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// Day 13: Spike's Hearts and Hooves Day Surprise 
// Story: NaPoWriMo 2014: A Compilation of Pony Tales 
// by Fluttercheer 
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	It was Hearts and Hooves Day in Equestria. The holiday for all lovestruck ponies. The day on which everypony spent some especially romantic time with it's colt- or marefriend. At least those who actually had such a relationship.
Spike didn't. He loved Rarity, but so far, it was unsure if Rarity would respond to his love for her in the way he wished. And he was not a pony. But neither of these things could change the fact that he was lovestruck as well. And no matter what Rarity may or may not felt for him, Spike loved her, and on this special day, he wanted to give the mare of his heart a big present.
He had planned this day for a very long time. Months ago he decided which present it should be and he saved up every bit he got for this present. He even took on some jobs in the town where ever an opportunity popped up to earn some money and getting enough bits together. It was a very expensive present and it was hard and strenous to collect the boatload of money he would need to pay for it, but for Rarity, it was all worth it.
Now he was on the way to the flower shop, because flowers should be what he wanted to present Rarity with. Now, flowers are not a very original or creative present, and a quite cheap one, but the flowers Spike was aiming for were rare. Rare and thus very expensive.
They were diamond tulips. They've gotten this name because, when they were discovered, ponies found small diamonds in their heads. The tulips itself were, in fact, regular tulips a pony could find everywhere in Equestria. But sometimes, the seed of a tulip began to sprout under a diamond in the ground and during the growing of the flower, the diamond became encapsulated in it. They became a very popular present among ponies, especially for Hearts and Hooves Day, and so flower shops who could get ahold of them, could earn a lot of money. The flower tulips were harvested, after being discovered by unicorns using gem finding spells, before their heads could open, so that they would serve as a natural packaging for the gem inside. If they were put into water after buying them, they slowly opened their heads and a few days later, the diamond was visible in all it's sparkling glory.
And this was it why Spike headed to the flower shop this morning; to buy a diamond tulip for Rarity. And it was not just one he wanted to buy, he wanted to buy a whole bouquet of them. Every year on Hearts and Hooves Day, the Ponyville flower shop got a small delivery of diamond tulips, ten to twenty tulips in total, and Spike wanted to buy all of them. He knew how much Rarity loved diamond tulips and that they were her favourite sorts of flowers and he had enough to buy this expensive present for her. He knew that she would be immeasurably happy about it and maybe, it would also open her heart for him.
Spike whistled a cheerful tune as he walked around a corner and the flower shop came in sight in some meters distance. Today, he would make Rarity the happiest mare in Ponyville!
After he had crossed the remaining distance to the shop he swung open the door and entered it. The doorbell rang and Lily, Daisy and Rose looked over to him. “Hey Spike!”, they greeted him. “Are you buying flowers for Rarity?” They snickered a little. Everypony in town knew about this crush on Rarity and so the three flower sisters were not surprised to see him here today.
Spike walked up to the counter at the back end of the shop. “Yep!”, he answered. “But this time I'm going to buy special flowers for Rarity! I will buy her a bouquet of diamond tulips!”, he exclaimed proudly.
With these words, the smiles vanished from the faces of the sisters and were replaced by compassion. “I'm sorry, Spike”, Rose began, “but they are sold out. A stallion just came here a few minutes before you and bought all of them for his wife as a Hearts and Hooves Day present.”
Spike's world shattered into pieces. “What?!”, he asked, completely shocked. “But I was going to buy them for Rarity! I saved so much money for them! I need those flowers!”
“I'm very sorry, Spike”, Daisy expressed her regrets. “Maybe you could just buy other flowers for her? If you have enough bits to buy her a whole bouquet of diamond tulips, you can buy her even more flowers of another sort!”, she tried to cheer him up.
“How about some–“, Lily began, but Spike interrupted her.
“No!”, he said. “It must be diamond tulips! I have planned to buy Rarity something special this year and I'm not going to give this up! No other flower is good enough for Rarity!”
The three mares looked at him with concern.
“I must know who has bought the diamond tulips! I will go to him and try to make a deal to get them for Rarity! Maybe I can at least get some of the tulips! Tell me his name!”, he demanded.
Daisy, Lily and Rose hesitated. They knew how much Spike could get carried away when it had to do something with Rarity and they did not want that he bothered a pony in his infatuation. But Spike was nagging them and complaining about the situation, until they gave in annoyed.
“Thanks!”, he said to them after they told him the identity of the stallion and then he rushed out of the flower shop.
The stallion who had bought the diamond tulips was Noteworthy. Spike remembered. His wedding was just a few months ago. Noteworthy lived in the outskirts of Ponyville, so Spike had to walk quite a while before coming to the house where he and his wife lived in, but since it was for Rarity, he accepted this long walk gladly.
Ten minutes later, he arrived at the house. He knocked on the door and hoped that Noteworthy was at home and that he hadn't presented his wife with the flowers already. As much as Spike loved Rarity, but he could not insist on getting the flowers if they were already in the possession of Noteworthy's wife. He was a dragon with manners, after all, and he did not wanted to ruin Hearts and Hooves Day for a happy couple like them.
Suddenly, Spike heard hoofsteps coming up to the door. Then it opened and Noteworthy stood in front of Spike.
“Hey Noteworthy!”, Spike began. “I heard you bought the whole range of diamond tulips from the flower shop.”
Noteworthy nodded. “Yeah”, he answered.
“Has your wife already seen them?”, the small dragon asked him.
“No, not yet.” A confused expression appeared in Noteworthy's face. “Why do you asking for them?”
“Because I need them!”, Spike bursted out. “I wanted to buy them first to give them to Rarity, but then you came and bought them before me! I wanted to give Rarity something special for Hearts and Hooves Day and that's why I need them from you. I can repay you for them! I have saved up money for months to buy Rarity these flowers!”
But Noteworty shook his head. “I'm sorry, but I can't do that. I needed a last-minute present, because the ruby necklace I wanted to buy was gone before I could get it and if I give you the tulips now, I don't have anything that I can use as a present anymore.”
Spike let his shoulders hang. Noteworthy was not willing to give him the tulips, not even for money, and Spike could hear at his voice that nothing could convince him. Except..... Spike had an idea. He looked up to Noteworthy again. “Then I will get you this necklace back! I will get it back and you give me the tulips for it!”
“Actually, I don't think you can–“, Noteworthy began to express his disbelief that Spike could manage this, but Spike interrupted him.
