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Griffon the Brush Off – Part 1
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“And then she went- zoom! And then she did this crazy flip!” Pinkie prattled on to Twilight, as the purple pony tried to read her book in silence in the park, “It was all so fast! I thought I was going to go crazy!”
“Mhmm…” Twilight murmured as Pinkie’s rambling lulled, flipping the page in her book.
“She’s just so cool! The way she rockets around is amazing! I mean, have you ever seen anypony move so fast?!”
“Eeyup,” Twilight answered, paying no attention to Pinkie.
“Oh man! I just wish I was talented like her! She’s just—“
Pinkie was cut off as the air above her and Twilight twisted and roared in response to a cyan Pegasus flying over the two of them.
“Oh! Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie called, as the mare looked down on her from the sky, “Wait up!”
“Ugh,” Dash mumbled, pressing on with her course, “I’m busy Pinkie!”
“But Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie called.
“Not now, Pinkie!” Dash shouted to the pony below her, no longer watching what was going on in front of her.
“You need to—“
Before Pinkie could finish, Rainbow Dash crashed into the side of a mountain, and elegantly slid down, covering her face in dirt as she hit the ground.
“I was gonna tell you to look out for that mountain!” Pinkie said smiling, “But I need a favor!”
Dash just exhaled and dropped her chin on to the ground, “What kind of favor?”
“It’s a surprise!” Pinkie giggled, “But I promise it’ll be super fun!”
Dash only sighed in defeat.
Pinkie was relentless when it came to getting the assistance of her friends, once her mind was made up on who was going to help her. Dash knew that she could run…hide in a cloud, or somewhere in Sweet Apple Acres, but Pinkie would be right there, having arrived before her, somehow.
And, after everything that had been happening with Alex, and her being doused in coat-staining garbage, she had no fight in her right now. So, she’d help Pinkie.
“Okay, let’s go…”
“Great!” Pinkie called, “Follow me!”
/\/\/\/\
“Just a bit more to the left!” Pinkie instructed Dash, as she slowly moved a cloud over the post office, “Okay! A little bit back to the right!”
Dash sighed as she moved the cloud back, growing more and more impatient with Pinkie’s indecision on the placement of this cloud.
“Now! Just a smidgemeter to the south!” She called, frustrating Dash with her vague instructions, “North! North!”
Dash growled, and pulled the cloud in the directions she assumed were south and north.
“Okay, now all you need to do is—“
“Pinkie Pie!” Dash exploded at her, sick of the task she had been given.
“That’s perfect!” Pinkie laughed nervously, “Okay! Just wait up there, and I’ll give you the signal! It’s gonna be so funny!”
Dash rolled her eyes, and did as she was told. She waited.
/\/\/\/\
“Is this everything?” Spike asked, grabbing the last scroll on the counter, and piled it in to his arms with a bunch of others, “They’re assignments for Twilight from the princess.”
“Mhmm,” The clerk said, reading through the massive stack of mail from Canterlot, ensuring that Spike wouldn’t have to come back until next week, “It looks like that’s all of it.”
“Thank goodness!” Spike sighed, “In Canterlot, because there’s so many ponies, the post office would always screw up our mail!”
“I figured a big place like that would have a better system than a place like Ponyville,” He said, scratching his chin, and feeling a small amount of pride for the efficiency of his establishment, “Doesn’t seem to make any sense to me!”
“Well, Canterlot is filled with big families, and a lot of them have incredibly similar names,” Spike explained, “In more than a few cases, ponies have the exact same names.”
“Well that makes sense.” He nodded, “Well, I have some more sorting to do before the day ends, so I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Sure thing!” Spike smiled, turning around to the face the door, “See you later!”
Opening the door, Spike walked down the porch, and on to the grass, happy to be headed home, so he could take a nice long nap!
Taking a couple of steps out in to the open, Spike’s trip was suddenly interrupted by a massive explosion just above him.
The noise Spike made could only be described as a screech, as the scrolls flew from his arms all over the ground.
Silence hung in the air, as Spike tried to wrap his mind around his shocking experiences. But, he was again cut off, by a loud, and echoing, hiccup.
And then another.
And another.
The familiar sound of giggling came from the entrance of the post office, as Pinkie Pie jumped out from her hiding place, and Rainbow Dash flew down from the sky, where she had just struck the lightning cloud.
“Oh Dashie! We scared Spike so bad, that we gave him the hiccups!” Pinkie managed to get out, before exploding in a fit of adorable laughter.
Spike himself, wasn’t upset whatsoever, and had to give it to Pinkie for playing a joke on him, yet again.
“Good one Pinkie!” Spike said, before hiccupping, “You’re—always pulling a—fast—fast one on me!” He said, his hiccupping falling in between each word.
“That was awesome!” Dash laughed, as Spike stood up and started to collect his scrolls. However, as soon as he picked up his first one, an accidental flame came from his mouth, and dissolved the scroll, sending it off to Princess Celestia, “Oh, Spike! Are you okay?”
