Ch 10
None of the ponies in either mob moved for what felt like forever, all fearing to break the tension that had built up. Finally, one did speak up, and she was pissed by the sounds of it. “All right, are you going to leave, or am I going to have to make you leave?!” demanded Twilight Sparkle, her horn still leveled evenly at Glitter and her cohorts, small wisps of magic rising from her horn. “I may not be fully filled in, but whatever you think Spike is guilty of, I promise you this is the incorrect response.” She pleaded, “Just think about how long he’s lived here, how long you’ve all seen him as nothing more than just my little assistant!”
“That was before he bared his vicious little fangs at our children, your Highness.” Responded Glitter with venom, not giving an inch of ground. “You say you aren’t filled in? Then let us tell you what the monster did, shall we?”
“He attacked our children!” came the cries. “He endangered the lives of our little ones with his fire-breathing and claws, then came up with some excuse about timber wolves to cover it up!” the nameless mare’s proclamation was met with calls of affirmation from the crowd. “He’s a danger to every one around him, and now we find out he’s trying to weasel his way into Cheerilee’s good graces so he can try again!”
This time a more familiar face spoke up, being Filthy Rich and his wife Affluent. “You may have a lot of trust in this community, Princess, and we all appreciate all you’ve done up till now.” He told her, trying to be the voice of reason, despite his skewed perspective. “But you cannot expect us to simply stand back and let your pet have his way with our young!”
This got under Twilight’s skin in the worst possible way. “HE IS NOT A PET, YOU IGNORAMUS, AND YOU KNOW IT!” her horn began to give off dangerous sparks, causeing Rich and his wife to quickly back up.
“But he is a monster!” came another voice. It was RoseLuck, of all ponies, who defended Riches’ claim. “Just think about how many times you and your friends have dealt with dragons causing problems!”
“Indeed, so!” Glitter said. “And if I recall correctly, that particular lizard happens to have been one such problem!” she stamped her hoof for emphasis, the others nodding and mumbling their assent, many remembering the incident.
“Yer Darned right!” came Magnum, “In fact it was my own daughter he took hostage!” he began to look about in the crowd behind him, searching for the pony in question. “Rarity, Darlin’, where are you? You go ahead and tell them what he did to you, you tell all about it!”
“I am right here!” came the shout. At first, Spike thought his world was going to end right there, thought that his beloved Rarity had betrayed him, but after a moment, he remembered he had seen her already, but not with her parents and Glitter.
Rarity positioned herself right next to Twilight, glaring at her father. “And I am absolutely appalled with you two!” she scolded. “You can’t honestly believe Spike is some kind of monster? Or that I would possibly defend such an outrageous claim!” She pointed a hoof at Sweetie Belle. “He was defending Sweetie and her friends from the timber wolves! They and Filthy Rich’s daughter, as well as her friend and even Rainbow Dash saw it all first hoof! That you would possibly claim otherwise is both ridiculous, and outright blasphemous!”
More from the crowd defending Spike began to speak up to his defense, calling for his innocence. Another came forward for Spike’s protection, a pony who he hadn’t expected to ever stand up on his behalf. Clear Heart, the rickety appraiser stood strong next to Rarity. “I pride myself on being able to spot a bad stone from a mile away,” he told them, “and after spending a few good hours with the lad, I can honestly say he is the most honest hearted and trustworthy persons I have ever come across. Even after I raised a deplorable ruckus about his race upon his initial arrival at our store, he still forgave me and set about his work with some of the most admirable work ethic I have ever witnessed, from pony or otherwise.”
“And on that note,” said his boss, Sharp Eye, who was himself a well respected member of the community. “I believe the incident to which you are referring was a matter of draconic greed? An insatiable hunger and case of relentless theft that caused his exponential growth.” He recalled factually. “If I remember correctly, he has not only been officially pardoned for that incident, as it was deemed to be an accident of his caretakers fault more than his own, but he stopped his rampage and returned the stolen goods of his own accord.” Sharp Eye removed his monocle, and began to polish it. “In fact, in spite of his youth and racial tendencies that should have suggested otherwise, I daresay he has not had an incident of any kind since.” He deliberately replaced his monocle and glared at Glitter. “Which is more than can be said of some young, misguided window-shoppers I know. How is young Twinkle, by the way?”
Glitter paled and grimaced at the mention of her own daughter, a well-known sticky-hoof. She rallied quickly, however, and re-established her confrontational posture. “Th-that is neither here nor there! We are here in response to his most recent crimes, his prior behavior being merely a point of reference, a bit of character history.” Sharp snorted. He’d won and she knew it. As a matter of fact, so did a few of her supporters, some of whom began to look a bit unsure of their feelings as they now stood. “We’re angry, and for good reason!” she continued, undaunted. “We demand justice!”
“Oh, angry are you?” came a sweet voice that all in Ponyville knew by heart. Mrs cake strode foreward, her two children napping in her hooves. She stepped up to Spike and knelt. “Spike, dear, hold my children.” Much of the opposing crowd became immediately alarmed, shouting at him to get away from the foals, even as Mrs. Cake transferred them to his care. “Well, dearie,” Mrs. Cake continued, striding up to Glitter, stopping only a few inches from the other mare, a candy sweet smile on her face. “You know what goes well with anger, don’t you?” she asked.
