//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Evil Rising // by lordvad3r95 //------------------------------//         “Spike! Make sure all the bookshelves are dusted,” Twilight Sparkle shouted as she paced the floor, her panic growing with each step. She had just received a letter from the Princess telling her she was going to receive and provide lodgings for her Right Hoof, somepony named Voltaic Shock. It said he was here on a “special assignment,” but didn't elaborate further, which was a fairly unusual thing for her mentor to do. This, naturally, caused Twilight much anxiety, and her wild imagination was already starting to ramp up production of the crazy.         “Spike!” she called out again from her bathroom, “ Make sure the guest bed has clean sheets. We need to make sure everything is in tip-top shape for when Princess Celestia’s Right Hoof arrives.”         “But I thought you wanted me to dust the bookshelves?” Spike inquired.         “Then do both!” she answered, her nervous pacing getting more furious by the second.         “Geez, Twilight, calm down,” Spike said dismissively. “What are you so worried about anyway?”          "WHAT AM I WORRIED ABOUT!?” Twilight shrieked. “Spike, this is Princess Celestia’s own Right Hoof. Do you have any idea what this means?”         “She’s going to need A HOOF! Ha ha ha ahhhhh, I crack myself up someti-AAAAAHHH, ” he screamed as he suddenly lost his balance on the rickety old ladder he was balancing on and fell into a rather large and painful stack jumble of hardcover books.         “Spike, this isn’t the time to make weak puns,” she half-shouted, not noticing his fall onto the book pile of doom. “ Princess Celestia’s Right Hoof is her most trusted agent and advisor. His/her job is to carry out the Princess’s will throughout all of Equestria, and they are trained for years to accomplish their goals. Sending one to a small, rural backwater like Ponyville is almost unheard of.” Suddenly, a terrible thought popped into her panicked mind. “What if... what if she sent him here to evaluate me?”         “Evaluate you?” Spike grumbled with much skepticism after clawing free of the sharp book spines.         “Yes! That must be it, an evaluation. I could get docked major points for being unorganized!” she raced about her room, frantically putting object together in an order she alone knew the logic to. While she did this, an even worse thought made a surprise guest appearance in her mind. “What if she sent him here to...” she paused as she gulped for air, “replace me?”          “Uh, what?” Spike asked in confusion. “Twilight, that’s completely ridiculous.”         “ No it’s not. I’ve ran through all the other scenarios, and this is the most likely one”, she said, her mind slipping into full on panic mode. Spike, however, saw the warning signs and raced to her side. Grabbing her by both shoulders, he started to shake her. “Snap out of it, Twilight. If the Princess wanted to do any of those, wouldn’t she have told you on the letter?” “Well, I guess so..,” she conceded, “but-” “But nothing,” Spike interrupted. “Twilight, you are one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria. You’ve also saved Equestria twice now from certain destruction, and Ponyville even more than that!” Twilight breathed deeply, then responded, “Okay, you’re right. I was overreacting just a teensy bit.” Spike just rolled his eyes at that, then said “You really need to worry less,Twilight. We don’t need to repeat last week.” “Don’t remind me,” Twilight said, shuddering as she did so. “I hear Scootaloo still has nightmares about that doll...” Just then, the sound of gilded wheels landing on a rocky surface combined with the sound of powerful wings flapping in harmony with each other greeted them through the open windows of the library. "He’s here!” Twilight squeaked. “Spike, how does my mane look?” “It looks fine Twilight,” he answered impatiently. He was about to tell her to knock it off when several loud knocks emanated from the door. “Hello? Is anypony home?” a distinctly male voice called out. “Spike, please answer the door,” Twilight ordered. She still wanted to “fix” her mane a little more, and hopefully not appear nervous to her new guest. With an exasperated sigh, the purple and green baby dragon tromped over to the door and opened it with an overly exaggerated flourish. The door swung open to reveal a dark yellow stallion only a few years older than Twilight herself. His mane was a dark brown, with two light brown saddlebags draped over either side of his body. His cutie mark was a single bolt of blue lightning. “Hello,” the stallion said to Spike, unfazed by the fact that a dragon had answered the door. “My name is Voltaic Shock . I was told that Twilight Sparkle lives here, correct?” “Yeah, that’s right,” Spike said, checking his claws to appear bored. "Great,” Voltaic responded.  After standing at the door awkwardly for a few seconds, he asked, “Soooo... may I come in?” “What? Oh, yeah,” Spike said quickly. He lead Voltaic into the kitchen, where he promptly began to dig through the cabinets for a gem. Dropping his saddlebags on the floor next to the table, Voltaic asked, “I take it you live here then?” “Yeah. My name’s Spike,” he answered. “Number one assistant to Twilight Sparkle,” he added, chest puffed out in a slightly arrogant display of bravado. “And her only assistant. This will make things much easier,” Voltaic mumbled to himself. “Sorry, what was that?” Spike asked as he cupped a claw around his ear. “You really shouldn't mumble.” “It was nothing important,” Voltaic replied casually, “just me making a few mental notes. Sometimes I say them out loud by mistake.” “Yeah, Twilight does that alot too,” Spike replied dismissively. “Speaking of Miss Sparkle, where is she?” he asked. “She is home, isn’t she?”         Spike suddenly burst out laughing, baffling the yellow stallion.         “What’s so funny?” he asked, unable to comprehend the source of the young dragon’s source of humor.         “Its nothin’ important,” Spike said, echoing Voltaic’s response from earlier. “I’ve just never heard Twilight referred to so formally before. You can just call her Twilight ya’ know.”         “Sorry,” he apologized, “I’m just used to speaking formally. The last time I did a mission like this, I had to protect some ‘Prince’ named Blueblood. He was absolutely convinced that some mare named Rarity was out to get him. Seeing him in action, I wouldn’t blame her.”         Spike burst out laughing again, joined, this time, by Voltaic. After a few moments, the yellow stallion ceased his laughter and observed, “You never did tell me where Twilight was.”         “Twilight? Oh, yeah,” Spike remembered, “She’s upstairs fixing her mane for the millionth time. She was pretty nervous about your arrival.”         “Nervous? About what?” Voltaic inquired, genuinely puzzled. “Didn’t the Princess’s letter explain why I was coming?”         “Not really. So naturally, Twilight started to freak out and thought you were coming here to evaluate her performance. And get this,” he said as he tried to contain his laughter, “She thought you were going to REPLACE HER!” Spike, unable to contain it any longer, burst out laughing (for the third time that morning), and started rolling around on the floor, hands wrapped tightly around his heaving stomach.         While this was going on, Twilight was finally done “fixing” her mane and trotted downstairs. Hearing laughter echoing throughout the entire library, she followed it to the kitchen, where she saw her guest watching Spike with a confused look on his face, as if he didn’t quite know how to respond to this.         Needless to say, Twilight was livid. “SPIKE. What are you doing? Why are you laughing so hard?”         Spike, however, was too busy laughing to garner enough breath for an effective response, leaving Daylight to explain for him.         “He’s laughing at the thought of me replacing you,” Voltaic explained. “He was just telling me about some of your fears pertaining to my arrival, since the Princess’s letter didn’t really explain anything.” “Fears? I don’t know anything about fears,” Twilight said just a little too quickly. “I mean, I was only a teensy bit nervous..” “A teensy bit nervous? I thought you were going to pace your way to the center of Equestria right here and-hmph,” he said as Twilight stuffed her hoof in his mouth. “Heeeeyyyy Spike,” she said, clearly eager to change to conversation, “why don’t you,um, go reorganize the z-section of the library?” “But Twiliiiiight,” Spike whined in his best imitation of Rarity, “that section never gets used. Why do I gotta’ organize it?” Twilight sauntered up really close to him and whispered into his ear, “If you do, I’ll get you a diamond.”         “You won’t get rid of me that easily Twilight!” Spike exclaimed loud enough for Voltaic to notice, He leaned in closer, hoping his target audience wouldn’t hear this next bit, “How big of a diamond are we talkin’ here?”         “Fourteen karats,” she whispered seductively.         “Well, it’s been nice meetin’ ya’ Voltaic, but I think I hear a z-section just begging me to reorganize it,” Spike said as he casually exited the room.         “But didn’t you just say it never gets used?” Voltaic asked, seemingly unaware the baby dragon had just been bribed right in front of him.         “Ah, you know what they say,” Spike shrugged, “ ‘Diamonds are a dragon’s best friend.’”         “Spiiike,” Twilight said threateningly.         “Alright, alright, I’m goin’,” he said. “Sheesh, Twilight, maybe you should read a book on learning how to relax.”         Twilight, however, had already turned her attention to her unexpected guest, who was busy trying to suppress a grin.         “Sooo,” Twilight began, “why are you here? Princess Celestia’s letter didn’t explain it very well.”         “So I’ve heard,” he responded with a sly grin, “your assistant was just telling me that before he started laughing.”         “Yeaaah, Spike does that sometimes,” she explained. “Sorry if it annoyed you..”         “No need to worry, it’s perfectly fine. I can appreciate good humor,” he said. “Anyway, the real reason I was sent here was to act as your bodyguard.”         “Bodyguard? I don’t need a bodyguard,” Twilight protested.         “Hey, I’m not the one who gets to decide stuff  like this ,” he shrugged, “the Princess assigned me here, and I’m sure you know that no pony has ever won an argument with her.”         “This is true...” Twilight conceded. “But-”         “But nothing,” he interrupted. “You bear the Element of Magic, and that makes you too valuable an asset to lose. And we definitely don’t need a repeat of last week, do we?”         The mention of her breakdown silenced any further protests from Twilight, who hung her head in shame in memory of that serious misuse of her powers. “I see what this is about now,” she said softly. “The Princess doesn’t trust me anymore.” “No, it’s not like that,” he explained. “ It isn’t about trust Miss Sparkle, it’s about safety. She just wants to be sure that everything that could possibly go wrong has the necessary preventative measures in place to handle it. Considering your immense power, it’s perfectly logical for her to have some way to both protect and deal with you when the time comes.” Twilight sighed, and decided to think about it for a few moments. Pushing aside her hurt feelings, she saw the logic of what he was saying and said, “You know what. You’re right.” “I’m glad you do,” he responded, genuinely relieved by her attitude, “I didn’t want to alienate my charge only minutes into the assignment.” “Yeah, that does tend to hurt your chances of success,” she agreed. “Now, why don’t I get Spike to-,” she managed to get out before a pink blur raced through her door.