//------------------------------//
// 04 - Kilns and Sand Castles 
// Story: A Bit of Mojo 
// by StormDancer 
//------------------------------//


Orbits


There is something to be said about magic that not many ponies really want to hear: magic is hard.

Well, maybe not hard per se, but magic isn't easy. Even the simplest of spells take practice unless they fit with a unicorn's special talent, and even then they require effort. For someone like Twilight Sparkle, that effort had been obvious as she had practiced and studied over the course of her entire life. Were magic a muscle, Twilight would have been a world-class, multi-focus, unopposed, nightmare-to-drill-sergeants for any of the military forces of Equestria. As it was, she remained a (relatively) unnoticed unicorn-turned-alicorn princess who just happened to have an aptitude for magic. One that had defeated a crazed goddess, imprisoned (and later contributed to the reformation of) an elder god of chaos, and helped to fight off an army fielded by the immortal ruler of the changeling race. Oh, and her assistant single-handedly saved an empire from some uppity crystal obsessed, immortal, smoking unicorn made of manifest shadow.

All that, however, failed to explain why she was so absolutely disturbed by the act she had just witnessed her zerba friend commit moments ago.

"Z-Zecora... what did you just do?"

The zebra was busy wrapping her hoof in a scrap of cloth Rarity had sacrificed from her scarf to use as a bandage. Though the material itself was undoubtedly costly, even Twilight could see that it would be nearly useless for anything other than a rag within minutes. Zecora seemed less concerned about her unusual injury than with the strange black ribbon that Twilight could only see while leaning across the zebra's shoulders. Despite the horrific injury, which had nearly peeled her hoof clean away with countless razor-thin cuts, the zebra tapped her bandaged hoof on the ground with increasing force until she gingerly lifted her leg with a flinch.

From what Twilight could guess, the force of that stomp would still have been respectable for someone like herself or Rarity, though Rainbow Dash or Applejack would have likely only applauded the effort. Pinkie.... well, Pinkie was a wild card when if came to physicality.

"A shadow hunts where no pony sees, but to strike one low, one must still pay its fees." With another gentle tap of her hoof, Zecora tightened the bandage one final time before turning back to the motionless mare on the ground.

"Twilight Sparkle, you must know, that without air, her life will go. She must breathe, and soon at that, if she is to live, we must now act!"

Without hesitation, Twilight nodded and teleported, leaving Rarity to stare at Pinkie Pie in the otherwise empty street. "Well.... that was ...... horrible. Pinkie, did you happen to see Applejack while you were running around?"

Pinkie Pie seemed slightly distracted but quickly turned her head with a smile. "Ooooof course! She was over by the market making sure that nopony stayed behind to 'save their bits'. But I think she was really just making sure everypony left their stuff on the ground instead of trying to drag it away. I mean, it's not like their bits are going to get hurt or something." Pinkie grinned, clearly enjoying the situation despite whatever had been distracting her a moment ago.

"Pinkie, do try to focus please. Applejack was at the market you say?" Rarity's question was met with an enthusiastic nod and an inhale which was cut short with a white hoof.

"And she was helping to make sure nopony was staying behind?" Again, a nod.

"Then I do believe we should go and collect our wayward friend before we become too distanced from one another to reconvene. Lead the way?"

With a happy bounce, Pinkie nodded before hopping back towards the town hall, and by proxy, the marketplace. Rarity sighed as she turned, the remains of her scarf tucked tightly into its new role as a hatband. To say that she was pleased at the use of one of her artistic works as nothing so much as a roll of gauze would be a lie whose magnitude could likely be detected by one of Twilight's dreadfully spartan earthquake machines. To say that she would have hesitated at all to give it away freely to help Zecora would be a lie of at least equal degree.

Yes, it was almost painful to have seen her design abused in such a manner, yet despite her discomfort, Rarity knew that she could provide not only material, but material that was both high quality and as close to sterile as could be expected. She would have given her own coat if it could have helped her, admittedly biologically fashion-backward, friend.

With a quick hike in her pace to keep up with Pinkie, Rarity considered what she had seen that had necessitated the destruction of her attire.

