“Ah!” Feather jumped upright on the couch, waking with a startled shout. His head pounded, and despite his sudden action, he felt heavy and sluggish. His muscles ached like he had been running for miles, most likely from how tense he was while the big pony was working on his burn.
He rubbed his head and looked around. He was still in the library, still on the couch, and had a towel thrown over him like a blanket. All he could assume was that he passed out during his treatment. Great, he thought, rolling his eyes.
He shook his way free of makeshift blanket and checked his side. The burn was neatly bandaged, and taped up in a way that it would be easy to hide. If he didn’t know better, he would almost say it was intentional; but he would be the only one worried about something like that. Next, he checked for his hat--surprisingly, it was still on his head. Next he looked for his saddlebags, and he found them leaning against the couch. Finally, his other side. Much to his surprise, the small burn he sustained during the lawn fire was cleaned and covered with a small stick on bandage, one covered in little happy faced suns and moons.
Feather fidgeted in his seat. He never told anypony about that burn, not even Scootaloo, and had almost forgotten about it himself because of just how small it was. Had Twilight found it? Or was it that red ogre-pony? In the short time he knew the purple librarian, she had somehow appointed herself his protector, to the point of trying to pry into his home life. Did he now have a self-appointed crimson nurse?
A door slammed, and Feather jumped, shifting the cushion loose and tumbling to the floor with it landing on top of him.
“Hey, dude! Are you ok?!”
“I was,” Feather mumbled as he kicked the cushion off of himself so he could see who it was. “Oh,” he said once he saw a small dragon running upstairs to meet him, “it’s you.” He flipped himself over, kicking the cushion even farther away from him. “Uh… How you doing, um...”
The dragon raised an eyebrow. “The name’s Spike,” he said, catching the reason for the colt’s hesitation, “we met yesterday. Are you ok? Why’d you start shouting like that?”
Feather coughed into his hoof.
Spike raised his other eyebrow and shrugged. “Whatever.” He walked past the colt, picked up the couch cushion, and put it back where it belonged before hopping up to sit on it. “So, what was with that fire, from before?”
Feather’s cheeks blushed and he looked away. “That’s, heh, a good question. I wasn’t there when it started so… yeah,” he awkwardly trailed off.
The drake nodded. “Yeah, but you’ve been hanging out with the three that were, right? The cutie mark crusaders were doing something amazing again, I bet.”
Feather saw the dragon’s odd smile, expectant, waiting, as if he was searching for something. “Oh.” He wanted gossip. The colt backed up. “Yeah, it was an accident, I think. That’s all.”
“Aw, that’s boring.” Spike tapped his claws on his knee a few times. “But that’s normal around here; for me, anyway.”
“Yeah?” Feather stopped fidgeting and leaned in. “Why?”
The dragon shrugged, then leaned his head back and read a few titles of some books. “Sometimes it just gets that way. My job is to help Twi’ in anyway I can, but the library has been pretty clean lately, and I’m not really allowed to go on the really dangerous adventures, so I don’t have much to do.”
“Oh…” Feather did not know what to say to that, so he remained quiet and looked away. Looking right next to his seat, he looked over toward his bag, and started checking if everything was still inside.
Spike’s eyes widened when he saw what Feather was going for. The colt was getting ready to leave! Making sure Feather was there when she got back was the first thing Twilight had asked him to do all week. In a panic, he looked all over the library for something he could use to make the colt stay. Weather Charts? No. Miniature statue of Starswirl the Bearded? Double No. Coil of rope? Effective, but still no. “Uh, uh…” Wait! There, on the filing cabinet! “Hey! Wanna play some chess?”
Feather let his eyes wander back to Spike for a moment and found the dragon staring up at him like the cats he sometimes shared alleys with when they wanted some food. Was he that bored? “Uh, okay… sure.”
“Great!” Spike jumped up in the air and landed on the floor. “I’ll go get the board, just stay there!” Then he dashed off quicker than he had ever seen the dragon move.
Before he had time to blink, the dragon was back and practically slammed the chessboard down. He had two little pouches in either claw which he held up. “Black or white?”
“Black… I guess.” Feather didn’t actually know that much about the game, but he did know how most of the pieces moved… at least, he hoped so.
“Hmm, alright. Here.” Spike emptied the pouch of black pieces out on the colt’s side of the board and started to quickly build up his set from the other pouch. “Oh, uh… you sure you want to play, right? I didn’t mean to push you or anything.” Spike rubbed the back of his head, feeling slightly embarrassed.
