Twilight took a deep breath. The creature, whatever it was, seemed to be calming down now that Fluttershy was here. It had it's face buried in her mane, and it's breathing was beginning to slow down. So that was one headache solved. Still, it would have been much less of a headache if Spike had brought her friend back sooner.
Twilight turned to her assistant. "What took you so long? I sent you to get Fluttershy almost half an hour ago!"
Spike focused very intently on his feet, scratching the wood floor intently.
"Come on, Spike! Fluttershy's house is only seven minutes away, five minutes and twenty four seconds if you're fast. That means you should have been here fourteen minutes ago, at least! Meanwhile, I'm here trying to calm that poor creature down..."
"Um, Twi? It wasn't really his fault. I saw him runnin' as fast as his little legs could carry him. Ran right by me on the road, tryin' to get to Fluttershy's house. I don't think he even noticed me, he was runnin' so fast. By the time I got there, he an' RD were tryin' to pull poor Fluttershy out the door, talkin' about a code six. Ain't that right, RD?"
Rainbow Dash had her head cocked, staring at the creature. "Sheesh, Twi, where did you find this ugly bugger?," she said, gesturing with a hoof. "And do you always do code six experiments in your room? I mean, it's cool if you do. Kinda kinky, but..."
"Stop, stop, stop. Stop. What are these "codes" you keep talking about?"
Applejack and Rainbow Dash glanced at each other over Spike's head, then looked back at Twilight. The sound of claw gouging wood filled the air.
"You know. The codes that you had Spike explain to us? It was pretty clever, really, making a each code stand for a different disaster."
"I never came up with any sort of code system," Twilight deadpanned.
Applejack shuffled her hooves and Rainbow ran a hoof through her hair. They glanced at one another, then down at Spike, who had managed to gouge an impressive hole in the library floor.
Twilight closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead with a hoof. "Just... Will somepony just tell me what a code six is?"
"Um... I'd love to, Twi, but Fluttershy's been starin' at us mighty hard for a while now. I think she wants us to move along."
Twilight looked back over her shoulder to find a pair of blue-green eyes glaring at her from over a mat of brown hair. Twilight bowed her head and forced a grin. "Right," she said, "we'll be in the other room."
Fluttershy nodded, turning her attention back to the whimpering creature in her arms, and the other four quietly stepped out of the room, making their way to the main room of the library. Twilight glared at Spike the entire way, who did his best to be fascinated with the grain of the wood under his feet.
When the group had finally settled around the table, Twilight spoke.
"So... Now will somepony tell me what a code six is?"
Spike seemed to shrink under the table, and a subtle scratching sound filled the room again. Rainbow propped her forelegs up and began gently tapping them together, peppering the tabletop with dust. Applejack glanced at the other two and ran a tounge over her teeth.
"Well?"
AJ glared at her two friends and cleared her throat. "Well... You see... It's actually kinda funny when you think about it..."
"Just spit it out, AJ."
AJ winced. She took off her hat and set it on the table. "It's uh... Well... I guess there's no nice way of sayin' this..." She pursed her lips. "A code six is for when you summon an eldritch abomination from beyond time and space and we hafta banish it back to the nether worlds from whence it came before it came before it devours the moon, quenches the sun, and claims Equestira as it's own dark realm."
Applejack's shoes scraped loudly against the floor as she shifted on her feet. A small breeze blew against the tree, rustling the branches. Fluttershy's voice drifted serenely down the stairs.
"That's right. You're going to be just fine..."
Three pairs of eyes fixed themselves on Twilight.
"WHAT."