Zecora had come with them to check on Manilla only to push Twilight out of the way and pour some foul liquid upon the stricken mare. No sooner had the odious concoction stained her mane and eyes then she had collapsed, kicked out violently and grown still. For a terrifying few moments, Rarity had actually worried that Zecora had, for some reason, killed the mare. It was a horrid thought, one she was certainly ashamed of, given her own part in contributing to the zebra's initial hardships in Ponyville, but it was something she refused to hide from.

Despite everything, she found herself still guiltily suspecting the zebra on occasion, if for no other reason than cultural differences. That wouldn't do. Zecora had been nothing but kind and forgiving to them. She had gone out of her way to warn them of dangers and had likewise offered them aid on numerous occasions. The zebra had a heart of exotically-themed, rhyming, striped gold.... but gold none the less.

Rarity's thoughts came to a screeching halt when Pinkie Pie abruptly spun around to face her.

"Rarity!" the pink bundle of energy nearly shouted, "Where's Fluttershy?"

Blinking at the rapid change in thought, Rarity took only a moment to glance around before checking the empty sky. With a growing sense of unease, she looked back to Pinkie Pie.

"I'm afraid I do not know Pinkie.... and that is certainly most troubling."






Amongst Apples, an Orange


Splitting up to warn everypony had made the job faster, and that was what everypony had agreed to. Applejack knew that working with other folk meant the job got done quicker... sometimes it even meant that the job could get done in the first place. It was a lesson she had learned the hard way, and a lesson she reminded herself of whenever she felt her stubborn streak starting to buck at her. She knew Granny Smith would never call it 'stubborn', it was always 'Apple Integrity' or 'Apple Honor', but Applejack knew it for what it was. She was stubborn. There was no dodging that one.

It served her well in most cases though. She'd be more likely to dig in and finish a tough job than to let it go undone and she was more than willing to stick out the long hours that other ponies just wouldn't even attempt, but there were times when it worked against her.

This was one of those times.

She was still trotting down street after street, knocking on every door and explaining to whoever was left why they needed to flee now. It wasn't her strong suit to tell ponies to abandon their homes or property, it actually rather flew against her values to pull up roots, but she knew that anypony who stayed was not only putting themselves in danger, but everypony else. She couldn't imagine letting the ponyfolk get hurt if she could help it, but against a beasty like that there fury, trying to save somepony could very well get her or her friends killed.

It wasn't a happy thought.

She had just turned down Bluebell Lane when a shadow darted out in front of her. After the events of the day, she nearly jumped before realizing it was likely just a pegasus flying low. With a quick upward glance she nodded with satisfaction as she saw Fluttershy gliding overhead. She was about to call out when she noticed that her friend was clutching something small to her chest.

"That's odd," she thought aloud as she watched her friend continue on. "Thought she was only making sure folks kept up with one another."

With a slight frown, Applejack glanced once more at the shrinking form of her friend before continuing down the lane.

A few empty houses (and one brief argument with a particularly stubborn stallion over his 'rights' to stay) and Applejack was just about ready to buck a few doors down rather than deal with her erstwhile community. Normally folks were pretty friendly, but when things started getting sour she knew they liked to act like the stick poking a beehive.

Some of them townsfolk just weren't too bright at the end of the day.

Shaking her head as she plastered another smile on her face, Applejack nearly ran directly into a coffee brown stallion with a wind tossed mane and a thin blue tie. Clockwork, or Doctor something, or Time Turner, or .... whatever his name was, startled and backpedaled with an apology before she had even come to a complete stop.

"Terribly sorry about that Miss Applejack. Running a bit late you see. Things to do, people to see, haven't happened to have seen a little black ribbon laying around have you? No? Oh, probably best not to worry about that then. Have you tried the cobbler? It's quite good really. Bub-bye!" He fired off non-stop, before trotting off at a clip, leaving Applejack quite literally speechless for a moment.

"W-well alright then." she stammered, still processing the one-sided conversation that would have seemed right at home had it come out of Pinkie's mouth.

Thankfully her stupor lasted only long enough for the rapidly approaching set of mares to catch her attention. With a tail-flick of recognition, Applejack fully turned to face Pinkie Pie and Rarity as they raced up to her. While Rarity looked disheveled and out of breath, Pinkie Pie seemed as if sprinting the length of Ponyville were as simple as getting a bite to eat in a field of flowers. Then again, for Pinkie Pie, such sprints were probably little more than an early morning warm up.