“I can!”, he exclaimed. “Please let me try it, Noteworthy!” The dragon looked at him with the most adorable puppy-eyed look.
Noteworthy thought over the offer for a moment. Actually, there was no disadvantage for him in this deal. If Spike didn't made it, he could just keep the flowers as present for his wife and if he should succeed against all expectations, he could get the present he wanted to have originally.
“Ok”, he agreed. “But you have only time until Celestia starts to set the sun. If I don't have the necklace at 07:00 PM I will give the flowers to my wife. The pony who bought the necklace is the mare who runs the kindergarten.”
“Oh, thank you!” Spike jumped up at him and gave him a quick hug out of thankfulness. Then he turned round at the spot and hurried away, to the house where he would get what he needed. “I will get you the necklace, you'll see!”, he shouted back to him while he was running to his destination.
The teacher of the local kindergarten did not live far away. Right now, Spike was really happy about it that Ponyville was such a small town that everypony knew everypony. He could reach the house of the kindergartner quick and with all the money he had, it would be child's play to get the ruby necklace!
As he had come to the house, he ringed the doorbell and waited. It took a while until the door was opened and Spike already thought that nopony was at home, as he heard scuffing hoofsteps behind the door, who approached it only very slowly. The mare who opened the door was a pathetic sight.
Her mane was ruffled into all possible directions, her tongue hang out of her mouth and she had a runny nose. The mare coughed. “What do you want?”, she asked with a scratchy voice.
The mare was obviously sick. But Spike did not care for this right now. He had his own fair share of problems and at best, the condition of the mare would make the negotiations easier. “You bought a ruby necklace recently, right?” His voice fluttered in excitement.
“Yes”, she answered taut, sparing herself from saying too much as her throat hurted.
“I came to make a deal with you. I need this necklace and I want to buy it from you. I have lots of money, the price won't be a problem!”
Of course it wouldn't be so easy. The mare shook her head slowly. “I already bought it and it's mine”, she said stern.
“Oh, please!”, Spike ignored the rejection of his offer. “I need the necklace to bring it to Noteworthy, who wanted to buy it as present for his wife, so that I can get the diamond tulips that he bought before me and that I wanted to give Rarity as a present and if I don't get them then I won't have a present for Rarity this year!” Spike was fidgeting around in agitation.
But this made the mare only annoyed at him. “I said no! I won't give it to you and I'm not interested in your money!”, she answered in a harsh tone. “Buy another present for your beloved mare.”
But Spike did not give up so easily. “Then let me do something for you! If you don't want my money, then just let me do you a favor in exchange for the necklace! Please, it's so important that I get this present for Rarity and I would do everything to get it!”
The sick mare almost snapped back at him, but then she thought of something and paused. “Everything?”, she asked him. “You would really do everything?”
“Uh-huh!”, Spike nodded rapidly.
Suddenly, the mood of the mare brightened. Partially responsible for her bad mood right now, aside from her sickness, was a problem that loomed over her head all the time, but that she couldn't solve, no matter how long she pondered over a solution for it.
Since she was sick, she could not take care of the kindergarten foals today. There was also nopony that could jump in for her; as it was only a small kindergarten, she was the owner and only teacher of it at the same time. And all her friends were either too busy with something or currently not in town. They could not help her out. And she knew that the foals would already be waiting for her by now and this made her worried. She smiled at Spike. “There is one thing you could do. But it's not going to be easy”, she said.
“Okay, what is it? I don't care how hard it is, I will do it if you give me the necklace for it!”
His confidence impressed the mare. “Okay, then”, she said. “As you can see, I am sick today. This means I can't take care of the foals in the kindergarten today. And there is nopony else that can do it. If you can take care of them for today and watch over it that they don't create a mess or hurt themselves I will give you the necklace.”
Spike nodded. “Okay, I'm in! I do that as long as you want!”
“It's only for today”, she said. “My friend returns to Ponyville tomorrow and then he watches over them every day until I got well again. And you don't have to do much. Just be there and take care of it that they don't demolish something or set the kindergarten on fire or something like that.”
Spike nodded again. “I will take care of them just fine!” He said goodbye to the mare and then he dashed off into the direction of the kindergarten.
Spike was on fire. Finally he found a way to get the diamond tulips for Rarity anyway! He never took care of little foals and when he was animal-sitting for his friends, it ended almost in a disaster. But these were no animals. These were young foals. How hard could it be? He would just read them a few stories, that always worked with such young foals to prevent them from creating a mess. Spike was sure that he would get along with them just fine.
As Spike arrived at the kindergarten, he could already hear the foals playing inside. They were very loud with the sounds of their play, but Spike shrugged. This was normal, that's just how young foals are. What Spike saw when he entered the kindergarten was everything else but normal, though.
It was pure chaos.
The interior of the kindergarten was a mess; chairs lying around, tables scribbled with crude drawings, some broken flower pots. And foals everywhere. Some of them were galloping around, trying to catch each other while screaming in delight and not even paying the slightest attention to Spike. Some fillies were busy with scribbling on one of the tables and some others tried to built forts out of a bunch of chairs and some blankets.
Spike just stood there, watching the scene, his eyes shrunk small, his mouth gaping wide open and sweat streaming over his face. A feeling told him that this wouldn't be so easy as he thought it would. Spike shook his head. He turned to some of the fillies that were galloping around. “Hey, could you–“ But the fillies were already away again. Another couple of foals, this time fillies and colts alike, approached him and then galloped in circles around the small dragon. He tried to talk to them, but their changing position did not make it easy. “Hey, I am–“ “Can you stand still for a moment?” “I was coming here because–“ Spike turned around and around, trying to keep track of the foals' positions, while attempting to talk with them, but everything was useless. The foals were so absorbed of their game that it seemed that they even didn't see Spike.
After a few more trys, Spike's patience was over. “Finally listen to me!”, he screamed out, then he breathed a huge amount of fire into the air.
The fillies and colts in the big room, especially the ones who were encircling him the whole time, stopped and gasped from fear as they saw the flaming inferno. Then they just stood there; frozen, with their eyes and mouths wide open, staring at him.
“Finally!”, Spike exclaimed. He began to talk to them in a stern voice. “I'm Spike. Your teacher is sick today and she sent me to watch over you for today.”
The fillies and colts still did not move. Spike thought for a moment what he should do now. Then he continued with his stern talk. “And now gather around at the blackboard at the end of the room and build a line!”, he shouted at them. “Now!”
It was like the foals were strucked by a sudden thunder. On Spike's command, they did as he had told them and hurried to the blackboard and took position there, one after another, in a clean line.
