Spike was hurrying this way and that in a huffing and puffing sweat. He wasn't at the library. No, that place only got him in such a state when Twilight had him doing too much for one of her maniacal little checklists. “Little” was, of course, a sarcastic description in this case. Still, he would rather be nowhere else but where he was.
When Rarity came to the library early in the morning looking to recruit Twilight for one of her sewing sprees, Spike felt that destiny had laid the opportunity in his lap. The white unicorn had meant it more as a chance to spend some time with her royal friend and was disappointed that Twilight was gone and unavailable. She did take the dragon's offer for assistance, however. He felt Celestia's sunny rays of blessing pour upon him even if he didn't question why the mare would be willing to take him in place of Twilight.
“Spikey,” whined what was an otherwise elegant voice. “Where are those clasps?”
“Coming,” replied the small dragon. He would never say that the unicorn was actually whining. She had the most specific whine when she wished to use it. What she was doing now was just being very vigorous in her sewing work.
A clicking and clashing sounded out when Spike tripped and dumped the container of clasps out across Rarity's desk she was working at. It wasn't his fault that he had tripped. He was just so tired from all the work she had him doing all morning. But this blunder magically turned out alright since the clasps slid about the unused space of the desk and one stray tumbled right where Rarity picked it up with her magic and starting sewing it in place.
Not a single word of thanks came from the mare, much as none had come the many hours Spike had been assisting her. Not that the saurian was going to complain. He loved helping Rarity whenever he got the chance even if it was just to spend some time with the one he loved. She was beautiful even when she was stressing about her day's work.
Spike did not dally but rather retrieved the container and cleaned up the mess of clasps that had fallen around. It was not a single moment after he was done that Rarity asked for something else to which he faithfully obtained for her. The requested roll of fabric was delivered this time without flaw, though Spike's stomach did growl in hunger. Was it noon already?
Rarity rolled out the fabric and marked the pattern for cutting. That was as far as she got before she turned from her concentrated work and regarded in full the tired and panting dragon behind her. It might have been the first time since they started that she had looked at him directly rather than focusing totally on her labors.
“So sweaty,” the fashion-minded unicorn sighed. “We must take a break. I can't have a sweaty dragon dripping about my boutique.”
Spike took no offense. He was just so enthralled with the way that Rarity was looking at him. It was almost like...like she acknowledged that he existed!
“Come now,” she ordered as she stepped around him daintily and lead the way outside. With a deft move of levitation magic, she donned her lightweight carry pack on her back. “Time to clean up.”
Spike, of course, obeyed without question in following her. Nevermind that he was hungry. He had so far gotten to spend the day with the best mare in the universe, so he was not going to pass out now that he would be getting even more time.
They left Rarity's home and shop to traverse a portion of Ponyville and arrive at one place very familiar to the Element of Generosity. She was, in fact, about to exhibit that generosity once more. Call it natural or say that she was in her “element.” The former would be simple and the latter a bad play on her title of Harmony.
Rarity led her trailing dragon into the Ponyville Day Spa with more than one idea running through her mind. It would be a lie for her to fake having no weariness as her assistant-for-the-day had. She was not entirely immune to exhaustion after a run of four complex outfits. Well, the fourth had just been started but she was going to finish it after they got back. It could be a more relaxing wind down to the work since she could allocate the whole remainder of the day to it and generally take things slower. She was sure Spike would appreciate that.
Aloe and Lotus Blossom took immediate notice of Rarity's entrance as if the two had been waiting around for her, which they probably had been. She was, after all, the most faithful and generous customer. It could not be considered egotistical to think that when it could be legitimately backed up with the spa's financial records. Fact was not equal to ego when it was in its most raw form.
“The usual?” Lotus Blossom asked in her unique accent that she shared with her twin sister.
“A tad slower this time, I think,” Rarity replied without missing a step and an ounce of her self-imposed mood of regality. “Plus one...companion.”
Both sisters leaned over the desk to behold the small reptile that neither had seen bounce in behind the unicorn. They looked at each other and then back to Rarity with a confused but respectfully reserved expression. Normally the dragon himself would have made some gesture about not needing a spa trip or any such frou-frou treatment. But he was hungry right now and was holding his stomach thoughtfully without regard to where he was other than the fact that Rarity was still near him.
