//------------------------------// // A Moment of Thought - Twilight Sparkle // Story: Mum's the Word // by Astral Phoenix //------------------------------// As Twilight made her way back to the Golden Oaks Library, the look on Apple Bloom’s face still ran through her mind. In all of her life, she had never seen anypony, let alone a little filly, become so distressed to the point of keeling over. All because of a slight slip of the tongue. Twilight glanced over her shoulder, as she thought whether or not to go after Apple Bloom and sort all this out. But as the amber rays of Celestia’s sun continued to cast its brilliant glow on the exterior of the library, Twilight decided it was best to just sleep it off and hope that Apple Bloom would be feeling better in the morning. “There you are!” As the mare quickly snapped out of her of thoughts, she then found herself back in the warm, coziness of her library home. “It’s a good thing I left the door open.” Twilight thought to herself as she imagined herself banging right into the hard wooden door of her home. “Where were you, Twilight?” Twilight turned to the direction of the voice, only to be met by the pleading eyes of Spike as he gazed up at her, his eyebrows furrowed into a frown. As she was stolen away from her musing, she turned to the baby dragon as she slowly gathered her thoughts. “Oh, Spike, I was just.. uhh.. just returning Apple Bloom’s book, she left it on the table while she was packing her things and must have forgotten about it,” Twilight answered as she walked to the center of the room. “Oh. Well, how did Apple Bloom do on her final test today anyway?” Spike asked, his eyes peered up at her. “She did rather well, considering how far she had fallen behind in the past few weeks. But since she has finally caught up with all her work and passed her final test, I would have to say that our study sessions are over now,” Twilight replied sadly, as her eyes fell on the potted plant that sat in the corner of the room, a memento of the time they had spent together. “That’s great!” Spike exclaimed. “I’m really happy for Apple Bloom now that she’s up to speed on her work. Although, I have to admit that I am going to miss having her come over every week. I mean, these last few days with her were really nice; it even started to feel like I had a little sister around here.” Twilight’s heart was warmed by the baby dragon’s kind and sincere words. A smile crept its way onto her face as images of earlier that afternoon resurfaced to her mind. She shook her head at the thought, not wanting to reminisce the past so easily, especially with Spike in the room.“So, how did the gem hunting expedition go with Rarity today?” she asked politely. Twilight saw the dragon suddenly cringe as beads of sweat began to form on his scaly forehead. He gave a half-hearted chuckle as he glanced at the floor, his foot clawing at the wooden floorboard. “Ah...heh heh, yeah the expedition...” he chuckled. “That went really well, we found quite a load of gems today, a lot more than usual in fact.” Twilight stared sternly at Spike, impatiently tapping her hoof as the silence grew between them. She could see the guilt in the baby dragon’s eyes as he slowly backed away from the mare and into the corner of the room. Beads of sweat ran down his cheeks as his face turned a bright shade of pink. Letting out a heavy sigh, the colour ran from his face as he gave in. “We found this extremely rare mega-sized fire ruby at the Southside Mountains outside of Ponyville. Rarity had never seen anything like it and neither had I.” Spike quickly wiped away some drool that clung to the edge of his mouth and hung over his chin. “It looked so beautiful,” he continued. “Rarity even said it looked like it could be worth a fortune, maybe even more than whatever Filthy Rich had ever earned.” “Wow, that’s fantastic, Rarity must be so happy. It sure sounds like quite a ruby,” Twilight replied. She couldn’t quite figure out why Spike wouldn’t want to tell her about this, this was fantastic news. Rarity must still be gushing over the ruby right now, Twilight thought to herself as she imagined the unicorn polishing and admiring the ruby in a lavish display case. “Yeah, it is.” Spike gulped. “Or....was.” “What do you mean was?” Twilight asked as she leaned in even closer. “Well...” Spike answered as he scratched the back of his head, a guilty look grew on his face. But as he was about to finish, the dragon’s scaled stomach grumbled loudly as his claws patted it greedily. A rambunctious and loud burp erupted from the baby dragon’s mouth as a shimmering, trail of red powdery dust followed. An uncomfortable silence grew between them as the room itself grew eerily quiet. Twilight stood over the dragon with a bored, lifeless expression on her face. As Spike swallowed his pride, he could feel the heat rushing to his cheeks. “Yeah, so aside from looking good, it looked pretty tasty too,” Spike finally spoke up. Twilight could feel her jaw drop open as fury ran through her veins. “You ate the ruby?” she exclaimed furiously, leaning her head in up against the dragon’s miniature skull. “No!” Spike cried. “I didn’t.” Twilight breathed a huge sigh of relief. For a moment there she thought that Spike had actually eaten a one of a kind, priceless ruby, but of course, she knew that he wouldn’t do such a thing, especially to Rarity. “I swallowed it whole!” Spike painfully admitted. Twilight gazed blankly into the air, dumbfounded by what he had just