//------------------------------//
// Interlude: A Slice of Life 
// Story: Another Hatchling 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	The following day, the group went their separate ways for the day to take care of various tasks they needed to see to, agreeing to meet up again the next day to hear more of the story.

Applejack and Apple Bloom went back to the farm to take care of chores they'd left a few days more than they should have, as well as a harangue from Granny Smith for ditching so long.  When they explained that it was because Spike had come back after so long, they then got a different harangue for not bringing Granny Smith along to help welcome "the little fella" back.  She didn't seem to hear any of the comments about Spike not being so little anymore.

Rarity took Sweetie Belle back to the Boutique, since she was watching her this week while their parents were out of town...again.  While Sweetie Belle got to work on her Spring Break homework - after a bit of a lecture from Rarity for delaying it so long - Rarity got to work on some of her own back orders of dresses and suits.  Intermittently, she paused to work on another suit design, though if one paid close attention one would see it was most definitely not for a pony frame.  Also, the design was more...archaic than the norm, giving a sense of being armored, despite being crafted of cloth and gem.

Rainbow Dash spent the entire day practicing her own flying, while working with Scootaloo to figure out what changes needed to be made to normal flight lessons to take into account the fact her flight used different vectors.  Scootaloo was a bit surprised just how much of the advanced mathematics involved in flight Rainbow knew so well, having long assumed that Rainbow flew by instinct and awesome.  When they weren't redesigning the lesson plan, they were flying together, both of them happy as could be.

Celestia took her chance to check back in with Canterlot, to find out if anything of significance had happened to require her immediate return.  Her new Guard Commander - a thorough going professional Earth Pony/Diamond Dog hybrid named Shepard - gave her a brief report with nothing too urgent.  The nobles were, of course, in a fit over their Princesses "abandoning them", but Blueblood had finally showed enough of a spine to actually deliver the message she'd given him pass on to the nobles, and he'd ranted at them for a good three hours straight about being 'spineless foals who couldn't do anything without mumzy coming up behind them to wipe their asses'.  As a result, Canterlot was running smoothly, if with a bit of tension, and the Canterlot kitchens had been keeping Blueblood tipsy with a steady supply of high quality booze.  Celestia wasn't sure whether she should be pleased with Blueblood's apparent growth or dreading the fallout when she and Luna finally returned.  Beyond that, the only thing of issue was a minor report of disturbances in the Badlands, but it didn't seem to be of significance.

Pinkie Pie bounced happily back to the Cakes' and began making plans for Spike's "Welcome Back" party.  Having gathered a great deal of intel during the story about new flavors Spike liked and disliked, she first went to update the file she had in her Party Planning Palace in the basement, including notations on portions to take into account his new size.  She also created a brand new file for Samus, though it was a bit more sparse than she liked, as all she'd determined so far about Samus' likes and dislikes so far was that she liked Spike and chocolate, and disliked big meany stinky-heads like that Ridley character.  While a lot that Pinkie could agree with, it didn't really leave much to plan a "Welcome to Ponyville" party around.  Somehow, she didn't think a Spike shaped cake would be the best of ideas...especially with how all her friends were being doggies.  Something about those two things said "bad idea" to her, though she couldn't put her hoof on why.

After all, friends didn't think naughty thoughts about each other.  That was an absolute she'd known for years.(1)

Luna and Fluttershy took it upon themselves to show Samus around Ponyville, after bringing her by Fluttershy's cottage to help feed her animals.  Samus, for her part, was careful and gentle with the animals, though she kept her helmet on so neither mare was able to see her emotional reaction.  She did seem to enjoy the tour of the town, however, and the ponies around town certainly worked to make her feel welcome, even if her armored appearance did make some of them a little nervous.

Twilight, much to her surprise, slept late.  When she finally awoke, she saw that it was nearly noon, and nearly freaked out.  "Oh my gosh, I'm so late!"  Dashing from her bedroom, she rushed through brushing her teeth and combing her mane - managing to use the wrong tools on the wrong spots by mistake in her panic - before rushing downstairs, hoping that opening the library so late wouldn't cause a problem.

Once she actually reached the downstairs where the public library was, however, she was startled to hear ponies already present.

"Thanks for the help, Spike!" Lyra was saying.

"Glad to help, Lyra," Spike replied.  "Library needs to open...and Twilight needed the sleep."

"Well, have a nice day!"

"You too!"

When Twilight got into the library portion, she saw Lyra leaving with a checked out book while Spike worked on reshelving.  Noticing Twilight enter, he smiled at her.  "This is a lot easier now that I'm not pint sized," he joked, reaching easily up to the top shelf to put a book back.  He then suppressed a chuckle.  "Twilight, you've got tooth paste in your hair and hair in your teeth...again."

Groaning, Twilight spat the hair from her brush out.  "You've got things down here for a bit?" she asked.

"I can handle it," he replied.  "Go get cleaned up.  I'll make you an omelette for breakfast when you're back down."

Twilight smiled as she turned to head back upstairs, but paused at the door.  "...Spike?" she called over her shoulder.  "It's...it's good to have you back.  The place just...wasn't home without you."

Spike smiled back, knowing how hard it was at times for Twilight to vocalize her deeper emotions.  "I'm here to stay," he reassured her, pretending not to see the tears she raced upstairs to hide.








(1)Yes, Pinkie's lack of understanding of the "woof" thing is due to a logical disconnect in her mind, given the way she thinks.  Not a lack of understanding of what 'woof' could mean, but a mental refusal to see the connection.