“Of course, mistress Rarity,” both of the spa's sisters chimed in unison. They proceeded to lead their prized customer into the first backroom where all treatments began. The little dragon followed blindly behind with delusions of giant sapphires adorning mountains of delicious ice cream.
Rarity gave up on correcting the girls on the “mistress” title after it failed to click with them the first twenty times. Perhaps it was a cultural thing originating from their birthplace but the two were insistent on considering their best customer to be their master. With the level of business Rarity gave the shop, the title might possibly have been justified.
First stop was a simple scrub-down bath to rid them of sweat, dirt, and such for the other treatments. Rarity removed her packs and hopped into her usual tub, which was the fanciest one settled into the floor as a walk-in. Aloe was about to lead Spike over to another when Rarity intervened and assured that it would not be necessary, to which both of the sisters gave a curious look.
“Spikey,” the white unicorn called to the purple and green dragon that had stalled beside the tub, lost in thought.
“Huh? What?” he snapped back to reality and finally recognized where he was. He had been through here several times before but rarely took part. That was not to say he never did, but he didn't like to give the impression that he was vain in any way. That didn't sound very tough-dragon-like even if he was okay with Rarity being that way. She was perfect as she was and nothing could change that.
Rarity gestured with a flippant wave of a forehoof above the warm water. “Come, darling. Time to wash off.”
Spike looked on wide-eyed and twiddled his claws. There should have been nothing about this that was different than any other time he had been here with the girls. And yet something did feel different. He stepped gingerly into the tub only to feel the bubbles and the toasty warmth wave around his feet. He had never been in Rarity's special customer tub before. It felt like some kind of crime doing so even at her direct beckoning. On the third step inwards, he plummeted straight down into the watery depths.
Rarity could have used her magic but instead refrained and used her hooves instead to grab the saurian before he could hit the bottom. She lifted him back up with her usual dainty grace. Seeing Spike's face flushed red from the heat of the tub made her smile for some reason. The color really was most becoming.
“Sorry,” the Element of Generosity laughed lightly at her own mistake. “I forgot the center would be too deep for you.”
“No,” Spike stuttered and coughed on some water that had gotten into his mouth. A few bubbles floated out at the same time. “No problem.”
Rarity waded over slowly and carefully back to the underwater bench that allowed her to rest off of her hooves while relaxing in the flow of the soothing bubble jets. That was where she sat Spike back down next to her, since the water was shallow enough there for him not to drown in it. When Aloe and Lotus Blossom came around with the soap and scrubbing supplies, Rarity gave them a little look that they both got only for knowing their customer so long. They left the things near the tub and left the room.
“I really don't need all this fancy stuff,” Spike tried being humble.
The mare smiled faintly at the notion. “'Need' and 'deserve' don't always go hoof-in-hoof...or claw-in-claw,” she countered with a sigh of relaxation as she declined back against the familiar currents. “But trust me. You deserve this.”
“No,” the dragon turned to her and became more persistent. “I-”
“No arguing,” Rarity ended it with calmness. “Just relax, Spikey.”
If there was one thing the magic reptilian would find difficult to do whilst sitting in a veritable hot tub with the pony of his dreams then it would certainly be “relaxing.” Say nothing of his ongoing need for sustenance. He never did well with anything on an empty stomach.
Rarity breathed in and out slowly as she wound down but also glanced over to her packs that she had set near the edge. Using her magic, she removed an item from one of them and hovered it over with her light blue levitation aura. It floated in front of Spike's face, which was now looking around nervously as if to emphasize his inability to settle down.
Spike's eyes locked onto the item as a small kitten's would latch onto a ball of yarn. Rarity's magic only gave the item's already deep blue shine further saturation. It was a sapphire gem and a decently sized one too. It took microseconds for Spike to start salivating at the sight.
“Careful not to make any crumbs,” Rarity whispered, as if she was trying to keep her voice from making its way unintentionally to the spa sisters. The jewel dropped promptly from its aerial position and Spike grabbed it in deft claws.