said. Her left eye began to twitch slightly as her mouth hung open and slowly turned into a wide grin. Her pupils in her eyes shrunk down so much that they could barely be seen, just a pair of tiny black dots that gleamed in the middle of a white oasis. “Surely Spike was just kidding,” she thought to herself, he wouldn’t really go so far as to eat such a rare and valuable gemstone that Rarity had worked so hard to find would he? The unicorn’s head snapped sharply onto its axis as she was suddenly taken out of her thoughts and back into reality. She processed what the dragon had just said and an overwhelming wave of realisation washed over her. “You swallowed it whole?” Twilight asked profusely, shaking her head as she began to walk back and forth on the spot. Her mind was swirling with thoughts. She wanted to make absolutely sure that she’d heard right. Spike swallowed another huge gulp of spit as he gave a weak, halfhearted chuckle in response. Stepping away slowly from Twilight, he felt the blood rushing to his cheeks once more as his guilty conscience played a cruel game. He could sense the wrath of the unicorn’s rage that was about to be sent down upon him. “Uh...yes.” he murmured softly in reply. Twilight stared down at the dragon, the anger fuming in her eyes as she marched up to him and stared directly into his pleading eyes “Spike, what were you thinking?” she exclaimed, sending a trickle of fear down the baby dragon’s scaly spine. “I couldn’t help it, Twilight, honest! The ruby just looked so good! The next thing I knew, my tongue was already wrapped around it and suddenly I had the whole thing in my mouth. In just a matter of seconds, I swallowed it and it vanished, just like that,” Spike explained, reaching out with his claws as he fell onto his knees. A deep, heavy, sigh was released from the mare as she turned away from him. “Why, oh why would Spike do this?” she wondered to herself as she took a few steps towards the bookshelf. “Surely he knew better than that.” Glancing over her shoulder, Twilight saw that the dragon had pulled his knees in towards his chest and was now curled up in a ball on the floor. “Spike,’ she began. As she got the dragon’s attention, he slowly pulled his head from his knees and looked up at his friend. ‘You should be really ashamed of yourself. I thought you had a little more self control than that. What’s more is that I’m especially disappointed you didn’t tell me this right from the beginning, you know I wouldn’t stay mad at you for whatever it is you’ve done,” Twilight explained, disappointment lingering in her eyes. Spike simply nodded in response. “You’re right, Twilight, I’m sorry. I guess I was just a little afraid that you’d be so mad at me that you might send me away or something.” Twilight knelt beside Spike as she wrapped a hoof around the dragon’s back and pulled him into a tight, warm embrace. “Oh Spike, you silly drake. You should know by now that I would never send you away for anything. No matter what you’ve ever done, whether if it’s eating a priceless ruby, getting into fights with Owlicious, or the time you brought all of the pets to the Crystal Empire by train.” Spike’s eyes widened and his pupils dilated as he heard that last part. He looked up at Twilight with disbelief. How could she have possibly known about that? Did the Cutie Mark Crusaders give him away? Was it one of the pets or Owlicious? A list of reasons ran through the dragon’s head as he tried to find a plausible explanation. “How...how did you know about that?” Spike asked, stumbling over his words. The mare chuckled at the dragon’s inquiry. “I’ll tell you about that some other time, I’ve got some things I need to take care of. But Spike, please remember that if something like this ever happens again, don’t be afraid to speak up to me and your friends. I promise you that no matter how big or small the problem is, I will never, ever, send you away, no matter what.” A sense of relief washed over Spike after hearing Twilight say that. He wrapped his little arms around the pony’s neck and pulled the mare into a tight embrace. “Thanks Twilight, and I’m really sorry. I promise to be more honest and truthful to you and to everypony from this moment on,” Spike promised. Twilight gasped for air after Spike finally released her from his grasp “Glad to hear it, Spike,” Twilight said between coughs. “I just hope Rarity will be able to forgive me too,” Spike said, his downcast eyes stared at the floor. “I’m sure she will once you’ve spoken to her and apologised,” Twilight reassured him, rubbing the small of the dragon’s back. “Right, I’ll start practicing my apology speech as soon as I finish putting the rest of these books back up on their shelves.” Twilight silently shook her head as Spike went back to his work. “Sometimes that little dragon can really get himself into quite a pickle.” After that little ordeal was taken care of, Twilight made her way up the staircase to her bedroom for some nice, quiet studying. But as soon as she reached the top of the stairs, she saw the debris of paper, books and crumbs that were strewn all over the floor. She quickly remembered that this was the remains of her and Apple Bloom’s study break earlier that day and had completely forgotten about it. She let out a deep, heavy sigh and moved over towards the entrance of the room and began to levitate random objects of the floor. A brilliant pink aura encompassed each object as she worked. ~ * ~ As Twilight brushed away a few beads