//------------------------------// // 49. SPIKE!! // Story: Kill Me Now // by Golden Script //------------------------------// I woke up to a loud bang, I looked around and noticed that Silver was gone. He must have left for Applejacks again. I was awake now and I knew I wasn’t going back to sleep anytime soon. So I decided to go see what I could muster up for breakfast. When I entered the kitchen the first place I checked for food was the pantry. I found many different items in there, including but not limited to, some pancake mix, oat meal, some assorted cereal, and what looked like grass. I pulled out some oat meal and started mixing it with some milk. I was almost done, it was a paste and no longer a solid and a liquid, when a certain lavender unicorn walked in the kitchen. “You know that if you would wait for Spike to wake up he would gladly make us breakfast, right?” as she rubbed her eyes and yawned. “Yeah, Silver woke me up and ran out the door. He’s probably drooling over her by now.” I gave her a mock love-struck look. “I bet your right.” We shared an early morning chuckle as she got her own bowl of oat meal. A few minutes later a familiar purple dragon, still half asleep, walked into the kitchen without a word, got a bowl of cereal, poured some milk, and left. I and Twilight exchanged a look. I peeked around a corner to see what he was doing; he was sitting on the couch, half dosing over his bowl. His head would lower, then jerk up, then lower again. I was afraid he would fall into his breakfast. “SPIKE!!” I yelled at him, he was now awake. In response to my outburst he jumped a few feet in the air. When he hit the ground he got off his bum and looked at me, more than a little cross. “What? What do you want?” he said agitatedly. “Just wanted to make sure you didn’t sleep with your cereal.” I waved a hoof dismissively and walked away; he gave an angry snort and sat back down to eat his cereal. “What was that about?” Twilight must have heard me scream. “Just woke him up.” I went back to my oatmeal. “ok.” So did she. When we were done eating I went to sort through the contents of the safe, Twilight went upstairs to continue her studies, and Spike went to take a nap. I was almost done looking at the different schematics when I noticed the time. 2:15. I gave a sigh and yelled up to Twilight that I was heading to work. She responded with something to the effect of ‘come home soon!’ and I left. I took the scenic rout to the shop. It took me around forty minutes. Of course I did sort of jog the last few blocks, still. I arrived a few minutes before Turner did. “I see you continue to arrive early. That’s good. A time keeper should set his clock fast so he doesn’t miss his deadlines.” “Thank you, sensei.” I gave a mock bow. He chuckled a little at my honor “I am no teacher; I am only your boss. Now, we are approximately” he looked at his watch “three minutes late for opening the store.” I looked at mine; it said we still had thirty seconds. “But-” then I remembered his ‘set your clock fast’ comment “I guess you’re right, we should probably get going.” We entered the store and started on the usual suspects. ----- Spike was grumpy the rest of the day, when he wasn’t sleeping, that is. If I asked him to do something he would respond with a grunt and do it. He was never that grumpy, even when he was half asleep. I read a book on the observations of maturity; I was working on a way to better interest school fillies and colts in their studies. This was, of course, a direct request from Princess Celestia. I never doubt the princesses’ requests, they always had a purpose, and I thought I knew the purpose of this. When I was done reading the book I started to apply my new found knowledge to what I thought could help with students. I thought of interactive games where they needed to learn math and reading. I thought of story books that would show them what it was like out in the real world while still being entertaining. I thought of many ideas. Then my mind started to wander, I thought about Fixinit, Dillon, and Silver. I thought of Spike and my friends. I thought of all of their maturity levels. Dillon was by far at the top, no argument at all, then was probably Fluttershy or Rarity, below them might be Rainbow, Applejack, Silver and Spike. Then I thought of the only pony I hadn’t named: Pinky Pie. She was by far the least mature of all my friends and everypony I know. This was not a bad thing; her immaturity is what makes her so darn fun. Then I thought about how age tied in with maturity. Pinky was the youngest of the elements of harmony, a year younger than Fluttershy, the oldest of us. I wondered how old Silver was. Is he my age? Is he Dillon’s age? How old is he? I discarded the thought and found something nipping at the back of my brain, the one question I had been hoping to not address, I knew it would only bring worry. I attempted to fend it off one more time, only this time I failed. I thought of how old Fixinit was. If he was as old as Dillon I might have trouble, I am not as experienced as Dillon and with age comes experience and with experience comes wisdom. I started to worry about what he might think when he learns that I'm so young? Will he love me anymore? Will he leave me like Dillon? Will he openly express his disgust? Will he reject me? My mind started whizzing through worst-possible-scenarios. My mane started to spring up in cowlicks. My pupils started to dilate. I started to hyperventilate. A thought shot through my head, this thought was a safe guard I put on myself, if my crazy ever went off a memory of Cadence would fly through my head. This would make me think to take a deep breath and calm down. Sometimes this thought would not work and I would lose it, but most of the time I could calm down. I tried her movement out a few times and I was back to normal in no time. I started thinking normally. Everything that I had thought of before was assuming that he didn’t like the fact that I was so inexperienced or that he was Dillons age. I was quickly back to my studies, I would ask him when he got home.