Spike nodded satisfied. His fire breath seemed to have him gained their respect. He walked across the room over to the young foals who were still staring at him in awe, some of them even shivering a little. Spike counted the foals. “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.” He had to deal with twenty of foals on this day, fourteen of them fillies. It would not be an easy job, but for Rarity, he was willing to take it on and to succeed.
“Okay, now that we have all calmed down”, he was adressing the foals again, “tell me your names!” He pointed to the filly at the far left. It was an earth pony and had a purple coat and a green mane and tail. His eyes were of a bright yellow. “You begin!”, he said.
“My name is Golden Grape!”, the filly said quickly, her eyes reflecting pure respect for the dragon.
Spike pointed to the filly at the right of Golden Grape. “And now you!”, he commanded.
The filly had a white coat, her mane and tail were a dark blue and the eyes of a green color. It was a pegasus. “I-I'm Snowy Breeze”, the filly answered slowly and in a quiet voice.
“Good. And now everyone of you tells me his name like Golden Grape and Snowy Breeze did, one after another!”, Spike commanded after he thought that the foals had understood what to do to answer without a call.
The next foal in the row was a colt. His coat was of a beige color, tail and mane a reddish brown. His eyes were grey and he was an earth pony. As opposed to the two fillies to his right, who felt respect for Spike or even feared him a little after his outburst, he just gave him a spiteful look. “Nasty Hooves”, he answered brash.
“Lily Spring”, said the filly to his right, a unicorn with a yellow coat, a green mane and a green tail.
And like this, it was going on. Every young filly and colt told him her or his name, until Spike knew all of them. If he would remember all these names was a different problem altogether, but for now, this should do the trick. He knew how to call them and managed it to discipline them.
He sighed relieved and his voice became more friendly. “Okay, now that we know each other, let's be a bit more chill, okay? I don't want to scream all the time.”
The foals relaxed and nodded, but still looked reverently at him.
“Does anypony of you have any questions?”, he asked them.
“Yes, what happened to Miss Honey Mood?”, Golden Grape asked him without hesitation.
“Oh, she's alright, it's nothing bad!”, Spike answered her question. “She is just a little sick and will be back in a few days!”
“And until then you will be here?”, a snotty question came from her right. It was asked by Nasty Hooves.
“No, I'm only here for today! A friend of your teacher will take care of you from tomorrow on until she is well again.”
“How was your name again? I forgot it.”, a pink-maned filly in the middle of the row said.
“My name is Spike! I'm a dragon and the assistant of Twilight Sparkle!”
“Princess Twilight Sparkle?”, Snowy Breeze asked with big eyes.
“Yes! I'm the most faithful assistant of Princess Twilight Sparkle!” His chest swelled in pride.
This answer created a storm. The foals who stood so disciplined in a row were suddenly giving up their organisation and gathered around Spike. From all sides, he was bombarded with questions.
“How is it to live with a princess?”
“How does her castle look from the inside?”
“Is it true that Princess Celestia made her an Alicorn?”
“Hey, I can't answer all of your questions at the same time. Please answer one question after another!”, he exclaimed helplessly.
But the foals were already not to tame anymore. More and more questions were directed at him. And the foals also had a problem with it to decide who gets an answer first. “I'm going to ask him first! I want to know if it's true that she is such a nerd!”, Nasty Hooves demanded.
“But I have a question too!”, Snowy Breeze complained.
“You don't even deserve to ask, you stupid brat!” His voice became aggressive.
Snowy Breeze twitched and ducked her head.
“Hey, don't call her that! She's not a brat!”, Golden Grape defended her.
Nasty Hooves just shrugged and threw more insults at Snowy Breeze. He and Golden Grape began to fight over it who deserved to answer the first question.
“And what is with my question?”, Lily Spring called out. “I want to ask him something about the princess too!”
Over the course of a few seconds, everything was a big tumult again. Spike could already feel that his patience neared it's end again. “Ok, everypony quiet!”, he shouted. “You don't want me to use my fire again!” The mentioning of his fire made the foals froze again. It was still well in their memory what inferno Spike created earlier. “I'm going to choose who can ask first”, he said then. He let his eyes wander over the ponies. Then he pointed at Golden Grape. “Ok, you can ask first.”
“I wanted to know how her castle looks from the inside”, she said.
“The castle has a lot of rooms”, he began. “When you enter it you are in a big hall. Two stairs lead up to the other rooms. There are a kitchen, two bedrooms, a big library and even a throne room! All of Twilight's friends have a throne there and even I got one!”
The filly's eyes sparkled. An epic throne room, that was exactly what she liked! “And are the walls of crystals in the inside of the castle too?”, she continued.
“Yeah”, Spike answered. “I liked the walls in our old home more, but it looks like I have to get used to it.”
Spike chose Lily Spring next. “Did Princess Celestia made Twilight an Alicorn?”
“Oh, I'm sorry, but I don't know that. I wasn't there when she got turned into an Alicorn and even Twilight herself did not understand completely how it happened and she never asked Celestia about it.”
“Awww”, the filly answered disappointed.
Snowy Breeze was the next one. “How is the life with a princess?” was her question.
“Well, I would say that it's not much different to the life with a mare that is not a princess”, he replied. “I lived with Twilight for years before she became a princess and her title did not really change her. She always read a lot and sometimes she freaked out when she couldn't stick to her schedule and she's still doing this all of this.”
“Read a lot!”, Nasty Hooves laughed out loud. “I knew she's a nerd!”
“Yeah, I guess you can say that.” Spike rubbed the back of his head.
He answered a couple more questions from the foals, that ranged from Twilight's favourite book to visits in her castle by them. After Spike had answered all the questions, he looked around. The room was still a mess and he couldn't leave it like that, of course. It was his responsibility to manage the things here today and so he had to clean it up.
“Okay, now I have to get rid of this mess you created. But I'm not doing it alone. Since you're responsible for it, you will help me!”, he said to the foals.
Spike was handing out duties to them and then they began to clean the room. They wiped the drawings from the tables, collected the chairs that were scattered across the big room and put them back on their positions, threw the broken flower pots away and put the flowers in new ones and they sweeped the floor. One hour later, the room looked as good as new.
Spike decided that it would be a good moment to check out the other rooms of the kindergarten. The foals started to play with different toys, to talk with each other or to sit down on the tables and draw, on paper this time, so he felt he could leave them alone for a few minutes. Spike left the room, that was apparently the main room for the foals to stay in as long as they were here, and walked out into the narrow hallway that he had entered as he came into the building.
