“That was really good, Spike.”

“Thanks, Twilight.”

“Are you all done?”

“I couldn't eat another bite.”

Twilight levitated her and Spike's dishes into the sink before making her way into the library's main room.

Spike bit his lip as he followed her, hoping she wouldn't revert back to crazy mode now that she had a sufficient amount of calories in her.

“What are you going to do now?”

“Research, Spike. Research.”

Twilight began rapidly grabbing books from the shelves with her telekinesis, scanning their titles, and either tossing them behind her in a careless manner or putting them in a neat stack. Spike was able to make out the titles A Brief History of Equestria; The Unapproved, Unauthorized Biography of Princess Celestia; and The Big Book of Biology before Twilight levitated them next to her and started heading upstairs to her room.

“See you later, Spike. Don't forget to close the library in a half-an-hour.”

Spike heard her door shut.

“She'll be busy for a while. That gives me plenty of time to figure out what I'm gonna tell the Princess.”

He sat on a chair and pulled it up next to a nearby desk. Giving a small puff of fire, he lit the candle that was on the desk, dipped the quill in some ink, and put feather to parchment.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Twilight woke up today with wings and has no idea what happened. She's understandably freaked out by it. Could you come and help before she starts to mind control everypony again?

I don't know if putting “Love” here would be creepy or not,

Spike.

Spike smirked.

“Good enough. Now to sen—”

He got an all too familiar feeling in his gut and quickly belched out a scroll.

“That's weird timing.”

He picked it up.

“I'm gonna be reading it to Twilight anyway. Might as well get a head start.”

He was surprised when he saw it was addressed to him.

Dear Spike,

I regret to inform you that, due to the increasing instability within the Griffo-Minotaurian Empire, I have been advised by the National Defense Council to halt all forms of Dragonfire communication, effective immediately. If you ask me, the Council's just being a bunch of extremely paranoid generals who have too much time on their hooves.
Please tell Twilight that, until this nasty situation with the griffons and minotaurs is resolved, she will have to send her reports via traditional mail so she doesn't freak out when it takes me three weeks to read and respond to them because of how ineffectual busy the Royal Mail Service is.

With regards,

Princess Celestia

“Oh no, no, no, no.”

Panicking, he hastily grabbed his letter, rolled it up and attempted to send it to the Princess. Instead of the parchment dissolving into a magical cloud like it usually did, it merely caught fire.

Spike quickly snuffed the fire out and threw the now destroyed letter into the trash bin.

Oh, come on! That's so contrived!”

**********

Several hours later, Spike wearily made his way to the bedroom.

“Stupid Twilight, forgetting to buy stamps, which caused me to have to go to the store. Stupid Princess, following her stupid generals' advice and forcing me to have to mail her the letter—it'll never get to her in time!”

He opened to door and gazed at the scene before him. All of the books Twilight had brought upstairs were strewn over the floor. Some were half open, as if they had been read, while others seemed like they were chucked at high speed after only a moment's glance. Twilight lay on her back on the bed, passed out and snoring lightly. A Troper's Guide To: Clichés was tucked in between her forelegs.

Spike smiled briefly at the adorable looking alicorn before his mouth slowly slipped into a small frown as he started to carefully make his way over to his basket.

“If she thinks I'm cleaning this up then she really has gone insane.” he muttered out before he curled up in his basket and drifted off to sleep.

**********

Twilight was jilted awake by a sudden, loud crashing noise in the library's main room.

“Wha-What's going on?” she mumbled out as she tried to wake up.

'It's the Royal Guard! They're here to take you away.'

Twilight was instantly wide awake, her wings flaring up.

What?!

That jarred Spike awake.

“Twilight, what're you doing?” he moaned out.

“Spike! Get up and go see who's out there.”

“Why do I have to? It's your house.”

“Because I have to figure out what I did with the instructions for the Wing-be-gone spell.”

Twilight started tossing the books that lay on the floor around in her frantic search for the instructions.

“Are you sure you didn't leave them downstairs?”

“No. I remember brin—”

Twilight was cut off by a voice from downstairs

“Hey, Twilight. Sorry I crashed into the library again. I really need to start working on the landings.”

“It's Dash! Go stall her while I get this spell going.”

