Chapter 7: Wrecked Home
“So, that’s a relief, isn’t it?”
“I’ll say. I mean, with how bad that varmit hurt her I’m glad that she’ll only be in there for about a month.”
“When she does get out though we need to throw her a massive party to celebrate.”
“I’ll be going to clean her house that way its nice and sparkling when she gets home. Certainly can’t have her living in filth so soon after recovery.”
“Hey, did you hear them? I get to be in charge of her physical therapy while her wings recover. I’ll get her in top flying shape in no time.”
Twilight was happy to have her friends around her. Nopony was happy about the situation with Fluttershy but the doctors had insisted that they all leave and give her a chance to rest. She was still trying to think of how to tell her friends about Line Space and Red Pen. Regardless of what he may have said she knew her friends would be happy to help them and that their help would be very appreciated. Not to mention that since she didn’t know Line very well it couldn’t hurt to also introduce him to everypony else.
“Hey Twilight, we’re at your house,” Pinkie said bouncing in front of her. Twilight looked to her left and realized she’d been so deep in thought that she had walked past the library.
“Thanks Pinkie. I was trying to think of a way to help Fluttershy and get back at her attacker,” Twilight said back to Pinkie.
Rarity said “Darling, you need to stop worrying about who did this.”
“No way,” RainbowDash said. “Just wait till I get my hooves on them. We need to make whoever did this pay as soon as possible.”
“Rainbow,” Rarity said indignantly. “I was not saying they wouldn’t pay. Simply that we needed to let the police handle it and that Twilight needed to stay calm. Something you could do too.” Twilight smiled at them but stopped as she saw through the open window she was standing next to. Inside the library there were books everywhere. Not in the way she left them in a mess either.
“Thank you girls but me and Spike have some work to take care of. See all of you tomorrow to visit Fluttershy?” Twilight said this trying to keep her voice as even as possible.
“See ya Twi’. Stay safe, we don’t need another friend getting hurt,” AppleJack said as they all turned away. Twilight waved goodbye and as soon as they were out of sight she threw the door open to see what had happened. It wasn’t pretty.
It looked like a hurricane had gone through the library or her when she couldn’t find a book. Almost half the books were pulled off the shelves, the ones on tables had all been pushed onto the floor. Her papers from her personal desk had all been pulled out and her quills trampled. She quickly picked some ink wells up off the floor, frowning even deeper at the books covered in ink. She saw the door to the catalogues of newspapers from past years in Ponyville was wide open with a mess of papers in the entrance. She would have to clean those up but the only ponies who went in there were school kids from Miss Cheerilee’s class. Then her eyes went wide in horror as she realized that there had been one little dragon who had been looking through there since shortly after Fluttershy was brought here by Rarity.
“Spike! Spike where are you?!” Twilight almost screamed as she ran into the newspaper catalogue room and started running in between the boxes and boxes of newspapers. She reached the back and began sprinting back to the front of the room and into the library. She swept her eyes from one side to the other before hearing a muffled cry from a chest covered by knocked over books. She flung the books into the air before ripping the top of the chest off with her magic. Inside, Spike sat up, his bruised face peering over the top.
“Spike what in the world happened to you?” Twilight said in horror although she could take a pretty good guess. Spike looked up at her with one eye half swollen shut. She saw tears filling in his eyes.
“Twilight. I’m not even sure what happened. I heard somepony ripping books off of shelves and I thought it was you, looking for something,” Spike said, his voice trembling as he fought to keep himself from crying again. “I had just found that article I’d been looking for, something about a colt named Red Pen and a school, and I figured we’d read it together. When I got out here though whoever it was tackled me from behind and when I woke up I was in there. I was so scared Twilight!” Spike finally broke down and buried himself into her chest and she wrapped him in her front legs. She found herself crying at the fact that anypony could do this to Spike.
It was not a matter of anypony though. It was a matter of one pony. Red Pen is the only pony who would have done this and she knew Line Space was right. She had been involved and Spike had been hurt because of it. Not to mention the library had practically been destroyed in the process. If she told her friends then their families might be in danger. Applebloom, Scootaloo, SweetieBell, Fluttershy’s animals, and the cakes could all be in danger if she involved any of her friends. No, she would handle this since she had already paid the price for it. No one else was going to get hurt when her and Line Space could handle this.
“Don’t worry Spike,” Twilight said, her voice strained with emotion. “I’m going to figure out who did this to you and make everything better. Now lets take you to the hospital.”
“No,” Spike said. “I want to stay here with you. First Fluttershy, now me. You need someone here to help you get through all this.” Twilight stood stunned and then she smiled. Spike always tried to take care of her and she sometimes wondered who was really older.
“Alright, fine. But you need to go to bed because you have got some pretty terrible bruises. I’ll treat you later when my magic will be a little steadier.” Saying this she lifted Spike into the air. He was already wincing and yawning, the pain and excitement having taken their toll. She took him upstairs and laid him gently in his bed. She then went downstairs and stood in the middle of the library.
Twilight took a deep breath, looked around the wrecked library, and focused. Everything whirled around her in a miniature hurricane of rage and pain. She was furious and she didn’t have time before Line Space came to put the room back together. She cursed under her breath, cursing Red Pen for what he’s done. Finally everything stopped spinning and she started floating back into place. It was finally too much though. She let everything go and sobbed.