"Now Pinkie, what's got you both racing around? Did something happen? Did that bugger show back up again?"

"Nope! We're looking for Fluttershy! She's missing!" Pinkie had hopped up and was leaning into Applejack's face by this point, her eyes bulging as she belted out the final two words of her explanation.

"Just saw her overhead....um...Pinkie, you can get off me now... She was flying over that way." Applejack gestured with her head as Pinkie hopped back to her hooves with a momentarily apologetic smile. "Everything alright?"

Rarity, who had finally had a brief moment to catch her breath, glanced in the direction Applejack had indicated before looking back to Pinkie with an exhausted expression. "Pinkie, perhaps you can fetch her? I'm.... " she wilted just a bit "not particularly well suited for keeping up with you." Under her breath, she may have mumbled something about Rainbow Dash or a magically propelled javellin being the only true competition the mare was likely to find.

"But Rarity, if we break the party, that's when the bad guys ALWAYS strike! The first rule of scary stories is that you DON'T run off alone!" Pinkie paused for a moment, Applejack and Rarity sharing a look, before she spun her hooves in small circles. "Ok, so, maybe it's more like the third rule after 'don't say nothing worse could possibly happen' or 'don't open that door,' but it's still pretty close to first."

"Pinkie, I think what Rarity's trying to say is that she can't keep up easy. Maybe you can fetch Fluttershy before Rares swallows her tongue?"

For a brief moment Pinkie seemed to be undecided, a nearly panicked look crossing her features as her eyes darted back and forth. Thankfully, only a second later, she sprung back into the air and darted off with a low-browed determination on her face.

"So, what was that really about Rarity? Can't see you and Pinkie racing around without a reason."

"Well, she did rather get most of the facts correct. We were following Fluttershy, but we were also trying to find you. Manilla was attacked by something." Applejack's brief frown was enough to let Rarity know she was listening closely. "Zecora and Twilight took her somewhere, I assume the hospital, but then we noticed that Fluttershy was missing. Rainbow Dash hasn't come back yet either, but she is looking for that horrid unicorn so I don't expect her to return for some time yet. But Fluttershy?" Rarity's expression finished the question.

"I hear ya. What's she doing flyin' off? Might make sense if she were looking for somepony, but she didn't even seem to notice me when she flew over." Applejack looked back down the road where Fluttershy had flown off, "Somethin' ain't right."







Bagels are Boiled AND Baked


The little meadowlark had needed her help: it was clearly sick or paralyzed. At the very least, it was quite thoroughly stunned. Whatever was wrong with it though, she just knew she could help the poor little dear. There wasn't time though, not while Twilight was trying to prepare for a fight and Applejack was off knocking on doors. Rarity and Pinkie just didn't have the mentality to work with little critters and Rainbow Dash, while she might mean well, was certainly not an option.

Glancing around, Fluttershy noticed that the village was almost completely empty at this point. An empty town was no place for a sick creature. There was only one thing to do... she had to take it north, outside of the town and then swing around towards her home. She had medical supplies there. It was safe there. Angle Bunny could help her look after the little dear until she could figure out what was wrong. It was all on her.

With a brief moment to check for anypony else who might be near, she set off, wings pumping as she flew north. It wasn't too far to the outskirts after all, maybe a minute or two to weave between homes and businesses before she'd be near the outlying buildings and able to move more quickly. The poor dear was shaking, she could feel it in her hooves and upon her chest. She had to hurry, there wasn't much time.

She simply had to get outside of town and look for the herbs to make a tonic to help the little dear. It would only be a few minutes time. Surely it could hold on that long. She clutched the small bird to her chest as she felt tears welling up in her eyes. It had to. It simply had to be okay until she could brew up a cure.

Fluttershy wove between another set of light posts before whipping around the last of the market stalls as she set herself upon a straight path out of town. As she noted the road, she added height to her path, steadily rising above the rooftops. The late evening sky seemed to blossom into a tea-stained field in her mind, the buildings and other things in her path suddenly standing out in brilliant contrast. She knew what she had to do. She had to go north, outside of the town, to find the asp-vine and the corpse-root to brew a draught to make everything alright.

