//------------------------------// // In Short [Slice of Life] // Story: Half-Hour Horses // by HoofAndQuill //------------------------------// (THE PROMPT: Dead line OR THE PROMPT: Life line) As assignments go, this one had seemed quite simple at the start. The test arrived by the normal method, Twilight Sparkle's companion dragon belching it out during an otherwise completely mundane morning. A cover page accompanied the quiz, stating that it was due in twelve hours' time, and that it was to be completed alone. Assignments like these were much more rare now that she wasn't, technically speaking, Princess Celestia's student. The assignment only struck her as strange when she pulled open the scroll, and found the single question. "What is Spike, to you?" Princess Twilight Sparkle turned the scroll over, and back again, making certain that it was only just that one question. Something so simple as that, she could do later. She set it aside. The day was full and busy, and she ended up completely forgetting about the assignment until late. That evening, she sat down on a cushion in the warm private area of her library. She smiled at Spike as he brought over a pot of tea. She opened the scroll again, and set it down on the small desk in front of her, and read the question. What was Spike? A dozen quick, snappy answers flew through her mind. He was her assistant, a baby, a baby dragon, her friend, her best friend, her little brother, her son. Most of these were correct in some way or another, but they didn't feel quite right. Twilight glanced over toward the dragon currently dusting shelves in her bedroom. What was Spike, to her? He was her assistant, yes, but that wasn't enough. He was always there to help her, even when she had been running him ragged for days. He regularly worked himself to the point where he passed out, and with no expectation of thanks for reward. Multiple times, he had pulled her back from the brink of disaster, acting quite literally as a lifeline to keep her afloat in her more panicked times. Spike was her friend. For the longest time, he had been basically her only friend. Shining Armor had always been there for her, true, but he had his own life to lead. Once she had left to live at Canterlot Castle, and Shining had gone for his guard training, they had seen each other less and less. But Spike... Spike was always there. Before she'd met her Ponyville friends, before she'd learned what friendship truly was, Spike had simply been there for her. Though she would have a hard time expressing it to him in words, Spike was her little brother. She'd hatched him, been there for his 'birth' so to speak, but she wasn't his mother. They'd never had that kind of relationship. Still though, when she saw Applejack tending to Apple Bloom, guiding her toward a certain conclusion, or helping her through this problem or that... she saw herself as a filly, tending to Spike. They'd never spoken about each other that way, not really, but somehow Twilight felt like they both knew it. Twilight glanced at the clock. Not a lot of time left on this assignment, and the parchment was still blank. Spike... Spike had always been with her. Without him, where would she be? He had saved her from herself when she'd gone into a panic over being late for an assignment. He had been there for her when all her other friends had fallen to Discord. He had carried the Crystal Heart when she was trapped, and saved an entire empire. When she'd traveled to another world, he had disobeyed Celestia directly, just to be by her side, and without him, she may have never made it back. How many times had he rallied her friends to her side? How many times had disaster been averted just by his involvement? She sighed, and looked down at the blank paper. She only had a few minutes left, after delaying all day. Her ruminations had overcomplicated what seemed like a simple question into a complete mess, and now no answer seemed complete enough. She glanced over to the dragon. He was carefully going through the shelves, checking each title to make certain it was in the correct place. He knew she needed to focus, without even being told. Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She grasped a quill in her magic, dipped the end in ink, and scratched out a reply. It was much more terse than her usual answers to this kind of thing, but after spending too much time going over her history with the dragon, it was the only way she could think to express her feelings. She blew gently across the ink until it dried, then loosely rolled and bound the scroll. A moment of dragon fire later, and it was on its way. Twilight smiled, and hugged Spike close, much to the dragon's surprise. -- What is Spike, to you? Dear Princess Celestia: Everything. -P. Twilight Sparkle