//------------------------------// // Spike Saved The Day // Story: Maple Syrup // by Garbo //------------------------------// Spike joyfully strode through the streets of Ponyville, his tail slowly moving back and forth as he walked. Well, more like waddled. But either way, he was moving in a forward direction, and that’s what’s important. There were a few things putting a spring in the young dragon’s step. First, he had just come from Rarity’s Carousel Boutique, where he had been helping her work. He and Rarity both knew that it was just a cover so he could spend more time with her, but she didn’t seem to mind the attention. Ever since the incident where Spike had grown greedy, literally, and thousands of bits’ worth of damage to the town, Rarity had become fully aware of Spike’s affections. Although Spike had never gotten to say what he had intended to as they fell, Rarity had received the message well enough. The dressmaking unicorn didn’t mind having Spike around to help her, and if anything, she thought it was flattering that he wanted to spend so much time with her. Spike was also happy because of the events of the previous day. A smile came to his face as he recalled them. That day, he – with the help of Twilight and her friends – had saved all of Equestria from a wicked king bent on the enslavement of the crystal ponies. No small feat. And no small amount of stairs, either. The whole time, he’d been walking up stairs, walking down stairs, or trying to climb down a tall crystal thing with the crystal heart in claw, somehow managing to not fall off the edge. In the end, he did tumble off, but got saved by Princess Cadence, so it didn’t really matter. The crystal ponies had been liberated, and it was - for the most part - because of him. He would have given himself a pat on the back, but his arms were too short for that. Still, he didn’t need to do that to be proud of himself. He was in the middle of his ego-tending train of thought when he collided with a certain Ponyville teacher. “Oh, I’m so sorry Cheerilee! It always seems like I’m bumping into you.” Cheerilee chuckled. She too had noticed that the young dragon ran into her an uncannily often, and it seemed that she always had groceries when it happened. “It’s alright, really,” she said. She started picking up her food, and Spike helped her. Before long, all of the items were back in the bag, and Cheerilee was on her way. But just as she started trotting off, she stopped and caught up with Spike. “Wait, didn’t you bring down the heart crystal in that incident in the Crystal Empire?” Spike answered with a nod. Cheerilee smiled. “Well, I think I owe you a thank you.” “It’s really no big deal,” said Spike. “I mean, all I did was--.” “Spike, it is a big deal! You were really brave, and you should give yourself some credit for that.” Spike took a second to think about that statement. Despite the fact that Spike was already happy about what he did, the fact that he had saved all of Equestria was still sinking in. “You know what? You’re right! It is pretty awesome that I did that!” Spike said with a renewed confidence. “It is,” said Cheerilee, chuckling at Spike’s boyish attitude. “I assume Pinkie’s going to be throwing some sort of party for the whole thing?” “Yep. It’s tonight at Sugarcube Corner. Are you going?” “Oh, maybe, but I’ve got some reports to grade and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find the time.” “Oh, well I’ll probably run into you soon anyway. Goodbye!” “Have a nice day Spike!” Now twice as happy about himself, Spike continued on the way to the library. He didn’t have to go back there, because Twilight had decided to take the day off from research, something she didn’t do often. Spike probably should have taken advantage of the opportunity, but he found himself going back anyway, mostly because he wanted to hang out with Twilight. A few minutes and egotistical daydreams later, Spike found himself in front of the library. Just as he was about to walk in, a crowd of ponies blocked his way. There was a flashing of lights that temporarily blinded the poor dragon. Spike put his hands up to cover his eyes, but by the time he did, the flashes were gone. Rather, the world decided to overload yet another one of his senses. “Spike, how does it feel knowing you saved all of Equestria?” “We’ve heard of the effects of the Crystal Heart, but nothing specific. Can you tell us exactly what happened?” “Is there anything you would like to say to the public? “How were you able to deliver the Crystal Heart even after a unicorn as powerful as Twilight Sparkle failed?” The voices continued for second after agonizing second, barraging Spike’s eardrums with more sound than they were meant to handle. Putting his claws over his ears did little to shut out the noise. Frantically, he looked left and right for a way to escape, but all he saw were the legs of at least a dozen ponies that surrounded him. Just as he was about to give up, he felt an oddly familiar tingling sensation spread throughout his body. Spike couldn’t quite put a claw on where he had felt it, but before he had enough time to figure it out, he heard a loud zapping noise, and the world around him disappeared. A mist-like aura clouded his vision, and he felt as if his body was floating in nothingness. A second later, he heard another zap, and the ‘fog’ cleared from his eyes. “Oh right, teleportation. That’s what that was.” Spike rubbed his eyes to clear some his vision, but when he opened them again, he found that the world was rocking back and forth like a pendulum. Spike was puzzled by this. Normally, Equestria did not move. He tried to take a step forward, but he found that the ground was moving as well. Frantically, the young dragon looked around the library, which only seemed to shake more when he turned his head. To his right, he saw a purple unicorn walking up to him. He could not figure out who they were through the blurriness caused by the quaking. Oddly, the pony did not seem to be affected by it, walking normally. When she got to Spike, the unidentified mare put a hoof on his head, and suddenly, the world stopped moving. “Whoa, how