She clutched the small thing to her chest as she flitted above the last rooftops, the ground below quickly opening up into fields and meadows. With scarcely a moments thought, she whipped around to her left and began a rapid pass over the open space. While pegasi were not known for their night vision, ever since the incident at Sweet Apple Acres involving Twilight's magic and small swarm of bats, Fluttershy had found herself able to easily navigate in the dark. She wasn't completely comfortable with the thought that Twilight might have somehow changed her in some way but, at times like this, she was ever so grateful for whatever small advantage it could offer.

Banking low, she scanned the meadows and fields for patches of flowers or the dark twists of the root as she closed the distance with her home. Dipping towards a tangle of deep green vines near a lone sapling, she snagged a mouthful of the bitter asp-vine before skimming the grasses again as she continued to search for the elusive root. She could almost feel the seconds slipping away as she searched frantically, darting from landmark to landmark in her quick trip towards her cottage.

Finally, just as the Everfree slid into place at her side, she spied the black/gray brambles that identified the corpse-root and landed before carefully placing the meadowlark into a hastily formed nest of flattened grasses. Spitting out the asp-vine, she turned to the thorn covered bush and carefully lowered herself down to reach underneath. A few minutes of careful digging, and no small number of painful scratches, and she had torn free a few inches of the pungent tuber, enough for her purposes.

Shuffling back with a self-satisfied smile, she picked up the vine and took flight once again, swinging south before angling towards the Everfree.

It was a good thing she had been able to find the asp-vine and the corpse-root. Now she only needed to get a few cups of bloatberries and she'd have the missing ingredients to keep her little friends from hurting themselves.

Fluttershy blinked. From hurting herself. Yes, she didn't want the little dear to hurt herself. Shaking her head for just a moment, she blinked in confusion before assuring herself it was just her nerves getting to her. She glanced down at the two plants she now carried: asp-vine and corpse-root. With a nod she let herself relax again. For a moment she could almost swear she had left one of them behind.

With another great flap of her wings, the yellow pegasus darted off into the Everfree in search of the berries that would keep her little friends asleep. It wouldn't do if Rainbow Dash or Applejack ran off to get themselves hurt.

And forgotten, nestled in a hastily constructed nest of meadow grass, a paralyzed meadowlark stared up at Luna's moon.






In the Light, The Denizen Has Lost Its Way


It was dark when they awoke, dark enough that they didn't quite know if they had awoken yet or if they remained asleep within the labyrinthine bindings that had held them for years uncounted. They didn't truly understand the concept of time, nor even the meaning of the word 'concept' in the traditional sense, but they did understand that they had been kept from what they had wanted.

It had been close. There had been an offering, a gift of sorts, that had been laid out for them. It had been tempting. It had been so easy. It had been promised but had remained undelivered. It was a price they had unwillingly paid, their imprisonment, and it would be a price they would extract from their keeper in measure with their anger.

They had remained trapped for moments uncounted. Secured beneath riddles and threats - bound below the pact they had agreed to but held by trickery and loose ends. It was a cruel game they found themselves in. It was a poor decision for the riddle-maker to play such a game though.... for they were timeless, ageless, and utterly without forgiveness.

So it was, with no small measure of confusion and paranoid thinking that the first of them had stretched its bindings on the finding of the slipped riddle. At first, it was dark, but the dark had changed in some subtle way. It was still dark beyond pitch, but somehow there was less of it. There was a... thinness to it that hadn't been there before. It wasn't much, but to the first, it was enough to stretch and to move.

It was enough.

Over the weeks, the first began to slowly worm its way through the riddle, carefully testing its bounds and slowly working its bindings looser. By the third month, it had loosened the riddle enough that the second had taken notice. By the forth month, the third had been roused from its fitful slumber and the Three had, together, worked to strain their bindings.

While the riddle held, their efforts had not been of utter failure, the Three had stretched the riddle until its purpose began to lose focus. Like a glass carved of ice, eventually the riddle began to 'leak'... and from these leaks, the Three had begun to whisper into the dark.