“For...me?” he looked back with puppy dog eyes to the pony with him. Rarity's smile and nod made his heart glow. If he wasn't so hungry, he might have thought to keep the gem as a keepsake rather than consume it. But a new rumble from him tummy told him his options were short today. “Th-thank you!”
Perhaps some ponies would over-think what she had done but, suffice it to say, she was the Element of Generosity. This was just the sort of thing she liked doing. Besides, she had her own additional reasons that were floating around in her head as she watched the small dragon bite joyfully into his new meal. He was indeed careful with how he ate it so that he didn't produce any shards or gem flakes as he often did.
A few tears of happiness and bites in and he turned his eyes slowly to find a very relaxed-looking Rarity gazing at him in that way only his dreams portrayed. Seeing him notice her, she made to speak before he could.
“Thank you,” were the two simple words she said first. Spike lowered the delicious gem from his mouth. “You're always helping me out and never expecting anything in return. You're more generous than I ever have been.”
“No way,” the miniature male denied. “I don't do all that much and what I do...I do because I'm selfish. I...”
Rarity leaned over and pushed a hoof lightly to his mouth. “I'm thankful for that as well.”
“Huh?” Spike droned behind the hoof. What was she saying?
“Finish your sapphire, Spikey,” was all that the mare added before leaning backwards again and melting into the warm water.
The dragon stared. He couldn't help it even as his clawed hands lifted the gem back to his mouth as if they didn't belong to him and were moving all on their own. He watched as Rarity closed her eyes and sighed softly to herself against the rolling bubbles of the bath. Maybe he didn't understand what she had said, but he did understand one other thing as he bit cautiously into the sparkling gem. He liked the taste in his mouth.
Midnight Strike had been quite high in the ranks of the Royal Guards. He had been a personal guard to Princess Luna and was now again to Princess Sparkle – or Queen Sparkle as he reminded himself. The feelings he was developing about that and the mare in question were complicated to say the least. What was not complicated, however, was the way in which Centurion was chewing him out.
“King Sombra?!” the older stallion riled up. He was one of the very few senior officers like Shining Armor that held rank over Midnight. “I don't care what the princess tells you to do. We all go on such dangerous leaves. Direway just might have goofed up more than you when he didn't inform me of this right away. But that doesn't excuse you! Protecting the princess is not just your job. It's what we all do!”
“A princess' command supersedes all of ours, though,” a third guard spoke up. His orange-coat was a dark blend compared to the afternoon sun's yellow rays that shone upon them. “Not even the Captain can overrule an order from Princess Celestia-”
“Can it, Flash,” Centurion barked. “Last thing I want to hear is some greenhorn recruit quoting the book!”
The younger stallion proceeded to zip his mouth with rigid resolve.
“Now,” Centurion returned to Midnight Strike, who was not as easily intimidated as the other stallion. “I know how much time you've served, Strike. I know you would at least send a memo. You're too competent a guard to slip up like this. So tell me. What happened?”
Midnight's lips tightened up. Was he going to try explaining what had occurred when he was still asleep in his bunk that one night? By Luna's starry mane, he decided to Tartarus with it. Life was too short to bottle it up and he figured he could get away with telling a little and not upsetting his queen, who had ordered him to keep mum about it.
“Queen Twilight Sparkle chose me,” he declared shamelessly. “That was her right to decide. We belong to her and we follow her orders. That is what makes us guards. I will obey her to the letter even if you choose not to, sir!”
Centurion was taken aback by how resolute Midnight was being. Few in the guard were ever so firm when getting lectured by a superior. The only reason he could see this stallion being any different was because, one, he had years behind him along with a few scrapes to prove it and, two, he was right. Centurion did not have the authority to overrule Twilight's commands even if he thought it was in the interest of her safety. Captain Sparkle had stripped that privilege away from him before he had been sent out by Princess Celestia, likely because the purple pony's brother trusted his sister's judgment more than any guardpony's. And Midnight just called him out on that error.