There were a few more entrances in the hallway. One was to his left, near the entrance door of the kindergarten, the other ones were right from him. He decided to check out the left one first. It was on the opposite wall of the hallway. As he had opened the door, he found himself in a small office. It was were all the paperwork for the kindergarten was done. Knowing this room was not important for Spike as he was just sent here to watch over the foals so he did not waste much time there. He shrugged and closed the door again, aiming for the others.
The next door led to a kitchen. It was not very big. There was no oven in it, just a kitchen sink, a small table, some cupboards and drawers and a fridge. Some drawings, apparently from the foals as far as Spike could see, were hung up on the door. He opened it. A fair number of cupcakes, some pies, bottles with milk and packages with apple juice were in it. “Looks like the foals also get a meal here”, he said, a little surprised. He reckoned with it that they would bring their own food for lunch, but he did not care either way. Serving some fillies and colts lunch would be easy. As he had closed the door of the fridge, he heard a thump from the play room, followed by a scream and then a loud, heart-wrenching crying.
He hurried back into the playroom and found the foals all gathered together at the same spot. The crying came from behind them. Snowy Breeze was lying there on her side, cowered against the ground, her face buried into her forelegs. A big bruise was visible on her forehead. It was bleeding slightly. Golden Grape was at her side, holding her with two hooves. She looked desperately up to Spike as he came to the scenery.
“What happened here?”, he asked agitatedly.
“It was Nasty! He did this!”, Golden Grape told him.
“Yeah, he hit her on the head!”, some other foals confirmed what Golden Grape said.
Spike looked around. Nasty Hooves was standing a little aside, but he watched the scenery. A cruel grin was on his face. “Is that true?”, Spike asked him. “Have you hit her?”
He answered Spike's look. “Pah! Me? No! I have not done anything! Things like that always happen when that little priss is playing! She's just so clumsy!” He looked down at the sobbing filly and laughed spiteful.
“Have you seen that he did it?”, Spike asked Golden Grape.
“No”, she replied. “But he did that to her before and to other fillies too!” Her mates nodded in agreement.
Spike looked to Nasty again, who was still denying it that he hurt the little filly. “Just don't believe her, she's insane! She always makes up stories like that and tries to blame me for things I never did. And the whole class believes her!”
Spike could not tell who was saying the truth and if Nasty Hooves just made that up to take advantage of it that Spike did not know him yet or if he really didn't do it. Instead of investigating further, he decided that it was more important to take care of Snowy's injury first. He was sure he had seen a first aid box on the wall in the kitchen. Spike bent down to the filly who was crying bitterly. “Uh, Snowy? We must go into the kitchen to take care of your bruise”, he said. But the filly didn't move and just continued to cry.
Golden Grape moved her head forward a little and whispered in her ear to assist Spike. “It's ok”, she said. “Just come with me and Spike! He will patch you up and then it won't hurt anymore!”
The words of her friend seemed to work as she was moving suddenly. She rose unsteady to her feet. While still covering her eyes with one hoof and crying into it, she slowly walked out of the room, assisted by Spike and Golden Grape.
In the kitchen, they helped Snowy Breeze to sit down on the table and then Spike walked to the outer wall to get the first aid box. It was too high up for him to get it down, but Golden Grape assisted him again and let him climb on her back to reach it. Having gotten down the box, Spike climbed on the table with the help of a chair and opened the box. It was well-stocked.
There were bandages, band-aids, a pair of scissors to cut them into the needed size, swabs, medical tape, antiseptics and some headache pills.
Spike pulled out one of the swabs and the bottle with the antiseptics first. He opened it and poured some of the disinfectant liquid over the swab, then he put the bottle aside and moved over to Snowy Breeze.
Golden Grape was sitting at her side, having put a hoof on her shoulder comfortingly. “It's going to hurt a little more now, but only for a moment”, Spike tried to prepare the filly for the upcoming increase in pain.
He put the swab on her bruise. Snowy Breeze cried out in pain and tried to push Spike's claw away to get rid of the thing that caused her so much pain. But Golden Grape intervened and hold her hooves down. Spike dabbed the wound a few times, feeling under his claws how the filly was writhing in pain, then he put the swab down and laid it aside. Some small blood stains were on it now.
Spike leaned over Snowy again after he had put the swab aside and examined the wound. Some more blood poured out of it now due to the pressure he had put on it with the swab, drenching the beautiful white fur around it. The wound seemed to pulsate a little and Spike was sure that she would have a nice bump on her head for some days. And they would definitely need some ice to cool it. But first, he had to tape it up.
Spike reached into the box again and pulled out the roll of bandages, the scissors and another swab. He put the swab on the bruise, causing another painful whimper by Snowy. He wanted to ask Golden Grape to hold her hoof on the swab while he would put the bandages around her head, but before he could say anything, she already had put her hoof there, almost as if she was reading his mind.
Spike began to patch up Snowy's injury. “You know what you're doing”, he said to Golden Grape.
The filly nodded. “It's not the first time I'm doing this. I helped Miss Honey Mood often to patch one of the fillies up. Especially Snowy Breeze. I told you he's doing that often.”
“He? You mean Nasty Hooves?”, Spike asked.
“Yes. He's lying when he says that I try to bring up the others against him. Snowy Breeze is my best friend, I would never make it up that he hurt her!”
Spike's brows furrowed.
The filly noticed it. “You can ask Miss Honey Mood when you see her the next time if you don't believe me.”
“No, I believe you!”, Spike exclaimed quickly. “Nasty does not look innocent”, he added in a lowered voice.
Her face lit up. Spike did not know her very well yet and Nasty's story was believable to someone new as a teacher here. She was glad that Spike had the right instinct to look behind Nasty's facade.
“That's it!”, Spike said as he was finished. He cut off the bandages as he had put enough of them around Snowy Breeze's head to be sure that the swab was not falling off. Golden Grape was holding the end of the bandage for him while he cut off something of the medical tape. He fixated the end of the bandage on the filly's head with the tape and then his work here was done. Golden Grape removed her hoof from Snowy's head.
“Could you take a look into the fridge and see if there's some ice in it?”, Spike asked.
Golden Grape nodded enthusiastically. “There's always ice in it! We need it a lot.” She jumped down from the table and opened the fridge. She placed a chair in front of it to reach the freezer and was whipping out a huge bag full of ice cubes. She opened one of the kitchen's drawers and pulled out a smaller bag. Having it filled with the ice cubes and knotted the opening, she laid the big bag back into the freezer and closed it. She jumped back on the table and hoofed Spike the bag.