“You could just tell h—”

“Spike, less talky, more stally.”

Twilight grabbed Spike with her telekinesis, opened the door and—gently—shoved him out.

-----

Spike glared at the shut door before turning his attention to Dash, who was now looking at him.

“Uh, hey Dash. What's going on?”

“I was just practicing and, well, you know.”

Dash shrugged.

Spike glanced around the room. Just like the previous times she had crashed into the library, the books were now scattered around on the floor. He sighed.

“You really need to stop crashing into here.”

“It's not like I'm doing it on purpose! Besides, I'll help clean things up. Where's Twilight anyway?”

“She's, um, still getting ready.”

A loud crashing noise was heard from behind the bedroom door, followed by an annoyed grunt.

Spike winced.

Dash flew up to the second floor landing.

“Are you sure she's okay? She's usually up by now.”

Spike began to grow increasingly nervous as Dash edged closer to the door. He quickly blocked Dash from getting any closer.

“Yeah! She's fine! She just needs to hurry up.

-----

Twilight's panic levels were reaching biblical proportions as she desperately tried to find the spell instructions.

“Where is it?! Where is it?! Where is it?!”

'It'll be all over if Dash finds out! She won't be able to resist the urge to brag about it!'

Twilight grabbed The Big Book of Biology and, low and behold, underneath it was her salvation.

“Yes!”

'Alright Twilight, just calm down. If you try this while you're wigging out you might botch it and teleport yourself to another universe or something.'

Twilight took a few deep breaths to try and calm down before she cast the spell.

-----

“Enough of this, Spike. I'm gonna find out what's wrong with Twilight!"

Dash opened the unlocked door.

No Dash. Wait!

Spike's desperate attempt to tackle Dash missed and, instead, he careened into the door, dazing himself.

Dash walked in just as the purple fire was dissipating.

The purple unicorn stared at her and giggled nervously.

“What's going on, Dash?”

'Why don't you ever remember to lock the door?!'

Dash narrowed her eyes as she walked closer to Twilight.

“I was going to ask you the same question.”

Twilight gulped.

“O-Oh you know. J-Just starting my day.”

'Did she see anything? Just assume she didn't. That's all you can do, is desperately assume she didn't.'

Dash started pacing around Twilight.

“You're normally really upset when I crash into the library. Why the sudden change?”

'Just keep a clear head, Twilight. Unlike Applejack, you can actually lie.'

“Oh, well, I-I decided to quit being so stressed out over small things. It's not good for one's health.”

“Well, what about the fire?”

“Fire?!”

Dash stopped pacing and stood in front of Twilight.

“Yeah, the purple fire I just saw.”

'Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap! She knows. She knows. I'm sooo done for.'

“Um, ah...no...comment?”

Twilight grinned sheepishly.

'Oh, that was just brilli—'

Dash rushed Twilight and pinned her up against the wall. A shelf hanging above was knocked from some of its nails and teetering on the edge of falling.

“Where's the real Twilight?”

Spike was finally able to shake the cobwebs from his head and saw that things were rapidly getting out of hand.

Rainbow Dash! Stop this!

Dash turned her head toward Spike while she kept the shocked Twilight pinned.

“Why, Spike? She's a changeling! Don't you want to know where Twilight's at?”

“Think about this Dash! I'm with Twilight all the time so there's no way she could be a changeling without me being one too. And could a changeling do this?”

Spike took a deep breath and bellowed out a large green flame.

“But she—it—and you—”

Dash fought with herself briefly before she relaxed and let Twilight go. She faced Spike.

“You're right, Spike.” she laughed sheepishly, “I guess I might have overreacted.” She turned to Twilight, “I'm sorry Twilight.”

Twilight shook her head to clear it from Dash's onslaught.

“It's alright Dash. I forgive yo—”

The shelf gave out and crashed onto Twilight's head, knocking her out for a moment. Purple fire erupted around her and reverted her back to her alicorn state.

Dash narrowed her eyes again.

“Aha! I knew—” she saw Twilight's wings, “...it?”

Twilight regained coherence and saw Dash's shocked and confused expression. She also saw several lavender feathers, rustled free from her wings by the excitement, float gently down to the floor. She crumpled down into a pile.

'Why does this have to happen to me?'

End of Chapter Four.