“Sure am! Dragons are fireproof!” Spike smiled, picking up the last of his scrolls, only to have them be lit aflame as soon as he hiccupped, “…I wish the same could be said of scrolls.”
The two girls laughed at his misfortune, feeling a little guilty, but no so much that they’d stop their fit of laughter.
\/\/\/\/
By the time Spike got his scrolls back from Princess Celestia, and had them all sorted out, a good hour and a half had passed, and he knew that he’d be missing out on his nap for the afternoon.
On his way back to the library, Spike had heard passing comments on a prank spree running across the town . It didn’t take a genius to know who was causing that. By the sounds of it, they were all harmless jokes, and nopony was worse for wear. Something he was very happy about. Sometimes it’s easy to go overboard.
Stepping inside the library, the already familiar sound of Alex snoring filled the house, and it became apparent to Spike why Twilight had gone to read in the park. Everypony knew that he wasn’t trying to be that way, but it was almost obnoxious.
“Maybe I should take a note from him, and just go to sleep anyway,” Spike sighed, looking at the clock, reading six o’clock, but he was just too hungry for that. Maybe spend an hour cooking, and an hour eating, a half cleaning… that would be late enough.
“Hey Alex!” Spike shouted at their guest, caring not for his slumber, “What do you want for dinner?”
“Spaghetti!” He called out of the room.
“We had that last night!” Spike called back, “And for lunch!”
“Penne!” He shouted again.
“Hmm…” Spike said, looking in a nearby counter, “Well, it’s a different shape I guess.”
The snoring continued.
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Twilight walked back in to the library to the familiar smell of pasta, and the familiar presence of Alex and Spike sitting at the table, eating that pasta.
“Again?” Twilight asked the two, “Don’t you eat anything else?”
“It’s not all the same,” Alex shook his head to her, “You can cook pasta a million different ways! But, I’d always eat it covered in butter if I could.”
Twilight didn’t know how to respond to that off the top of her head, but shrugged it off, and joined them at the table, “How was it cooked this time?”
“Alex showed me how to make this alfredo sauce!” Spike said, using his fork to stuff a mouthful of pasta in to his mouth, “It’s really creamy!”
“It’s the one thing I can cook,” Alex laughed, gently lowering his mouth to the plate, and biting down on a single noodle to consume it, “But I’ve mastered it.”
“Maybe you should have a cutie mark in cream-based sauces,” Twilight laughed, looking at his rump to make sure he didn’t actually have that on his side… he didn’t.
“How was the park?” Spike asked, seeing her bookmark much deeper than where it had been this morning, “It looks like you got a lot of reading done!”
“Well, I would have got some more, but Pinkie has a tendency to talk, and talk, and talk…” Twilight sighed, “It’s a good thing Rainbow Dash came along.”
“I had a run in with the two of them.” Spike laughed, “They pulled a great prank on me!”
“I heard they were pulling pranks on everypony in town,” Twilight said, “I’m glad I was spared though.”
“The day’s not through.” Spike shook his head, “Be careful.”
“They won’t be able to get me here,” Twilight said, heading up the stairs, “But I’m going to do a couple of experiments upstairs.”
“I’ll probably be in bed when you finish,” Spike said.
“I will be too,” Alex said, unsure of why he would need to inform her of that fact.
“Well, try not to snore,” Twilight said half-jokingly.
“Sorry,” Alex scratched the back of his head nervously, knowing that he could have a problem with that, “I just need to sleep with my face in the pillow. It shuts me up.”
Twilight only waved as she headed up the stairs in to her study, leaving Alex and Spike alone once again.
“Isn’t she going to eat?” Alex asked quietly.
“Twilight tries to keep her figure under control,” Spike explained quietly, “She went through a bit of a... faze. “
Alex cocked an eyebrow.
“She gained a few pounds…” Spike coughed.
Alex didn’t need to hear any more.
“So, I’m going to clean up here,” Spike said, gesturing to the kitchen, “Why don’t you go find something to do?”
Alex wondered just what there was for him to do.
Explore Ponyville a little more, practice his magic, get to know Spike a little better.
Na.
Alex went right back to sleep.
/\/\/\/\
“Hey Gilda!” Dash smiled, opening her door to see her gryphon friend standing at the door, “Back again?”
“Yeah, I was thinking I’d be sticking around for a little while, if that’s okay with you.” She answered, stepping inside of the house, “I’ve had a bit of a disagreement with my last roommates in Cloudsdale…”
“That’s fine!” Dash smiled, happy that Gilda had been dropping by so much in the last week, “Do you have everything you need?”
“I just need to make one more trip there and back,” Gilda said, looking at the setting sun, “Mind helping me out?”
“Sure thing!” Dash smiled, “You won’t believe how fast I can get there and back!”
“Why don’t we make it a race then?” Gilda suggested, feeling her competitive spirit come out, as it usually did around Dash, “The loser has to carry all the stuff back!”
Dash smirked. This would be an easy win.
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