Feather squinted his eyes and saw the drake blushing of all things. “Are you… that bored?” he blurted out.
He shrugged again. “Well, yeah. Once I’m done with my chores, I try to hang out with Twi’s friends; but she said I should try and make new ones. I just brought out chess because it’s the first thing I thought of.”
...Wut? Feather’s mind blanked upon the realization that a dragon, of all things, wanted to befriend him. “So you want to be my friend?”
Spike bobbed his head side to side a bit. “Well, yeah.”
“Oh.” Feather looked down at the board and started arranging his pieces. Chess wasn’t really his thing, though, and he ended up mostly copying Spike’s layout. He snuck glances past the board every so often at his scaly opponent. His scales were pretty smooth, and they all kind of blended together, but they were definitely there, and when he yawned, you could see pointy mini fangs hiding alongside a forked tongue. Having a dragon as a friend might actually be neat, especially if he gets bigger one day. I wonder if he’ll grow wings like other dragons? I wonder if it would be rude to ask…
“Um,” Spike leaned forward and switched Feather’s King and Queen so they were on the proper spaces. “So, how about it?”
“How about what?” Feather asked absent-mindedly as he tried to figure out why the dragon had moved those two pieces. The layouts weren’t the same now.
“Do you want to be friends?” Spike asked slowly, trying to figure out what was confusing the colt.
“Oh, that, sure.” Feather coughed lightly. He got so caught up thinking about it earlier, he forgot to answer. “So,” he pointed to the board, “why did you move those pieces?”
Spike started pointing at the various pieces. “Pawns go up front. Rooks, the castles, protect the borders. Monks, or bishops, travel the countryside. The knights stay away from royalty’s side. And the Queen always gets her own color, the King gets what’s left.” He looked up at Feather, and could tell that the colt didn’t absorb any of that. “You know, how about we try something else?”
“Um, yeah. That sounds good.” Feather scratched under his chin. “Hey, can I ask you something first? How does your fire work? I saw you burning grass yesterday, but Scootaloo told me you can send ponies letters. How does that work?”
Spike’s eyes lit up. “Oh right, I guess I can teach ya. Heck, I can even send you letters, but there’s just one thing I gotta do first.”
“Really? What?”
“It’s nothing big, but there’s this ancient ritual, passed down from generation to generation of dragon.” Spike brought a claw to his lower lip. “You know, if I show you, that would make you one of only three ponies in the world to have ever seen the ritual.”
Feather blinked. “Really?”
Spike shrugged. “Well, I’m pretty sure Starswirl the bearded saw it too, but that was like a thousand years ago.” The dragon started picking up the chess pieces. “Ok, I need a flat surface, something to draw with, and some salt or chalk dust. Flower petals will work too.”
“What type of ritual is it?” Feather asked, leaning in as Spike flipped the chessboard over. “I’ve never seen dragon magic before.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll show you. So, first, I have to trace the pattern of the spell in accordance with sacred geometry. This part can get a bit tricky, but I haven’t messed up yet. Then, after that...” Spike looked up. Feather was watching so intently, leaning so far forward, he looked like he was about to tip over. Spike reached over and flicked him in the snout. “There, done.”
Feather jumped, clutching at his nose as a warm sensation appeared, then faded just as quickly. “What was that? What did you do?”
Gotcha!” Spike laughed. “Oh, you should have seen the look on your face. You actually bought that bit about sacred geometry! Dude, dragon magic isn’t as fancy as that. Ask Twilight if you want see how crazy Formancy can get. But what I did… I'm not exactly sure how it works, Twi tried to explain once. I kind of synced up my magical fire to you, like I memorized a target. Now, I can send you letters even if you were in another city! No matter where you are, I send you a letter, and poof, it’ll appear just in front of your nose.”
“Uh… would you know where I was or something?” Feather questioned, a hint of fear rising.
“No, no! Don’t be silly, that would be creepy!” Spike chuckled, and Feather joined him weakly with relief. “Here, let me show ya.” Spike hopped up and ran behind him, quickly finding a blank parchment and a bit of ink. “It can’t be regular paper or it gets all charred and nasty,” he explained, not bothering to look up as he wrote. “And done!”
“What?” Before he could inquire further, Spike lit the parchment on fire. Quickly it came flying forward, nearly smacking Feather in the face, but instead it gently landed on the floor beneath his hooves.
He picked it up and unscrolled it.
Hey it’s me, Spike! Later~
Feather chuckled a bit. Who else would it be? “Okay, that’s pretty useful.”