Where they were, they did not know and did not care. What they were concerned with was what might be listening. Their whispers were soft, faint, and of the finest timbre. Teasing at the absolute edge of sound and caressing the curiosity of the listener. For weeks they whispered into the riddle, promising rewards and revenge, tempting with gifts and offering services. For months their discourse was met with echoing silence until, quite by chance, a small thing happened to entertain a whim and emerge from the soft soil as it burrowed through its home.

A blind mole cricket, white and fragile, had felt the timbre of the whisper in its spines and, thinking it to be the movement of its food, had followed the vibrations through the soil until it had come to a hollow. Climbing from its tunnel, the cricket had approached the thing and had alighted upon its slicked surface, curious as to that which was beneath itself.

In a feat of wonder, the cricket had explored the thing, carefully tasting the greasy coating and cleaning itself as it went. All the while following the vibrations as it searched for their origin.

Finally, having spent the better part of an hour meticulously searching the thing, the cricket found a single pit upon the grease where the faint scent of burnt wood marred the otherwise uniform coat of the thing, and had begun to worry at the edges, tugging and tearing with its tiny jaws... the vibrations telling it that food was just below the surface.

It had taken hours of work for the cricket to finally tear a tiny hole through the greased fabric, just larger than a mustard seed, before it had perished for its troubles. Crickets were simply not designed to work for so long in the open air without food or water.

The Three did not mourn their thrall's passing, but they made use of its body in attracting their next host: the spider that found the cricket.






Juris Osteos


Having Manilla admitted to the hospital had been easier than Twilight had expected. Despite not having a complete medical history to draw from, not being family, not being a guardian or employer, and not being in a dedicated relationship with the mare, it turned out that being a princess actually did qualify as a legal guardian for purposes of medical emergency. For Twilight, that alone might have been worth the threat of imminent danger to life and limb.

Then again, to Twilight Sparkle, obtaining just about any fact or obscure bit of knowledge often qualified as being worth risking life and limb.

However, while admitting the mare had been quite simple, filing the paperwork and obtaining a prognosis had been considerably more problematic. This particular problem, of course, was frustrated by the lack of a specific and medically recognized condition. So, while Twilight had repeatedly assured the medical staff that 'injurious conditions of, or related to, recent contact with as-of-yet-unspecified, semi-obfuscated, black-ribbon entity' would be recognized by the triarchy (another term she was mulling over), there was still understandable reluctance.

It didn't help matters that the staff had been startled by their abrupt arrival into a supply closet in the ER or that the only individual who apparently had any direct knowledge of Manilla's condition had a tendency to speak in somewhat abstract rhyme.

No, it had not been a terribly efficient half hour.

"At least that's finally handled," Twilight sighed as she rolled her eyes.

Zecora kept pace beside the alicorn as they walked the halls of the facilty, "I wish I could have told them more, but their medicine is short on lore. I do not think they'd take my word.... " she sighed before looking briefly to her hooves, "...sadly, my lessons to them must seem absurd."

"It's not your fault Zecora. They're some of the best medical minds in the area, but you know things that they've never seen so they have to be careful what they mix together. I mean, they are using medicine as well as magic here and you know that both can be highly dangerous if you're not careful."

A small smile graced the zebra's face as she looked up once more. Even with the frequent glances from the citizenry, she had begun to feel more at home in Ponyville over the last two years. It wasn't so much an overwhelming shift in how ponies viewed her so much as a gentle transition that familiarity had brought to the town. Twilight Sparkle and her friends had been instrumental in starting that change after all, and it was.... comfortable.

Twilight softly clearing her throat broke through Zecora's reverie as they passed through the lobby doors and out onto the street. "Zecora, I... I was actually hoping to find you when you came up before." Twilight rubbed the back of her head nervously for a moment, discomfort evident on her face as she tried to look everywhere but at her friend. "About that.....um, zebra. You see, it's not that I'm accusingyouofanythingbutwedidn'tevenKNOWtherewasanotherzebraintheareaandyouseemedtoknowhim!"

Twilight gasped in air as she tried to recover from her excessively fast admission. "How does Pinkie even DO that?"

Zeocra stopped for a moment, a look of confusion on her face as she tried to piece together the chattered sounds into a sentence. "Twilight, though I'm certain your concern is unfounded, true, perhaps taking a breath and trying again would benefit you?"