“VIOLENCE!” the pastry mare yelled, and promptly head-butted Glitter in the snout. Much of the crowd became alarmed (and not the least bit bewildered. I mean really? Of all ponies?) Mrs. Cake offered no chance for her opponent to recover, however, and immediately jumped atop the smaller mare, swiftly grappling her into a masterful submission hold. “You think you got the stones to throw a friend of the Cake family into a cage?!” she called. “I’ll show you how I put a pony on lock!”
Before the situation could devolve, though, Mr. Cake was there in a flash, pulling his wife off of the other mare. “Honey! Let her go!” he pleaded. “This isn’t the octagon, you’re not that pony any-more!” he called her. The crowd, both of them in fact, just stared at the scene like a dog looks at a funny noise. ‘seriously?’ was the question that hung in the air. But it wasn’t over.
“No time like comeback time!” Mrs. Cake yelled, somehow still being restrained by her spindly husband. “Doom-Cake is back, baby! Time to serve the pastry of death!”
Pinkie leaned in and whispered to her friends. “I had to put her in a headlock to get my job.” She told them. “Even I’m not sure how I managed to pull it off.” All of them had pretty much the same reaction. “Error.exe, file not found.” Suddenly, the earsplitting wails of foals broke the tension, as well as Mrs. Cakes’ rampage.
All eyes instantly turned to Spike and the cake twins, who, it now seemed, had inherited their mothers tackling skills and were in the process of ‘baby see baby do.’ “Mrs. Cake!” came Spike’s distressed voice. “Help!” Pumpkin was using her magic to pin herself to his back, and was proceding to perform a rather respectable arm triangle choke, the same as her mother had performed, while Pound Cake cheered her on. Instantly Mr. and Mrs. Cake were there to disentangle the trio.
While a visibly irritated Mrs. Cake carried the children back home for their naps, Mr. Cake cake apologized to Spike for his children trying to make the dragon ‘their proverbial mare,’ which he waved off and claimed he was used to it. “I was not ready for today.” Said Twilight Sparkle. A look at her friends said they were in about the same boat. And as the two of them left with their children, a thought occurred to Twilight; that there had never been a fight that had occurred in or around Sugar Cube Corner. Ever.
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Luna had not been ready for today. Not in the least.
Currently her sister sat in her lap, bawling her eyes out, yelling about how the mean foals said she wasn’t as pretty as Luna was, and that Spike was picking on her. “Th-They said that my m-mane was boring!” she wailed and gasped. “That the m-multicolored thing w-was so totally played out! That my c-c-coat was boring, c-cause so many other regular ponies had the same color, so I wasn’t as special as you!” she cried some more while Luna dutifully stroked her sisters hair, in a futile attempt to calm her down.
Celestia had burst into her sisters room after receiving some sort of missive from Spike, one that apparently took the collective opinion of those around him that Luna was far prettier and superior to her, and dropped it right in the poor unsuspecting mares lap. It was just then that a trio of royal guards, their standard white coats and gleaming armor and all, ran in to investigate all the clamor. The moment Celestia caught sight of them, unfortunately, her wails instantly increased in fervor. “THEIR RIGHT! Oh stars, their right about everything!” she threw her hooves around Luna’s neck and pulled her into a tight, soggy embrace, much to the younger sisters chagrin. “Luna! Beloved sister, I’m so sorry for being so mean to you! But I promise, I’ll do better, I promise I’ll let you be best princess as much as you want from now on!” she rubbed their faces together for ‘emphasis,’ making a mess of Luna’s make-up.
“Damn.” Said a royal guard who had been guarding Luna’s door when it exploded. “Props to Spike. When that kid plays the game, he plays to win.”
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“I~I think that’s enough excitement for one day.” Twilight finally said to all gathered. “Can we all just agree this is stupid, and go home?”
After seeing Spike get dominated by two (technically one, since Pound hadn’t really participated) foals not even old enough to be out of diapers, most of the offending crowd was in agreement. Unfortunately, there’s always that one mare who won’t let it go. “Now, ya’all whiper-snappers just hold yer bit’s fer a gosh-turned minute!” called an all too familiar old mare. “This here theivin’ critter gone’ done absconded wit’ a whole oats-and-a-bag full of mah families pride-and-joy!” she hollered. “Ah aint about tah just let it pass, ya’ hear?!”
Applejack snorted at Granny Smith’s attitude, having had more than enough of it for one day. “Granny, ya’ll need ta quit takin’ yer anger out on Spike, ya hear? And just so we’re clear, he wasn’t ‘abscondin’ with anything. He came to the farm lookin’ fer work, and ah had him movin’ apple for us. That’s it.”
Granny Smith was silent for a bit, thinking about what had been said. “Why ya’ll bringin’ up lil’ Spike fer?” she asked, causing AJ to double take. “Mah problems with this’n here.” She pointed at Spike.
“Granny,” aj said slowly. “That IS Spike.”
Granny just looked confused. “Huh? But that can’t be right, aint Spike a cute lil’ feller? He aint got no wigs or nuthin’ like this’n here.” Again she gestured at Spike, who was merely dumbfounded.
“Granny,” AJ sighed, hoof to her face, “Ah know what he used ta look like, but ahm tellin’ ya, that there is Spike. It’s the same lil’ fella ya already met, ah promise.”
Granny Smith leaned in and scrutinized Spike, who leaned back and began to sweat under her attention. “Hmm. Then why’s he look so different?”
“He’s a baby, Granny.” Said Twilight. “He’s doing what all baby’s do; growing.”
“Oh,” She pepped up instantly, smiling like usual, “Why didn’t ya’ll jus’ say tha’ from the start? Good fer him.”
The face-hoof that resulted nearly knocked out all of ponyville.