“Hey yeah! So…” Spike looked around. “So, now what?”
Feather didn’t know, he also didn’t know why Spike thought he would. Feather simply shrugged, shaking his head.
“Hmm…Well, we could go out, but I think Twilight wanted you here.”
He scowled. “I noticed…”
“Oh I know!” Spike jumped out of his seat and ran back upstairs. “Just wait right there, this is gonna be awesome!”
Spike came running back down, then slammed a stack of thin looking books in front of him.
“Comic books?” Feather asked.
“Yeah, I haven't done this in a while, but me and the Crusaders used to just talk about all the comic book guys. They didn’t read any, so I explained everything and sort of got one of them addicted to them,” he said sheepishly.
“Well I don’t really read comics… but what are they about?” Feather said, feeling bored; the comics did seem intriguing enough to offer some relief.
Spike smiled. “Well…”
“So the Power Ponies are just super heroes, right?”
Spike nodded. “Of course!”
“You could have just said that from the beginning, you know,” Feather pointed out.
Spike blushed. “Maybe I got a little carried away…”
“A little?” Feather grabbed his head as if nursing a headache. “I now have information that my brain doesn’t need,” he complained. “Lots of information.”
Spike threw a pillow at Feather’s face from the couch. “Shut up.”
“Just saying.” Feather raised his hooves, batting away the pillow.
“Well, I like them,” Spike firmly declared. He crossed his arms and looked away.
“Eh, they seem pretty neat. So, me too.”
Spike glanced back and smiled, until the door slammed open, and both jumped as a shrill voice cut through the air.
“Gah! Where is he…” They turned to see Diamond Tiara standing in the doorway, muttering to herself. “There you are!” She stomped up to them and looked at Feather straight in the eye. “Why did you have to get shocked?! Cheerilee made Rainbow Dash pack up all the weather activities, and turned the whole morning into the most boring safety lecture ever!”
Feather snorted. “Well, excuse me. Next time, I’ll try to get hurt a little more conveniently for you. ”
Diamond snorted back and jumped onto the couch with them, squeezing herself in between the dragon and Feather. Then she slumped back into a pillow and let out an exasperated sigh. “Yeah, well, don’t let it happen again! We had to sit the whole time and listen to safety and clouds.” She crossed her hooves and then turned to the dragon, speaking in a rather calm manner as if she was just noticing him for the first time. “What’s up?”
“Uh, comic books?” The dragon offered, holding a few out.
“Power Ponies? Meh…” Then she dug into her school bag and slammed a stack of papers onto Feather’s lap. “There’s your homework. Cheerilee gave you extra because you had to leave.”
He looked down at it and frowned. “You seem happy about that…”
She shrugged. “Well, I was excused from class to give you it. Anything that gets me out of class would make me happy,” she replied with a smile, but then remembered she had to get back soon. “Lunch is almost starting, it’s near twelve. I’ll see ya later, Blank Boy.”
They watched her leave and Spike rolled his eyes. “Weird filly.”
Feather wasn’t sure if her home comment was meant to be a crack at him or not; but he could agree at least that she was odd. Too bad the library door opened before he got the chance to voice it. Twilight was returning from somewhere, levitating a rather large bag behind her. “Okay, Spike, I need-- Oh! Feather! I’m so glad you’re awake.” She cantered over to them with a soft smile. “How are you feeling?”
He looked down at his bandages then shrugged. “Great. Really. It was just an accident.”
She quirked a brow at this. “No pain at all?” I guess Big Mac was right.
“Just a little sore. It’s fine.”
She nodded. “Alright. Well, I have a note written out for your father.” She levitated up a note to his saddlebags.”Make sure he gets it. It’s important that your bandages are changed daily.” She wanted to press him on his fear of the hospital, and wanted to at least write an extra note regarding said fear, but she kept quiet. A part of her simply wondered if it was just how some colts were.
“Uh, okay. I’ll make sure he gets it. Though I think I know how to change a bandage.”
She blushed. “Oh. Well, still. I’d feel better if he got the note. In other news… I thought I could also be a tutor for your other subjects!”
He tilted his head. “Uh, what other subjects?”
She smiled. “Well, when visiting a new school, it can be difficult to fit in and keep up with schooling. Every school has different curriculums, so I wanted to see which subjects you know best and which may need improvement.”
He furrowed his brow. “Uh… oh.” Who freakin’ cares about school?! I just wanted my part made!
Her smile never wavered, though it did shift to a sort of smirk. “It’s important, Feather. You know, I may be able to teach you a thing or two about engineering while we're at it,” she said with a wink.