"Heh.... yheah. Um, let's see. Well, I was hoping you could tell me about that other zebra that you seem to know. Because we didn't even know that there was another zebra in town, but I didn't want you to think that we suspected you were in league with him or something because we don't even know if he's doing anything wrong but if you did know him we didn't want to offend you or ..." Twilight flinched as Zecora's foreleg softly draped across her shoulders. "Uh.... sorry about that."

"The zebra I know, a friend he is not though. But to relieve your concern, worry not, I know you only wish to learn." Zecora removed her hoof as she turned back towards the town hall. "There is much to tell, though I am not sure you will take it well. Your magics are a powerful kind, and with them is your potent mind, but unicorns are not unique such that horn-less others have learned to seek." She looked off towards the border of town as the pair crossed Blossom street.

"Do not assume, in magic, you are alone... especially in those so far from home. The zebra clans may seem one and the same, but where once there were many, only one bears an ancient name."

"Wait, " Twilight paused, causing the zebra to stop and turn, "You mean that all those family names are 'new' names? As in, not family names from history?"

Zecora laughed softly before gesturing for her friend to resume walking. "No. The family names are old, it's true, but only one is 'ancient' as defined by you. The rest are newer, some even quite fresh, but of the one I speak, it should be put to rest." The zebra's cheer seemed to melt, almost running from her face as if she had been dunked in ice water. "No, the one of which I speak is frail and weak, but like a brittle chip of glass, it strikes with venom as the asp."

Twilight wanted to ask more questions but the look on her friend's face caused them to wither up and die in her throat. That Zecora, the kindly shamaness who had helped them so many times without any reason or cause, would find something so deplorable as to liken it to a dangerous snake seemed reason enough to be wary. That she would claim it to be older than the other family lines and yet frail seemed to imply some form of royalty or at least something of merit. Yet, the zebra spoke of it as if its very existence were a taint... and that, if nothing else, brought a bad taste to Twilight's mouth.

"Their name is 'Lakou' and 'Zo', in a different order though. A curse upon them were it wise, but such is foolish to surmise. They deal in things best left alone and toil in darkness not fit for hearth or home. But though their ways bring evil deed, for your purposes, a name you will need... I would not say it's proper sort, but for you, it would mean: 'The Bone Court.'"

Zecora spit upon the ground, before pulling a sprig of something from her ever-present satchel and chewing. The faint, fruity, scent of verbena started to fill the air as Twilight processed what she had shared.

"So," Twilight thought aloud, "Lakou and Zo in a different order.... seems pretty easy... and 'The Bone Court'... that seems pretty clear too. But," she watched Zecora's face for anything as she continued, "why does it bother you so much? Don't get me wrong, I'm not from there and I don't know everything about Zebrican history, but your reaction seems pretty strong....and that's a lot coming from you."

Zecora opened her mouth to respond but quickly shut it again, instead choosing to look off into the night for a moment. "Their... choices.... have left us many tales... stories that always end in wails. While their magics are some of the oldest known, it is not from life that those are grown. Where a unicorn's power comes from within, and potions come from a shaman, a pegasus may learn to fly or an earth pony, who in stones, may lie... their power is not like me or you.... their power comes from.... " she twisted her face to form an uncomfortable, and clearly foreign, word... "bad juah-ju."

Twilight deadpanned. "Bad ju-ju? Seriously? If anypony else had said that I would be laughing and telling them that curses and hexes were make believe.... but you're serious it's called 'bad ju-ju'?"

Zecora's face flashed with anger for just a moment before she remembered with whom she had been speaking. "Yes Twilight, the name is poor, for something so dire, it certainly deserves more. Perhaps a 'croix' or 'semblan-rex' or even just a 'death-sworn-hex'. But... magic often has its way, and for even uttering their name... I will surely pay." The shamaness frowned again. "I do not wish to say that all of that clan are bad, mind, from their timeless work some good has been had." She looked up, a strained expression in her eyes, "But know this princess, were it up to me, from the face of Equestria, their kind, I would wipe free."