“Thanks!”, he said. “You're a big help, Golden Grape!”
The filly grinned all over her face, proud of it that she could do something to help her friend. “Just call me Grapy!”, she said then. “Everypony is calling me that because 'Golden Grape' is soooo long!”
Spike held the bag with the ice cubes against Snowy's head, who was still sobbing a little, and as she felt the numbing effect of the cold ice that was reducing her pain, she sighed relieved and her face showed a smile for the first time since Nasty hurt her. She directed her smile at Spike. “Thank You”, she said quietly.
“Don't mention it!”, Spike answered. “That's what I'm here for!”
Grapy took over for Spike with holding the ice bag against Snowy's bruise and then he put the bandages, the scissors and the tape back into the box. He put the cap back on the bottle with the antiseptics and closed it, then lied it carefully to the other things. Grapy was busy with holding the bag with the ice cubes and Spike was lacking somepony who could help to put the first aid box back on the wall again. He shrugged. It was not a big issue, so he left the box just there on the table.
Grapy and he helped Snowy Breeze getting off of the table again and left the kitchen.
“I have to check some other rooms first before I can return into the playroom”, Spike said after closing the kitchen door. “It's best when Snowy stays with me until I return. You can return to the playroom in the meanwhile”, he said to Grapy.
But the filly shook her head. “No, I'm staying with Snowy until we're back!” She was still holding the bag on Snowy's head and obviously didn't wanted to leave her best friend in this moment of need.
“Ok”, Spike said. “Then let's see what's in the other rooms!”
They walked up to the next door that was on the opposite wall and right next to the door  that led to the playroom. Spike opened it slowly. It was dark inside. He searched a while for the light switch and as he had switched it on, he started to inspect the room. At the wall opposite of them was a cabinet. Right from it, Spike could see a bunch of mattresses and sleeping bags. He walked up to the cabinet and opened it. It was full of blankets, cushions, bed sheets and covers.
“What is this room for?”, he asked.
“It's our sleeping room”, Grapy answered. “Some of us take a nap after lunch.”
“I see.” He closed the cabinet again. “When do you eat lunch?”, he asked the filly.
“At 01:00 PM!”, she said.
“Good. Then we won't need this room for a while. There are still some hours until lunch.”
They left the room again and Spike shut the door behind them. Only two other unchecked doors were left now, both of them not very exciting. The door to the left of the sleeping room contained the toilets, the door opposite of it led to a small storage room. It was filled with some boxes, cleaning materials and some tools in case something needed to be repaired. Spike was sure that he wouldn't need all of this stuff for this one day, so he decided against a closer inspection and left the room together with Snowy and Grapy quickly again.
“Has Nasty hurt you too?”, Spike asked Grapy on the way back to the play room.
“No!”, she said confident. “He tried it once, but I punched him when he began to attack me!”
“I see.” Spike laughed nervously. He hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with a fight between the filly and the colt.
Grapy's face took on a sad expression and she looked to the ground. “But since that, he started to attack Snowy Breeze.....”, she said quietly.
“Do you think that he only attacks her to get revenge for it that you defended yourself?”, Spike asked her.
Grapy just nodded. Spike could see that she felt guilty. She seemed to give herself the fault for it that Snowy was so often the target of Nasty's attacks.
They had reached the playroom again in the meanwhile. After entering it, they saw Nasty standing in front of them, in some distance. He looked at Snowy, giving her a diabolic grin. Snowy began to shiver as she saw him. Spike put a hoof around her shoulder and could feel how much she trembled. Her fear of that colt was enormous.
“Don't worry, Snowy!”, he said. “As long as we're here Nasty can't do anything to you!” Noticing that the trembling did not stop, he tried something different. “Do you know how they call me in the Crystal Empire?”, he asked the distraught filly. “They call me 'Spike, the Brave and Glorious'! I saved the Empire from his evil ruler King Sombra once and so they gave me this title! Dealing with a little, mean colt is a cinch for me!”
Hearing this story eased Snowy a little. Her trembling became weaker and she stuck out her tongue at Nasty. Then they continued their way through the playroom and sat down at a table, as far away from Nasty as possible.
Arrived there, Spike and Grapy did their best to cheer Snowy up after this horrific event. And since Grapy had already experience with moments like this, she knew exactly what to do. “I get her favourite board game!”, she exclaimed happily. She passed the ice bag over to Spike and then chased away to a shelf behind them. Spike wanted to put the ice bag on Snowy's head, but she stopped him.
“Thanks, but I can hold it by myself now”, she said, smiling at him.
He handed her the ice bag and as she had pressed it against her bruise, Grapy returned with the game on her back. She tossed it up on the table and took seat again. The game was called “Winter Wrap Up”.
They unpacked the game and built it up. There were three tokens in the game, one was an earth pony, one a unicorn and the third one a pegasus. Snowy chose the pegasus, of course, and Goldy snatched the unicorn, much to Spike's surprise, who had reckoned with it that she would choose the earth pony.
The three players put their tokens on the start field. The playboard was adorned with drawings of ponies who were busy with cleaning up the traces of winter; some earth ponies carried away the snow from the fields, pegasi in the sky moved away the snow clouds and unicorns gave orders. A long row of quadratic fields was creating a path across the playboard and between the drawings of the hard working ponies. Most of the fields were just white, but some of them were painted in a different color. Spike noticed that they had the same colors like the tokens they used; blue for the pegasus, green for the earth pony and purple for the unicorn. On some other fields, a text was printed on. “Choose a card”, Spike read out loud.
Like confirming it, Grapy pulled a staple of cards out of the box. She shuffled them carefully and put them on their place on the playboard. The game seemed to be simple, but the cards sure added some spice to it.
Grapy hoofed a dice to Snowy and let her begin. She rolled it. Three. Snowy took her pegasus token with her free hoof and moved it three fields forward.
Then it was Grapy's turn. She got a six and cheered about the good result of her first try.
After having moved her token across the field, she hoofed the dice to Spike. Spike rolled and got a three too. He moved his token and placed it beside Snowy's pegasus.
Then it was Snowy's turn again. Her next roll got her a five and she landed on a blue field. She smiled.
“What's the meaning of this field?”, Spike asked after noticing her happy reaction.
“If you reach the color of your pony you can roll the dice again”, Grapy explained.