“But--”
She raised a hoof to silence him. He didn’t like the feeling he got when she did it. It felt like she was looking down on him. Still, he shut his mouth. “I can help you learn what you want to learn, but if your father finds out I was using up time you could be using for studying, then he would probably be furious with me, and so would Cheerilee. We won’t have to do much, just enough to make sure you don’t fall behind while you focus on other studies.”
His face fell. It wasn’t something she was asking; she was informing him that this was how things were going to be. She was going to teach him. If he said no, what would she say? She didn’t seem like the type to just forget it, and worse, she might try to contact his father. So he simply nodded, though he did a lousy job of hiding his emotions, frowning the whole time
She chuckled a bit. “It’ll be fine. Now, let’s start with some history lessons.” She tapped her chin a few times. “Ah, let’s start with Star Swirl the Bearded, his influence may not be in anything mechanical, but he was very influen-- yes, Feather?” She watched him raise a hoof.
“Uh, who’s he?”
“You don’t…” Twilight almost sighed. It wasn’t unheard of for a student to not hear about him; in fact, she very much doubted most schools taught anything relating to the stallion. “Okay, how about Clover the Clever?”
He shook his head and frowned.
Twilight bit her lip. “Gnox the Creator?”
His eyes lit up. “He’s the guy that invented clocks! Well… mechanical clocks, yeah. I’ve heard of him.”
“Interesting… what about Tor--”
“Toryx, his brother?! Sure! He invented the steam engine!”
Twilight’s smile came back and she started to think. She questioned him a bit more and, to her disappointment, found he didn’t seem to know too much about general history. He did seem to know about everypony that had anything to do with mechanical inventions or industrial history. He even knew quite a bit about griffons and their contributions, but that wasn’t exactly what she wanted him to learn. Well, he does know more about my later lessons, probably same with the school curriculum. At least that saves up some time for later. “Alright, so the bad news is you are a tad behind in history. The reason I asked about Star Swirl and Clover is because some of next week’s lessons will be dealing with them specifically, as well as touching on other info about the old pony tribes. It shouldn’t take too long to catch you up, but we will have to start now.”
Not much I can do. Just listen. “Alright…”
She took a deep breath and started to speak.
To most, it would have felt like hours; but to Feather, it felt like days had passed before Twilight Sparkle had finished even a single lecture. When all four lectures were over, both ponies felt very much out of their element. Feather had not been used to actually listening to an adult, not to mention them actually teaching him something he found useful. For Twilight, she wasn’t used to lecturing to somepony that was actually interested in what she had to say... not that Feather was interested in everything she had to teach, but he did pay careful attention when it came to math, physics and, oddly enough, magic theory. On the other hand, history, social theory and geography? She had seen parasprites with longer attention spans.
She was faltering through summarizing Ponyville’s local history when she glanced up at the clock. It read three twenty seven. She smirked. “Works for me.” She promptly slammed the book shut, starling the colt from his inspection on her coffee table. School is out in a few weeks anyway. They probably won’t cover anything on local history during that time which would give him the whole summer to catch up for next school year.
He’d probably be able to learn more about Ponyville history from somepony more suited for the job than her. Somepony who’s lived here a long time, and could tell stories that would keep the colt interested. Granny Smith would be a good choice, and that would give her a chance to talk to Big Mac. She shook her head clear of those thoughts, then started packing her things away. “Make sure you read up on the modern history of Equestria. You’re a bright colt, which is why I would hate to see your potential squandered.” She paused when he gave her a sort of dirty look, and she clarified. “I just want to make sure you’re keeping up in your classes, all of them. It will do you a world of good, I’m sure, to be good at more than just math.”
“Alright…” he mumbled.
“We’ll get started on engineering during your next session!” She paused before putting his homework in the saddle bag, flipping through the the pages to double-check. Why were there two copies of each assignment? “See ya tomorro--”
“Wait!” He interrupted, catching her attention. “Uh, how often are we gonna be doing this…?”
“Hmm, I’d say a couple times a week? Just right after class should--”
“I kind of have a job, at Sugarcube Corner. It’s after class,” he pointed out.
Her ears perked up at this and she nodded. “Oh! I hadn’t realized. That’s certainly very responsible of you,” she added thoughtfully. Although she was also adding another item on her mental list about the colt. She still had suspicions of him, however, it wasn’t everyday you saw a young colt working a job. “How long do you work for?”
“I’m not sure, I guess it just depends on how busy they get.”