Upon a Stand, Most Finely Wrought


Spike sighed with relief as he slid the last copy of "Nrubluos' Guide to Field Cooking" into its place on the small shelf before swinging the cold-iron lock-bar back into place and securing it with Twilight's Blackstone zen-lock. Carefully raising the false sides of the pedestal to conceal the books Twilight deemed too dangerous for normal use (or lending), the young dragon reattached the decorative bust which locked the books away.

Stepping back, he regarded the results of the last few hours of labor with a satisfied smile.

"Alright. The books are back in order, the glass is all cleaned up, I'm not covered in ink and," he paused to trot over to the nearby writing desk which also served as Twilight's bulletin board, "the last item on the checklist is done."

A swift motion with a quill and he held up the parchment Twilight had left for him, a satisfied smile on his face. With a final nod, he rolled up the parchment and trotted off towards the kitchen, humming a merry tune.

For all the excitement earlier, the evening had turned out to be remarkably normal. With the evacuation having started and the girls out trying to organize an appropriate defense against whatever that unicorn-thing was, the library had been without a single patron. Normally, that would have been a bit boring, but the lull had given him the time he needed to clean up the mess from earlier as well as to go through the books to find what might have been taken.

Between the glass, the ink, the snacks, and the various items that had been knocked off the shelves, he had thought that the cleanup (and subsequent logging of books) would take much longer than it had. The first hour had been rather annoying due to the ink and snacks, but once he had managed to sand the stain off, the rest had gone quite smoothly. He hadn't been worried about the glass, so that only took a few minutes with the broom, but surprisingly enough, most of the books had fallen near their original shelves, making the re-shelving more of a task of lifting than true organization.

What had perplexed him though was that despite the mess and the surprise they had all had, he couldn't find any of the books from the library's catalog missing. He had spent the next two hours painstakingly going through the logs, one by one, and ticking each book off as either on shelf, on loan, or relocated for aesthetic reasons. When all of the books seemed accounted for (save 3 on trebuchet construction that he had seen the Cutie Mark Crusaders sneaking out last week), he had started to worry until he found Twilight's list of other 'things' that should be checked.

The resulting half hour of unlocking, digging out, and checking objects of questionable moral value had resulted in a few bruises and a distaste for peach yogurt, but otherwise hadn't shown anything to be amiss. Since then, he had simply been hiding and re-securing those same objects, careful to pick up the small scroll that contained the methods of opening said concealments so that a certain trio of fillies couldn't 'accidentally' stumble across a forgotten tome or worse.

All that remained for the night then was to clean up the kitchen and wait for Twilight to return home. Spike smiled to himself as he wiped the final cabinet and looked over the, once more, pristine kitchen. While he didn't actually enjoy all the chores his guardian gave him, he did find a sense of pride in her praise (or, more commonly, her ignorance of how much he actually did). The fact was that, without him, Twilight's reputation for being a prim and dedicated student/librarian would likely have rapidly degraded to that of a frazzled hoarder with multiple scholarly degrees and an unhealthy obsession for books. Chuckling at the thought, he padded over to the refrigerator dragging a chair, and climbed up to fetch himself some ice cream.

"Yep," he said to himself, "she'd be lost without you Spike."

After scooping himself a heaping bowl, and replacing the container in the freezer, he toddled back into the main room, carrying the large bowl before him, to a small cushion near a pile of comics he had pulled out for the evening. He settled in and opened the issue of The Amazing Clydesdale!!! Twist had mentioned when Cheerilee's class had visited last week.

"So... let's see. The Amazing Clydesdale had just beaten back Nymph, the changeling mastermind, when Doctor Aquarius had surprised him with an aqua-bomb..." The young dragon's eyes were practically glued to the high-gloss pages as he lay, tail twitching in excitement.

Meanwhile, a small black object made of feathers and a severed raven's foot, bound with twine, lay forgotten in a glass bell jar in Twilight's basement where she had placed it to keep it safe for further study.

Sadly, a small scroll made of parchment and ink, bound with a thin silk ribbon, similarly lay forgotten on a kitchen counter top where a young dragon had placed it to keep it from falling into the ice cream he had been scooping.

But, on the upside, at least The Amazing Clydesdale defeated Doctor Aquarius before the young dragon's snores became audible.