did you do that?” he asked, turning towards the mare. Now that his vision was not blurred, he could see her clearly. “Twilight? That was you?” “Of course it was. And how did I do what exactly?” “Make the world stop shaking like that.” Twilight chuckled. “Spike, the world wasn’t shaking. You were.” Spike thought about it for a second before it dawned on him. The teleportation spell had made him dizzy. Again. A figurative light bulb appeared over his head at the realization, but it only had a short moment to itself before Pinkie Pie snatched it out of the air. Spike, who had not seen the pink party pony when he was zapped in, was surprised. “Hey Pinkie!” “Hiya Spike! How’s your day been?” “Pretty good, except for what just happened,” Spike said before turning to his surrogate parent with a look of confusion. “What happened exactly?” Twilight sighed, more than a hint of annoyance in her face as she turned to look at the library entrance, which was now boarded up with some two-by-fours. “I should have figured you wouldn’t know. You probably got overwhelmed, didn’t you?” “Yeah, just a little, but who were they?” “The paparazzi.” As often happened with Twilight, Spike had no idea what she was saying. “The papa-what-now?” Pinkie, who was busy screwing the light bulb into a lamp, gave the answer. “Newsponies, Spike.” Twilight turned to Pinkie, nodding in appreciation. “Exactly. They’re the most ruthless and stubborn ponies you’ll ever meet. And for the record, that comment about my failure was completely unwarranted.” Spikie, although he heard what she said, was distracted by what a certain physics-defying, fourth-wall-breaking pony in the room was doing. “Pinkie, where did you get that light bulb?” “From you, Spike!” Spike frowned. “Pinkie, I never gave you a light bulb.” “Don’t be silly Spike; of course you did!” Twilight looked on as the two had a five minute argument about where the light bulb had come from. Rather than ending the argument herself, she opted with the much easier solution of waiting for Spike to give up, which was of course the result. Even after he refrained, there was still a hint of annoyance in his expression. “So what did they want from me, exactly?” he asked. “Spike, you saved all of Equestria a few days ago. What do you think they want from you?” “Oh yeah,” he said. “So when will they leave me alone?” “Hold that thought.” Twilight had already started walking over to the bathroom, which she proceeded to enter. A few moments later, the mare came back with some sort of herb in tow. “Take this; it’ll make you feel less dizzy.” She opened the bottle and sprinkled some into a glass of water she had filled from the tap. Spike quickly drank the concoction, grimaced, then swallowed. “If Zecora can make herbs that cure almost everything, then why can’t she get rid of the taste? Blech!” Twilight chuckled at the joke, but quickly settled down. “As for your question Spike, do you remember what happened after we defeated Discord?” Spike nodded, “I had to go to the hospital to get stomach surgery, but none of the doctors had enough experience with dragons, so we had to go all the way to Zecora’s homeland to get it done. And after that, I still had to go back to Canterlot hospital for a week.” Twilight chuckled nervously. She had forgotten about that. “Yes, well, I guess you weren’t around for it. What about after we defeated Nightmare Moon?” “I had insomnia for two days because my sleeping patterns got messed up from the all-nighter. I slept for a whole day after that.” “Okay, I remembered that, but did you notice anything weird after that? Anypony you didn’t recognize?” Spike put his claw to his chin, pondering the past. “Well, now that you mention it, there were a lot of ponies following you around. Why was that?” “Same reason there are ponies at the front door now, Spike, and I’m not the only one. Rainbow Dash probably has the most experience with the media because of her flying. Rarity has some press from her shop as well. The rest of us have saved Equestria four times now, and after each time, the media was all over us. We all react differently. Rainbow and Rarity always eat up the attention, Pinkie Pie here invites them all to a party, Fluttershy is usually too scared to come out of her house for a week or so, and I try to keep my cool until I can’t stand it anymore and lock myself in the Library. Of course, I always lock myself in the library, so you probably didn’t notice a difference.” “You can say that again,” said the often overworked assistant. “Twilight, you should really go out a lot more,” said the hyperactive pink pony, who had managed to stay quiet much longer than usual. “You miss so many of my parties. Oh, that reminds me: Spike, did I tell you I’m throwing you a party?!” “Yeah, you told me yesterday. But the party’s at Sugarcube Corner, right? Why are you here?” “I came here to see if Twilight needed help cleaning the place up after she went all crazy, uprooted the library, and almost put you in the hospital again.” Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes around to indicate ‘craziness’ before continuing. “But she says she’s got it handled.” Spike groaned. Fortunately for him, the impact to his head had only caused a minor concussion, which was a miracle considering how large the Magical Compendium Volumes 1 – 36 was, and how fast it had been flying when it hit him in the head. This, of course, was the reason why the teleportation had made him more dizzy than usual. But the slight dizziness was not the only thing occupying the noggin of the young dragon. “Pinkie, did you invite the newsponies to the party?” “Well of course I did, silly. Once they heard you would be there, they knocked down my door asking to be invited. How could I refuse?” Spike’s eyes were wide open, the expression frozen on his face in a way not unlike Discord in his stone prison. When he finally did move, a loud noise came from within the library that could be easily heard by the newsponies outside, not to mention half of the town. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” [img] http://images.wikia.com/mlp/images/3/30/Spike_nooh%21_S1E19.png[/img]