Flash was breaking out a smile now that the eldest of them just had his lecture cracked by a second-in-command. Direway was more neutral but it was clear that he had taken Midnight's side from the start. He was his co-guard on duty, after all. There was something to be said about the artificial brotherhood that formed between sentry pairs even over relatively short periods of time. It almost made Centurion jealous that Direway had warmed up to the dark pegasus so fast when he had taken far longer doing so with him when they were flying for Princess Celestia.
“Wipe that stupid grin off your face, Flash,” Centurion barked as he whipped over to the recruit. “We have to reset shifts because of this mix-up, so snap to!”
The blue-haired pegasus did as he was told and took his position at the library door. Midnight Strike sighed and passed by Direway, giving him a knowing look. The two of them headed back to the guardhouse at Ponyville's edge. Direway was looking much better for the wear but Midnight was feeling every bit the punching bag that his face probably looked due to the darkness under his eyes.
“I expect some better answers after you get some rest, Strike,” the superior called out to him. “And there better be a good one for this 'Queen' business.”
When the retiring pair was out of earshot and both of the remaining guards were at their posts, the younger orange one made to ask something simple. “Mind if I ask you something?”
“Yes, now quiet,” Centurion ended flatly.
Well more than an hour past before the older pastel red stallion figured that nothing was going to happen and fell to the urge to idle conversation that the other had tried for. It was not that he couldn't go on long without talking. He could very well say nothing and maintain a frozen countenance for days on end. But this protection duty gave him more freedom than he had in the past and he might as well use it.
“You may speak freely, Flash Sentry,” he allowed, honestly not knowing what the kid had to say. That was practically what the recruit was – a kid. Few ever made it through guard training as young as he had.
Flash breathed and and asked. “You remember what I said before...about Princess Sparkle?”
“Yeah,” Centurion confirmed.
“Well...”
“Out with it,” the red pegasus ordered, but lightly and without the lecturing tone he had used before.
The other male was having a hard time about it again. Still, he wrestled through it. “You think Midnight might feel something for her?”
Centurion's eyes narrowed briefly, though not in suspicion or anger. He found the idea to be rather sensible. “It's inevitable he feels something for her, but I'm guessing you mean romantically and not just some guard's sense of loyalty.”
“Yeah,” Flash tried to mimic his superior's intonation.
“I can't imagine that something didn't happen. I just can't see somepony like him getting so worked up over our new charge when he just got kicked off his last detail. But you should ask him yourself.”
“I was afraid you'd say that,” Flash wilted. “He's not exactly the kind of guy you just strike up a personal conversation with.”
Centurion gave a “heh” that indicated his disregard for his friend's perspective. “No, he's probably just the type that looks that way. If Dire's sidling up to him so fast then he's got to be one heck of a character.”
“Wish I had that kind of support,” the young guard grumbled. “I've gotten nothing but blue milk runs for greenhorns since I got my flank stamped with an 'A' back at the training barracks. I've never even had a co-guard until this posting and I end up with-”
“-an old senior officer that doesn't know when to retire?” Centurion finished the line. “It's fine, Flash. I don't try kidding myself about my age. Guard work is for the young and prime, which I've got little left of.”
“Guess it could be worse then,” the orange one smiled and kept his focus forward as a proper guard was supposed to. “I could be stuck with a stuck-up vet that's never heard of humor.”
“Got those by the dozens back in Canterlot,” the elder groaned. “Probably why I came to appreciate Dire so much. He's not as bad as his name makes him sound. Actually kind of a goofball off-duty. You wouldn't see that the way we handle shifts, though.”
“Wish I-” Flash tried to say before jumping to attention for the blue blur that zapped like lightning onto the ground before them. His stance and spear were in order and he was at the newcomer's throat as fast as his name and recruiter grade had him marked for. Centurion's were a second thereafter except for the older one's guard being better positioned between the arrival and the library door.
“Seriously?” the blue pegasus rolled her eyes as if her appearance had been scheduled in advance. “Just let me in!”
Centurion already started relaxing and drawing his spear up while Flash failed to make the required connection.
“How about I spell it out for you, chump,” the non-guard pegasus sneered. “Rainbow 'Danger' Dash. Element of Loyalty. Personal friend to Twilight Sparkle. Saved Equestria a dozen times over. Now move out of the way before I make you.”