of sweat, she stood and admired her handiwork, her room was once again clean and tidy. Glancing up at the clock, she realised that it had gotten quite late. From the view of her window, she could see that Luna’s moon had already settled in the night sky. She let out an exhausted yawn as she wandered over to the bookshelf. Perhaps she could have a quick read from one of her magical philosophy books, it always helped her get a good night’s sleep. As Twilight made her way back over to her desk, she noticed a couple sheets of paper on it. She cast a pink glow around the paper, the aura glowed brilliantly as she levitated the pages over to have a look at them. As she inspected the pages more closely, a smile formed on the unicorn’s face, as she saw that the pages were filled with pictures that she and Apple Bloom had drawn together; they had thoroughly enjoyed the time they had spent together. One of the pictures had Applejack bucking a bountiful apple tree while another one was of The Cutie Mark Crusaders with Twilight together with the words “Twilight Time” scribbled above. The unicorn couldn’t help but let out a light giggle. She remembered Apple Bloom when she had suggested that this could be their official banner for “Twilight Time” and even Twilight had said that she approved to the idea. Twilight’s smile grew as she admired each of the drawings, but as her eyes fell on the last page, her smile faded away. The picture was of Apple Bloom with her family, Applejack, Granny Smith and Big Macintosh. But what surprised Twilight the most however, was that Apple Bloom had drawn her standing with them outside the apple farm, and just above the drawing Apple Bloom had written “My Family”. She could feel a hot wetness swelter at the forefront of her eyelids; a single tear trickled its way down the mare’s cheek. “Apple Bloom sees me as a member of her family?” Twilight thought. “Like as another big sister to her?” Twilight felt her heart warm with pride as her smile grew wider. She started to remember all of the fun things she and Apple Bloom had today. She just couldn’t believe that Apple Bloom would want her out of any pony to be another big sister for her, like Applejack. “Mom.” Her smile suddenly dropped as that word returned to her thoughts once more. “Thanks for bringing it to me, Mom.” The pink aura that surrounded Twilight’s horn suddenly faded and the papers she had encompassed with her magic fell onto the floor, images from earlier began to flash through her mind, the shocked expression on Apple Bloom’s face, the tears that built up in her eyes and the stuttered formation of her words. She walked over to her window and gazed out at Luna’s moon as it shone brilliantly over Ponyville. She continued to recall the whole day of her and Apple Bloom, the fun they had and the moments they shared were now very precious to her. She had grown rather fond of having Apple Bloom over these last few weeks; the time they had spent together was unlike anything she had ever felt before. But seeing Apple Bloom get upset like that, deep down Twilight began to wonder about how much truth was really in the little filly’s words. “Could Apple Bloom actually or quite possibly see me...as...her?” Twilight shook her head at the thought.“No. Of course not, it was just a simple slip of the tongue.” Everyone had their fair share of embarrassing moments, especially when it came to words. Some were even more embarrassing than others! Twilight was certain of it, it was nothing more than a mere slip of the tongue, she was sure Apple Bloom only saw her as another sisterly figure or perhaps even a role model. But certainly not as a mother, there was no way that could be true. The more she thought about Apple Bloom, the more she remembered about the first time when she came to Ponyville. When she had first gone to Sweet Apple Acres to oversee the food preparations. Back then, she hadn’t even met Apple Bloom, but when she first saw the little filly with her puppy dog eyes, she just couldn’t say no to brunch. She thought back to the time when everypony else was afraid of Zecora and out of all the other ponies, Apple Bloom was the only one that supported and agreed on Twilight’s arguments. Twilight continued to stare out the window as she gazed up at the stars, remembering all of the moments she and Apple Bloom had shared. Some of them were good, while others were bad but from each moment they had shared together, Twilight started to realise that somewhere along that line of spending time together, both she and Apple Bloom have developed quite a special bond for one another. At that very moment, the unicorn’s eyes widen as she had a moment of realisation; she knew now why Apple Bloom had so desperately wanted to spend the day with her. It was because of the bond they had formed, Apple Bloom wanted to be Twilight’s 'Best Pony Friends Forever'. With a new sense of determination, Twilight vowed to make sure that she and Apple Bloom would be the best of friends for a long time to come. But first, she would need to help her with the ‘M’ word incident. She was sure that it was just a slip of the tongue, but as she made her way over to her bedside, she glanced down at the floor to see that a picture of the Apple Family was now lying on the wooden flooring next to her feet. A pink glow wrapped around the picture as she levitated it towards her. As she inspected it more closely, she reminded herself once more that it was just a slip of the tongue. But really... was it?