Snowy did that and got a two. This time, she landed on a field that told her to choose a card. She placed her hoof on the staple and lifted off the first card. She read out loud the text that was printed on it. “You try yourself in ice-skating. After a few unsuccessful attempts, you crash against a tree and end up in hospital. Go one field back.” Snowy let her ears drop and sighed. Then she moved her token back to the field before.
It was Grapy's turn. She rolled a one. She moved her pony and then gave Spike the dice.
A five was his result and he moved his earth pony. The blue field it reached now was useless for him though.
With Snowy's next try, a four this time, she reached another card field. She shivered, nervously pulling down a card. The word “Pegasus” was printed in bold letters at the top of it.
“That's a character card”, Grapy explained again. “It can only be used if you have the pony mentioned on it.”
Snowy began to read. “The pegasi have cleared all clouds in this area and the snow is melting away quickly. This has saved a lot of time. Move three fields forward.” Snowy jumped on her chair, letting out a happy squeal. She had to go through a lot of heartache today, but at least in her favourite board game it was her lucky day! She moved the three fields forward happily and then hoofed the dice to Grapy.
A three was it what she got with her roll. Having reached the first card field too now, she lifted off one of the cards and smiled. “You successfully woke up a family of bunnies before their home got flooded. This made you so happy that you dashed forward to the next animals. Roll again.”, she read out loud. Grapy grinned and let her dice roll again. She got a five and almost catched up with Snowy.
Then Spike was the next in line and he surpassed Grapy with a six.
The next rolls of Snowy and Grapy resulted in a one and a two, bringing them only a few fields forward.
The next roll of Spike let him go four fields and surpassing Snowy with that. Best of all, it was another card field. Spike felt lucky and pulled down a card with ease, but let his head hang as he read the card and realized that his luck was over already. “The animals you woke up turned out as snakes. Unfortunately, you're afraid of snakes and so you run away. You loose two turns.” Spike growled, then handed the dice over to Snowy.
With her next roll, Snowy got a six and she claimed back her lead.
Grapy's roll got her a six too and she landed on the card field that just brought Spike so much bad luck. She drew a card off of the staple and began to read. “Winter Wrap Up. You sing a happy, motivating song with your pony friends and this increases your work ethic. Move six fields forward.” This was something Grapy needn't to be told twice and so she quickly moved forward the required amount of fields.
With Spike having to wait, Snowy rolled her dice again, but just got a two this time.
Grapy was not much luckier and got a three with her next roll.
It was the second round Spike had to pass, and so the dice went immediately to Snowy again. She rolled a three and moved to the next card field. It was a unicorn card, though, and so she couldn't use it. She lifted up the staple and laid the card underneath it, like the rules demanded.
Grapy's next turn let her move five fields forward and her token landed on a purple field. Happily rolling her dice again, she got a two, moved forward over the next two fields and landed on the card field Snowy's pegasus still stood on. After having drawn the card, she saw that it was another unicorn card. “You have broken the tradition and used your magic to clear the acre of the snow faster. Because your spell went wrong, there is even more snow on the field now. You lose one turn while you're wailing over your misery in a bush.” Grapy pouted.
Finally it was Spike's turn again. Snowy and Grapy were only twelve fields away from the last field and close to win. He had to catch up now! He wished for a good result and rolled the dice. It rolled a five. Not too bad. He moved forward and gave Snowy the dice.
Her result let her pegasus move three fields forward.
Since Grapy had to leave out this round, Spike rolled again. He got a two.
As it was Snowy's turn once again, she let her eyes wander over the last fields before rolling her dice. On the eight fields between her current one and the last one, was one more pegasus field and the last card field. And the card field was only two fields away from her position. Landing on it could either turn out very good for her and cementing her victory or turn out very bad and letting her fall behind. She took on a determined expression, gave the dice a kiss and rolled it. A three appeared, letting her miss the card field just by one number.
Grapy could roll again and landed on the card field that Snowy just missed. It was a regular one. “You have lost your team vest on the way. You go back one field to search for it.” Reluctantly, Grapy did as the card told her to.
Spike had more luck with his next turn. He got a six and almost catched up with Grapy.
Snowy took the dice and rolled. She missed the card field, which was a good thing for her as it turned out, but there was still the pegasus field. She got a two and cheered. It brought her directly on the field she desired! Excitedly, she rolled the dice again and only got a one this time. But the small result did not disappoint her. She was only three fields away from winning and could extend her lead at least a little.
Grapy was in line again. The suspense and the excitement between the three players had grown so big now that all three of them could almost feel it on their bodies. The earth pony filly rolled. One. She reached the next card field. With a shaking hoof, she took the card at the top. She shut her eyes for a moment, before looking at it, and then slowly opened one of them, risking a small peek. “You finished planting new seeds on a cleared acre in record time! Go six fields ahead!”, Grapy read. She clapped her tiny hooves together satisfied. This could bring her the victory!
Snowy began to become nervous and started sweating. She was already sure of her victory, but now it has gotten harder to win. Spike was no danger anymore, but her best friend could beat her in the last moment now.
Spike rolled and got a three. With the two fillies so close at the last field he was sure that he would not win anymore, but he didn't mind that one of the two fillies would win the game. As soon as he brought this day behind him, he would be the big winner anyway.
Snowy's turn was next. She got a four and so, she had to stay where she was.
It was the same for Grapy. She did not hit the one she needed and got a two instead.
Spike's next roll brought him a two.
Another unsuccessful round passed for Snowy and Grapy, making it impossible for them to win and so Spike could roll again very soon.
This time, he was rewarded with a three and he landed next to Grapy.
Snowy's hoof was shaking now as she took the dice into it. She rolled it and the dice seemed to move in slow-motion for her. Another miss. But she got a two as it stopped, moving up onto the same spot Spike and Grapy were right now.
The game could not get anymore exciting. Grapy's and Spike's next moves were without success again, resulting in a six and a two.
A feeling told Snowy that she didn't have much time to win anymore and this turn could be her last one. She took the dice with a shaking hoof again, her forehead sweating, her tongue slightly sticked out. She licked her lips and rolled. Again, the dice seemed to move in slow-motion. It rolled and rolled and it seemed like forever to Snowy. Then he became slower. Snowy hold her breath while she watched his last movements. Then he stopped. One!
Snowy jumped and squealed, even letting the ice bag falling down in the process. She raised her hooves into the air and let out a loud, strong cheer. Then she let herself fall back into the chair, laughing happily. The victory really felt good after what had happened to her today.
Grapy and Spike shared a grin. No one minded Snowy's victory, especially not Grapy, and even if they would have minded it, seeing the pegasus finally so happy again would have let these feelings become vanished.