She considered what to do, but only for a moment. “How about you show up after work, if it’s not too late. I’ll get the hint if it’s past five or so. If you miss a day or two, no big deal. And, like I said before, I should be able to teach you a thing or two about engineering while I fix up that part you wanted.”
His ears perked up with the engineering remark, and she smiled. She knew it was manipulative, but tossing in the promise of more teachings, especially the things he wanted to learn, would encourage him to come back on his own instead of simply making it seem like he had to. “I’ll even let you watch. Does that sound a little more interesting, at least?” she asked.
“Yeah…” he had to rein in his enthusiasm and remind himself that he didn’t want to spend any extra time around this pony. “Okay. I guess that works.”
“Excellent! Well, you can run along now. Just make sure your father gets that note. I’ll see ya tomorrow!”
Again, he didn’t like just how much she was worming her way into his life. But he did need her and it didn’t seem like she would be that bad. Feather thought she had just mentioned it to get him interested, but it seemed like she had been serious about it. He grunted and shoved the history books into his bag and ran out before she could say another word. He was panting against the door, holding it closed with his front hooves.
“I better get to work. At least I might get some bits that way.” He then paused to think it over. “Or more problems,” he amended.
Upon arriving at Sugarcube Corner, he was instantly greeted by Pinkie, who swept him up with her hooves. “Oh my gosh, are you okay?! My tail twitched, but that happens all the time, but then my eye did too, which usually never happens! I think it meant a friend of mine just got zapped! Big time! Was it you?!” she roared while shaking him left and right.
“Y-y-ye-yes… pl-lease stop!”
She blinked her eyes, then instantly put him down. “Oh, sorry! I should… probably.. yeah,” she said, feeling embarrassed. He would have glared up at her, but he was having trouble standing. “So, uh, anyway, you should probably get your outfit on. Unless… oh!” She looked down to his bandages and her eyes light up. “Is this a new game?!”
“What?”
She narrowed her eyes on him and nodded. “I… got ya. Weird outfit, but don’t worry, Pinkie knows how to be creative. I’ll just slip this on ya…” She promptly and swiftly dressed him in his outfit from before, while setting his bags behind the counter. She then cleared her throat and brought out a parchment with a list written on it. “Okay, we need the tables cleaned, the napkin holders refilled, then the menus placed out. After ponies begin to arrive, you should wait tables, I’ll walk you through that when the time comes. Got all that?”
He blinked and nodded, figuring the game thing she had spoken of was just her being weird again. “Yeah, I’ll just get--”
“Hurry! The faster you clean things, the more points you’ll earn!” She shoved him toward the middle of the store and dropped a large towel on his back. “Now, clean! Clean like the wind!”
He almost considered dropping the towel right there and walking out, but the prospect of earning more bits stopped him. He could always use more bits. He started by cleaning off the tables bit by bit, making sure they shined well enough that he could see his reflection in the surface. Once that was finished, he set out menus on each table, then neatly wrapped napkins surrounding silverware. Then the customers starting rolling in.
“I was wondering if-- oh! Are you a waiter here?” an earth pony mare asked. With grey streaks in her ivy green mane, she looked a bit older than Mrs. Cake, who was the oldest earth pony he had seen in town so far. “So young…” she muttered to herself, keeping her smile up. “Do you enjoy working here?”
“Uh, yes. Welcome to Sugarcube Corner. Would you like to look over a menu?” he asked with the sweetest voice he could muster. Something about her made him uneasy, and he got the feeling it would be best to keep their interaction as short as possible. “Just let Pinkie know when you’re ready to order.”
She hesitated before nodding. The menu was promptly placed in her grasp, and Feather ran off to help the next customer. Many others followed. Pretty soon, he and Pinkie were juggling well over a dozen hungry ponies. It was fast paced, frantic work; but in a few minutes, all were seated and happily munching away on whatever sweet or treat they had ordered.
Feather walked behind the counter, out of sight, and sat down next to his bags. That was exhausting. When was the last time he had had to deal with that many ponies? Pinkie, on the other hoof, didn’t even seem fazed. She was standing with her front hooves on the counter, shifting her weight back and forth like a boxer in the ring.
“Round one, clear!” she said to herself. “Preparing for the next wave.”
Feather looked over in horror. “That’s gonna happen again?”
“Yep.” Pinkie looked over. “At least three more times.”
Feather’s jaw dropped and he couldn’t help letting out a tiny whimper as he looked at the doors with new found terror. What had he gotten himself into?