It would never cease to amaze Twilight just how many excuses Pinkie could come up with to throw a party. She was fairly certain that Pumpkin hadn't really realized that she had discovered a chrysalis; she probably thought she had found something new she could put in her mouth. Luckily, Pinkie had recognized it, and Fluttershy had set up a little butterfly garden. And now here Twilight was, drinking punch to celebrate Pumpkin's butterfly's metamorphosis.
And frankly, seeing that long word written in curly writing on a cake made her heart happy.
Suddenly, she paused and frowned. Lightning Dust was available. That wasn't right. Now that she was awake, she should have stayed awake for the rest of the night. She wasn’t the napping type; her personal training regimen or tasks from Luna should have kept her awake for another five hours at least.
Either way, this required a little more research. She set her punch down, politely excused herself, and headed over to the bathroom. She entered one of the stalls and locked her knees, closed her eyes, and opened Lightning Dust's eyes.
It only took her a few moments to realize exactly what had happened.
“Girls!” Twilight shrieked, bounding out of the bathroom. “It's an emergency! Code red!”
Pinkie popped her head up. “Is it that time of the month?” she asked, reaching for an inconspicuous pot. “Because I keep spare…”
Twilight flushed bright pink. “No! I- just- Come on! We have to get to Canterlot, pronto!”
“So that’s how you knew Nightmare Moon was back,” Spike said. “You literally saw it, but through Lightning Dust's eyes.”
Twilight nodded and looked abashedly at Spike.
Spike, for his part, seemed as though he were having trouble trying to comprehend the entirety of what Twilight had confessed. Finally, he spoke. “So you're actually a narcoblix.”
“Yep,” Twilight said.
“Full motor control of a pony who's asleep.”
Twilight nodded.
Spike exhaled. “I thought there were no such things as narcoblixes.”
“I didn't think there were, either,” Twilight said. “But after I heard one of the night guards talking about them, I had to do some research.”
Spike snorted. “That's your answer for everything.”
“My answer for almost everything.”
“And you tested your research out on yourself?”
Twilight nodded and kneaded the ground with her hooves. “Not my proudest hour,” she admitted quietly.
Spike nodded. “And does this have anything to do with your new bar earring?”
Twilight grimaced and brought up a hoof to bat at her new jewelry. “Yeah… turns out that narcoblixes can pierce themselves with silver and give unbreakable orders to themselves,” she said. “It’s a nice little loophole. Keeps me grounded so I don’t go out on nightly binge-biting sprees. Luna approved of it… after giving me the chewing out of my life.”
Spike crossed his arms.
Twilight buried her face in her hooves. “I didn’t- I wasn’t thinking!” she whimpered. “I didn’t realize how powerful those urges would be!”
“Don’t tell me. You bit a few ponies in town.”
Twilight nodded, her ears burning red with shame. “Not too many,” she defended herself weakly. “One or two. Dozen.”
Spike exhaled. “And I’m one of them, aren’t I?”
“You... may have been the first one I bit,” Twilight whimpered into her hooves.
Spike facepalmed. “Twilight…”
“I’m sorry! I’m really sorry, Spike! I know I've let you down, and I can't imagine how you feel-”
“You turned your number one assistant into your number one test subject! How do you think I feel?”
“I know, and I'm really sorry, Spike.”
“How sorry?” Spike challenged.
“I’ll… get you a really big gem next time I go to Canterlot?”
Spike snorted and folded his arms again. “Oh, yeah. Let’s just betray my closest friend and number one assistant and pretend a little gem will make it all better,” he snarked. “You can't get back trust with food, Twilight.”
“Don’t-ask-don’t-tell on your visits to Rarity’s?”
Spike dropped his arms and turned around to leave. “If you’re not going to take this seriously…”
“Wait!” Twilight grimaced and hung her head. She exhaled, low and long. “I’m going to be doing most of the cooking around here from now on, aren't I?”
Spike turned around and faced her, considering her offer. He nodded, but motioned with a claw for more.
“And the cleaning?” Twilight tried.
Spike looked away and scratched his chin, thinking.
Twilight looked up with one eye hopefully. “I’ll do library reshelving day on my own?”
Spike froze, and he slowly looked back over to meet Twilight's eyes. “Promise?” he whispered.
Twilight nodded. “I’ll even let you pierce me if you want,” she said.
Spike shook his head and grabbed Twilight in a hug. “Nah,” he said. “It’s fine. I trust you.” He pulled back and gave her a playful nudge. “Because that’s what friends do.”
Twilight would rather have had him jab his claws through her ribs.
Spike started walking towards the kitchen, and Twilight followed. “But seriously. For breakfast tomorrow, I’m thinking an emerald-studded waffle, stuffed with hay bacon bits. With orange juice, no pulp.”
Twilight grinned. “You can eat gems, but you complain about the pulp. I don’t get it.”
Spike held up a claw defensively. “That’s because those little flakes are nasty,” he said. “Gems, on the other hand, are delicious. Two very, very different things.”
“The pulp is the best part, though.”
“I chew my food. I do not chew my drinks. And that’s the way it should be.”
“It adds texture-”
“Yeah; if you like the texture of maggots in your drinks!”
They continued the playful bickering all the way to the kitchen. As much as it comforted Twilight to be having this kind of conversation, she knew that she had burned a lot of trust, and it would take a long time to rebuild it.
But that was fine with her. After all, narcoblixes can live for a very, very long time…