A light poke in the side from Centurion's spear told Flash all he needed. When the younger of the two looked back for final confirmation, he saw the stallion grinning playfully. Apparently, the guardpony enjoyed having his inferior get drilled up by a simple civilian. With wounded pride, Flash took the hints and relaxed back at his post. He had to work hard to ignore the combination glare and smug smile of victory that Rainbow beamed as she strode by him and into the Golden Oaks Library.
“How was I supposed to know?” Flash mumbled once the female pegaus was most likely out of earshot.
Centurion covered his own laugh, if just barely. “By doing your homework? Really, kid. How'd you get a crush on the princess and not even know about the other five Elements?”
“Keh,” the blue-maned stallion breathed between his teeth. “It's not like I'm the only one.”
The superior guardpony could have said something to that but stilled his tongue instead. Flash was right about some ponies not knowing about the Elements of Harmony and that was just...sad. To think that there were those who went about their lives not even knowing about how many times their world had been saved by those six “common” ponies. Even worse, to think that there were some that were even ungrateful.
No such thoughts, however, could keep Centurion from wondering what business Rainbow Dash had so suddenly with the princess. Or what would have her moving as impatient and agitated as she was. Centurion had physically seen the rainbow mare before on occasion in Canterlot and she had not exuded such intensity those times.
Rainbow Dash had it up to her neck with Twilight Sparkle and she was going to tell the mare a thing or two. How dare she leave town without giving even a word about it. How dare she go on some dangerous chase. How dare she take Fluttershy of all ponies and nevermind that changeling creature. How dare she leave behind her most loyal friend while putting her own life on the line.
She had tried to keep it from showing to the guards, who hopefully took it as anger, but she couldn't help it now that she was inside the treehouse library. She was seething mad about what her friend had foalishly done. She was incensed that she would abandon her like she did to go off on some dangerous trip. Rainbow Dash should have had a face red with how upset she was. Instead it was red with tears.
Twilight could have gotten seriously hurt. She could have come back with something more than whatever sickness ailed her. She could have...
No. That was a word Rainbow never used. She refused to just as she refused to consider a world without her book-loving friend. Maybe it was selfish of her but she didn't want her days with the purple pony to ever end. She almost wanted Twilight to never get the hang of flying just so that she'd keep coming to her for lessons and they could spend that precious time together.
The sporty pegasus mare didn't see anypony downstairs and so she made her way vertically to the upper bedroom as fast as her powerful blue-feathered wings usually took her. What she found in the bedroom, however, was a one-two shock. Her hooves clopped down onto the black floor when her wings stopped in a rare display of surprise powerful enough to stall her flying.
The room looked every bit the nasty and dank Tartarus that she once imagined changeling hives must have looked like. How any of the room's three other occupants could be sleeping as soundly as they were was one of the world's impossible mysteries. At least to Rainbow Dash it was.
Now there were actually a number of things that gave the otherwise strong pegasus mare the creeps and this was certainly turning out to be one of them. She was, as she would not fail in denying to others, a little scared by the sight. It was even scarier to see Twilight and Fluttershy sleeping alongside the former changeling queen. Especially Twilight for reasons only the darkest corners of Rainbow's heart knew. She had not warmed up to Chrysalis as some of the others had and always had a chip on her shoulder about what the shape-shifter had done in the past.
So what would the Element of Loyalty do before such a terrifying display? Charge, of course. With rainbow streaks barely able to form behind her in the short distance she bolted, she piled right into the changeling that was in all probability taking over the minds, bodies, and souls of her dearest friends. Needless to say, the move did not end well.
She wound up crashing into the changeling's softer under-carapace and thus flipping her away from the purple alicorn, who's eyes shot open like lightning. Fluttershy was also aroused with a squeak, though she was slow to fully come to. For all of her athletic ability, Rainbow herself still wound up flat on her back after the tumble. She quickly flapped over onto her hooves in correction.
“I knew it'd come down to this,” the aggressive mare leered at her black opponent even as said enemy groaned on the floor of the weird ring and moaned in what might have been pain. “You're not going to do any of your weird changewhatever stuff to my friends!”