Grapy bent over to Snowy and patted her shoulder. “Great job!”, she said. Being so happy about it that the day had taken such a better turn for her, she bent forward too and gave Grapy a hug, which the earth pony filly gladly answered.
As Snowy stopped laughing after some minutes, she wanted to play again. Spike looked up to the clock on the wall. They had played for fourty-five minutes. The round took longer than it felt to him, he realized. But there was still plenty of time until lunch, so he agreed on another round. They put their pony tokens back at the first field again, Grapy shuffled the cards and then they began anew with Snowy's beloved game.
This time, Spike was the winner. Still having a little more time after this second round, they played again
The third round was won by Grapy, bringing all of them on the same level with their number of victories.
Snowy was already demanding another round, she really could not get enough of this game, as another filly was pulling at Spike's arm. “I'm hungry”, the little filly with a blue coat said. “Isn't it time for lunch already?”
Spike looked to the clock like he did it two rounds earlier. It was already 1:15 PM! “Oh no!”, he jumped up. The exciting game distracted him so much that he had almost forgot about it that it was lunch time already.
Snowy and Grapy did not fare better, but now, they also realized how hungry they were. “I could eat a whole manticore now!” Grapy hold her stomach and rested her head on the table, a worn-out expression on her face. Then she and Snowy put the playboard, the tokens and the dice back into the box and brought it back back to the shelf, while Spike hurried into the kitchen to get the lunch for the hungry foals.
When he arrived in the kitchen, he hastily aimed for the fridge and opened it. Luckily, Honey Mood seemed to have prepared the meal a little yesterday. Both the cupcakes and apple pies were already nicely arranged on two big plates. He lifted them out of the fridge and placed them on the table. Then he pulled out the bottles with the milk and the packages with the apple juice and brought them to the table. He climbed on a chair and opened one of the upper cupboards in search for something to fill the milk and juice into it. He found two big jars and placed them besides the milk bottles and juice packages. As he wanted to begin to fill the jars, Snowy Breeze and Golden Grape appeared in the door.
“We want to help you a little!”, Snowy chimed out.
This offer came in the right moment. “Great! I could need some help right now!”
Grapy and Snowy grabbed two chairs on their own and climbed up to Spike.
Spike put the two big jars in the middle of the table and pushed some of the packages and bottles over to them. “You can help to fill the milk and the juice in these two jars!”
The fillies nodded and the team was getting down to work. With the help of the two fillies, Spike was done in a few minutes. They threw the packages and bottles into the bin in the corner and then proceeded to carry everything into the playroom. Grapy and Snowy each put one of the plates on their back and Spike carried the two jars with the milk and the apple juice. They were harder than he thought and more than once, he almost dropped them. But eventually, he made it safely to the table in the playroom, where the other foals had already gathered around, hungrily waiting for something to eat. He put the jars on the table and then the plates from the backs of Grapy and Snowy Breeze. As he looked on the table, he saw that he forgot to bring glasses to fill in the juice and milk.
“I get them!”, Grapy shouted and hurried out of the playroom, back into the kitchen. Snowy did already take seat in the meanwhile.
A few minutes later, she was back with a tablet full of glasses on her back. Spike lifted it up and then handed out the glasses to the fillies and colts of which some had already begun to eat. Then he went around and filled the glasses with either milk or apple juice, depending on it what they wanted.
As the foals had everything they needed, he finally sat down himself between Snowy Breeze and Golden Grape, who had a kept a seat free for him. He took a glass on his own and filled it with some apple juice. He was thirsty and gulped it down in one go, just to fill the glass immediately again. Taking care of so many foals was exhaustive. Then he organized himself a piece of apple pie and a cupcake and began to munch on it satisfied. He watched the foals happily eating their meals and felt relieved. So far, everything, aside from the unfortunate event in the midmorning, went fine. It was not easy, but he was able to handle everything.
As Spike and the foals had finished their meals, Grapy and Snowy helped him to bring the plates, the glasses and the jars back into the kitchen. They put them in the kitchen sink and returned to the playroom. Spike remembered again what Grapy told him earlier today and saw it confirmed now:
Some of the foals began to yawn and rubbed their eyes tiredly.
It was time for the nap that Grapy had mentioned. Spike walked up to the table the foals sat on, Grapy and Snowy at his side.
“Okay, uhm, who of you wants to take a nap now?”, he asked the foals.
A couple of hooves were raised into the air. Spike counted them. Seven of the foals wanted to sleep now. Nasty Hooves was among them.
“Great, then just follow me to the sleeping room!”, he commanded. Then he looked down at Snowy Breeze. “You should sleep a little too”, he advised her.
“But I'm not tired!”, the snow-white filly objected.
“But you got hurt today and it would be better for you to get some rest”, Spike insisted.
“But.....” The filly became silent and looked shyly over to Nasty Hooves.
He looked back at her, with the same diabolic grin on his face that he had when they entered the playroom again after taking care of her bruise.
Snowy inched a little closer to Spike. “I don't want to sleep with Nasty in the same room”, she whispered in his ear.
Grapy could not hear what she said to Spike, but she knew it anyway. Snowy only decided to take a nap when Nasty stayed awake after lunch, no matter how tired she was. Too big was the fear that Nasty could do something to her while fallen asleep. But this time would be different. Spike was right, she could need some rest and she, her best friend, would defend her. “Don't worry!” Grapy walked up to her and put a hoof reassuringly on her shoulder. “I come with you and stay awake. I will defend you from Nasty while you sleep if he should try something!”
Snowy turned around to her and her eyes sparkled, some tears glistening in them. She couldn't feel more glad to have Grapy as her friend than right now in this very moment. “Okay”, she said, “then I'll go!”
Spike, Grapy and Snowy made their way out of the room, followed by Nasty Hooves and the other foals. They turned to the right and went into the sleeping room, the tired foals immediately aiming for the mattresses and the sleeping bags, together with Grapy and Snowy. Three of the foals preferred to sleep in the sleeping bags, the others chose a mattress. Snowy decided for a mattress too. Usually she preferred a sleeping bag, but the place that was the furthest away from Nasty Hooves was a mattress, so she ignored her habit for this one time.
Spike went up to the cabinet and opened it. He took out four blankets, four sheets, seven cushions and the amount of covers he needed. He carried everything in the middle of the room. There he put the covers on the blankets, for the foals that chose the mattresses, and on the cushions. Snowy Breeze and Golden Grape assisted him again. They handed out the blankets and cushions to the tired foals and then spanned the sheets on the mattresses. As all of them had lied down, Snowy was the last one who moved over to her mattress of choice. She placed the pillow on one end, the one that was at the wall of the room, and then lied down too, resting her head on the pillow and pulling the blanket over her, until everything except her head had disappeared under it.
Spike looked around. All the other foals were already fallen asleep. Even Nasty Hooves had closed his eyes and breathed calmly, although, Spike was not too sure if he was really asleep or just pretended to be. He couldn't stay in this room to guard the sleeping foals, since he still had to take care of the other foals in the playroom who preferred to stay awake and without him here to watch over them, Nasty could take this as an opportunity to attack the foals.
Grapy was aware of this too. She took position at the side of Snowy's mattress and sat down, looking into the direction of Nasty's sleeping bag and guarding her friend as attentive as a watchdog.
“I can't stay here to look after you, I have to watch over the other foals”, Spike said to her. “I count on you!”
“Don't worry, you can!”, she answered, with a serious and determined expression on her face.
“Thanks, you're a big help!” After having directed these last words at her, Spike left the room and closed the door quietly. The light he left on for Grapy, so that she could react soon enough in case Nasty should try out something. Then he returned into the playroom. It was a little after 02:00 PM. Then it hit Spike that he forgot to ask how long he had to watch over the foals. But he realized that he will find it out anyway once their parents came to the kindergarten to pick them up and bring them home. More important was the question: What should he do now?
He played with the thought to go into the kitchen and to wash the dishes, but he gave up this plans immediately. Nasty was not here right now and hopefully asleep, but considering the chaos the foals created this morning, as they were unwatched, it was better to not take the risk.
Eleven foals were still in the room, busy with different things. He walked around a little to see what they did. A group of fillies returned to drawing after their meal, two fillies and one colt were playing the same game that he played with Snowy Breeze and Golden Grape before lunch and the rest of the fillies and colts were all playing with different toys. All was peaceful now and the foals were occupied enough.
He thought for a moment on joining one of them, but he abandoned this thought quickly. Drawing was not his forte, he was already too old for the toys and the only game that was slightly exciting already had it's max players count reached. And aside from that, he already had played it enough today anyway. There was nothing he could do right now, so he just took position on the chair in front of the desk on which their teacher usually sat and watched the foals who were completely absorbed by their games and drawings.
The hours passed rather uneventful and Spike was quite surprised about it that these foals could sit so still for such a long time. Was this because almost half of them were in the other room? Or has his fire breath given him more authority than he thought? Spike yawned. He was not quite tired, like the foals in the sleeping room, but watching the foals here playing innocently and peacefully had something relaxing to it.
After about two hours had passed, Spike could hear some sounds coming from the other room. A bit worried, he got up. He left the playroom, walked out into the hallway and opened the door of the sleeping room. He prepared himself for another incident involving Nasty Hooves, but everything was fine. The aggressive colt was sitting on top of his sleeping bag, rubbing the last sleep out of his eyes and yawning. The other foals were awoken too. Spike walked over to the mattress of Snowy Breeze, who slowly stretched her limbs and then worked herself out under the blanket. Golden Grape was still sitting in front of her and had guarded her very carefully, apparently.
“Did something happen?”, Spike asked the loyal filly.
She shook her head. “No, everything was fine. Nasty was really sleeping the whole time!”
Spike sighed relieved. “That's good. What he did in the midmorning was enough for one day.”
Snowy Breeze had walked up to his side. For her, it was enough for all time, but she nodded in agreement and rubbed her eyes, still a little sleepy.
As all the foals had peeled themselves out of their blankets and sleeping bags and rubbed their sleep out of their eyes, they returned into the playroom alltogether. Everything was still peaceful here as Spike noticed relieved. The foals spread out over the playroom to occupy themselves with the countless opportunities here, only Snowy Breeze and Golden Grape stayed at this side.
“When do your parents come to pick you all up?”, Spike asked them. He was slowly getting nervous and asked himself if he would make it back early enough to get the flowers for Rarity. Noteworthy said he had time until 07:00 PM and if he was here for a few additional hours, it would become tight.
“They usually come around 05:00 PM”, Grapy answered his urgent question.
That calmed down Spike. If that was the case, he would made it back just in time.
The last hour of his time before the foals' parents came passed by as peaceful as the two before, with the only difference that it was a little louder than before, with all the foals together in this room again. As “Winter Wrap Up” was still occupied by the three other foals, much to Snowy's dismay, Spike took seat with Snowy Breeze and Golden Grape on a sofa in one of the corners of the room and read from a book for them. As the clock showed 05:00 PM the parents of the foals came to pick them up, exactly as Grapy told him. The parents of them, however, were not among them.
“Where are your parents?”, he asked them surprised.
“Sometimes they pick me up later. They have much work to do”, Snowy said.
Grapy nodded in agreement. It was the same with her parents.
Spike decided to use the opportunity to clean up the kindergarten before leaving. That he had to wait longer made him nervous again, but panic wouldn't be of use for him and  as long as he had to stay here, he had nothing better to do anyway. “We could do a little clean-up until your parents come. What do you think?”, Spike asked the two young fillies.
They nodded excitedly. Both of them knew Spike only since today, but they really liked the dragon and so they enjoyed it to help him.
Together, Spike and the fillies returned the toys that the foals just left were they played with them back to their respective places and put the chairs back to their positions at the tables. Then, they went into the kitchen and washed the glasses, the jars and the plates and put them back into the cupboards.
They returned to the playroom after having their work done and a little while later, Grapy's and Snowy's parents finally arrived to bring them home. They were fine with Spike as their caretaker for one day, especially because Snowy and Grapy had to tell only good things about him. The only thing Spike had to explain was the bruise on Snowy's head, but lucky for him, her parents already knew about the problems Nasty Hooves caused her, so they did not put him on fault for it. They even praised him for patching her up so professionally.
Before Snowy and Grapy went with their parents, they gave Spike a strong goodbye hug, that almost threw him off his feet, together. “Visit us sometimes, Spike!”, they said, their voices a little sad over the fact that they had to say goodbye to their new friend now.
He promised it to them and then they released their hug and went away with their parents. After some meters, they turned around and waved at him. Spike responded the waving and then he closed the door of the kindergarten behind him and went back to Honey Mood to report to her how everything went. He could not lose any time, as Rarity's present was still waiting for him, and the outsight of surprising the mare of his dreams let him quicken his pace.....