“Rainbow!” growled the very upset voice of one Twilight Sparkle. She wearily stood up onto her hooves with shaking legs. “You...”
“Twilight!” the blue pegasus smiled at seeing that the mare was alright, albeit drained by the changeling. “Don't worry,” she turned her serious attention back to Chrysalis, who was giving her a mixed look of anger and annoyance. “I'll take care of the trash!”
Rainbow lunged forward again, this time intending to swing her back hooves around to deliver a punishing kick. The hooves never landed home, though, because Twilight teleported in front of her and grabbed her back hooves with her front ones to swing the mare around and away from Chrysalis. Rainbow, clearly not having expected it, was sent tumbling out of the sleeping ring.
“Argh!” the purple mare cried out in suffering as she clutched her head. “Why now of all times?”
Rainbow's eyes rolled, cleared, and tried to get a fix on things again. Fluttershy was getting to Twilight's side with great concern and Chrysalis was doing likewise, though she was cringing and holding her underside that the pegasus had driven into.
The blue mare was back up and about to do something again with less assurance that she actually knew what was going on. Thankfully, Twilight broke through the searing throb that raced in her head and the crippling tiredness to stop her. “Stand down, Rainbow Dash!”
“Huh?” the pegasus stopped short just as she started mindlessly racing into the ring again without any plan.
“How could you?” Fluttershy said softly through tears as she tended to Chrysalis, who was surprised for the mare's concern and welcomed it with gratitude. There was thankfully nothing more than a bruise that would calm and fade with a little time.
“Chrysalis has-” Rainbow tried to begin.
Twilight was not going to have a single word from her as long as she herself felt like jumping into a volcano just to ease the pain. The fact that the pegasus just rammed into her changeling as they slept in her own bedroom was extra infuriation. “Can it, Dash! I'm not in the mood for anything right now!”
“But-”
“Gah,” Twilight felt a fresh sting of pain. She was so completely done with the feeling that she would do anything to make it go away. She didn't even care about setting Rainbow straight with a calm and collected explanation as she would have in her normal frame of mind. All she was thinking then was “pain go away.”
Somepony in the stars had it out for her, though. For in that moment burst forth yet another intruder to keep Twilight as far as possible from the refreshing and rejuvenating sleep she had been wrenched from so unpleasantly. Getting ripped out of the tranquil place she had made in the hivemind was as painful as a buck to the horn immediately after having it slammed in a door.
“Time to get well!” Pinkie Pie exploded impossibly from behind Rainbow Dash with a spray of confetti. “Can you believe this?! I was all getting party supplies together and Rainbow Dash just happened to be going by looking for you and I was like 'oh my gosh this is so perfect' and I had to buy extra balloons because I totally-”
“Fine!” Twilight shouted with a crazed expression reaching need-friendship-report proportions. “Everypony wants to do this the hard way?! Let's do this the hard way!”
A massive purple aura flooded the room out of thin air as the alicorn snapped her eyes closed tight. Her horn glared brilliantly with a white supernova and the pain became bearable only by the resolute belief that haven was at hoof. Lasting relief.
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were grabbed by the aura all around them. The pegasus was wide-eyed in the fright of the moment and the Earth pony was giggling and laughing at what she must have translated as being “fun.” Both were slammed unceremoniously into the sleeping ring by the aerial force. Chrysalis, Fluttershy, and Twilight herself were more easily drawn in against them before the room went absolutely dark and they all slumped against each other.
All occupants of the sleeping ring were now asleep by a powerful magic only the queen could conjure. Twilight was going to sleep, dang it, and no party pony or Wonderbolt trainee was going to keep her from it. If they were going to barge into her bedroom and make trouble then, by Celestia, they were going to sleep too. The Element of Magic was willing to burn to cinders just to get that done.
Twilight felt the cool waves of refreshing rest and peace wash over her again as she returned to that place she had made so carefully with the yellow mare's memories. The only caveat was the inevitable blow-up that awaited with one bruised Chrysalis, one tearful Fluttershy, one incessant Pinkie Pie, and one very confused Rainbow Dash. Add in Midnight Strike and one other pegasus that had just fallen asleep at the ring-connected bunks in their guardhouse.