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Chapter 1: Genesis1,455 words
Chapter 2: Ignorance2,050 words
Chapter 3: Oppression3,308 words
Chapter 4: Diligence 2,129 words

Chapter 2: Ignorance

"Morning Twilight." Said Spike happily from the stove in the library’s kitchen over to the haggard purple unicorn. Twilight was the former student now newly appointed Princess of Equestria. Since her ascension to an Alicorn, Twilight has been having sleeping difficulties due to her uncooperative wings that have been suffering muscle spasms from flying practice with rainbow dash and new duties as an Equestrian Princess. This has led to many late nights, causing her extreme sleep deprivation and it was definitely showing.

"Ugh! Spike I really need you to start cleaning up after yourself, there are books all over the floor of my study and I don’t have time to pick them all up again!" She said groggily, scrubbing sleep out of her eyes.

"Umm yeah sure Twilight I’ll make a note of that." Spike had already been told this exact request almost every morning for the past week and it had slowly become meaningless to him. He tried to tell Twilight that it was her who kept doing this and that she had been over exerting herself to the point of memory loss but as expected his attempts were proven futile. He also tried telling her that she only needed to do one or maybe two drafts at most for the research papers that Princess Celestia requested from her, but this to was shot down by Twilights stubborn obsession of having to make everything she does for the princess absolutely perfect. So being the loyal Dragon assistant he is Spike trudged on through all the repetitive tasks and nagging requests Twilight lay before him. Although this would have been a lot easier if it weren’t for these seemingly intensifying back pains.

"Please do. Now what’s for breakfast?" Twilight said eyes half open.

"Nothing special, just some eggs, beans and a few strips of hay bacon!" replied Spike with a warm smile.

"That will have to do, I guess." said Twilight half-heartedly. Spike felt a little insulted at this bland response but simply shrugged it off as fatigue.

"You know Twi you really should get some more sleep or at least take a day off. I know I say this every morning but you're going to end up hospitalizing yourself if you don’t get some rest!" Spike pointed out, holding a plate of food out to the clearly exhausted Alicorn.

"I'll be fine Spike really; I’ve got too much to do to take a break anyway." Twilight responded reaching out for the plate with her magic making it levitate from Spikes hands slightly. Then suddenly her magic faltered releasing the ceramic plate from her telekinetic grasp sending it crashing onto the floor.

"SPIKE!" Bellowed Twilight, wide eyed and suddenly very awake. "You really have to be more careful! Good ceramic plates aren’t cheap you know!" Twilight continued.

"But I didn’t drop it you had it in your magic before I went to turn away! Your magic must have failed a little and you dropped it!" Countered spike feeling more than a little frightened at Twilights abusive tone of voice.

"Oh now that’s just about the most ridiculous thing you've said all morning Spike! My magic is flawless; I’m the element of magic for crying out loud! Now stop back-chatting me and clean up this mess you made then hurry up and go clean up the other mess you made in my study!" She commanded.

"But..." Spike began only to stop himself knowing that he would only get himself in more trouble trying to argue with the stubborn Alicorn. "Yes Twilight." He finished glumly under twilights unrelenting gaze.

Spike started to bend down to pick up the larger pieces of the broken plate when suddenly 'click!' "Aaargh! My back" wailed Spike, clutching his back as best he could after the sudden sharp pain. "Twilight my back! Can i get a little help with this?"

Twilight was practically burning red hot with rage. "Now that’s just really pathetic Spike! Making up such lame excuses to get out of a little clean up job? Go outside and sit on the step Spike I don’t want to even see you right now and stay there until I see fit to let you back in!" She bellowed.

"But Twi I..." spike started only to be interrupted.

"NOW SPIKE! Or I’m taking away that gem stash you've collected beneath the pillow in your bed!" She threatened.

Spike began to get teary eyed before he simply nodded and accepted his fate and slowly hauled his deflated body out the front door.

After the front door closed Twilight said to herself "Maybe that was a little harsh? But that doesn’t matter he needs to learn somehow and I got far too much work that needs doing!" She then marched off leaving both the food and broken plate behind, to head up to her study and continued filling out some of the royal documents entrusted to her by the royal sisters. 'I'll go get Spike later when I think he's learnt his lesson.' She thought.

Meanwhile Spike sat out on the steps in front of the library, feeling both disrespected and doleful due to recent events. With tears welling in his eyes he just sat there. Trying to reason with himself that he was in the wrong or at least not to be angry with Twilight. After all she was under a lot of stress even if she was the cause of most of it. 'That’s just her nature.' Thought Spike. 'And there’s nothing I can do that will change that.'

"Hnnnng!" Complained Spike, rubbing his back in pain. 'What is wrong with you back? Why must you behave this way, you are only being an inconvenience for me at the moment.' He thought. 'Well I guess I might be out here a while. Best lie down and rest my back while I've got the chance.' He then got down on his stomach straightening out his back, with his face gazing out into the distant busy streets of the quaint little town of Ponyville. 'And so begins the wait.' Then that’s exactly what he did. He simply waited for his surrogate mother to come and fetch him up from outside and bring him back into her loving embrace where they could put this little fiasco behind them and start anew. But she never came. As minutes turned to hours, day began to turn to night and still no sign of Twilight.

He eventually decided it was best for him to just take the initiative here and go inside on his own accord. When he entered the library was silent. Not even the scratching sound of a quill on paper could be heard. Nothing but a faint snoring noise could be heard coming from upstairs in Twilights study. This made the young dragon smile for he knew exactly what this meant. Twilight had finally begun to get some rest. All be it at six o’clock at night it was sleep nonetheless.

Spike then quietly walked up the steps to Twilights study and opened the door. There she was slumped over her desk snoring silently resting her head on a huge pile of paper. Spike then proceeded to pick her up and despite his small stature he still withholds quite a bit of strength either because of the constant re-shelving of books or just another one of the perks of being a dragon. He carefully laid Twilight down in her bed and pulled up the covers as not to wake her. He gave her a quick peck on the forehead and whispered "About time you got some rest."

All he got in reply was a sleepy mumble stating something about the muscles of a stallion named 'Flash Sentry.'

Spike then proceeded out the bedroom door, shutting it slowly as not to wake the slumbering Alicorn.

Spike turned away to head towards the stairs and go clean up the papers in Twilights study, when out of the blue came a sharp pain shooting in between his shoulder blades causing him to flinch. 'Maybe lifting Twilight up to bed was a bad idea. What the hey is wrong with my stupid back?' Thought spike as he again began to walk towards the study.

Spike loved Twilight he really did, and he knows Twilight loves him, even if she is being really hard on him at the moment. That still doesn’t deny the fact that he was getting more and more frustrated at how abusive she was being with him of late. Despite their friendship Spike had become more than ready to vent his frustrations with Twilight and let her know how he really feels about the way things are going. Not to mention the back pains he had started suffering from. Twilight could at least get that looked at for him, the pain was starting to become unbearable making the most trivial of tasks difficult.

Spike had finally finished cleaning the study and stood triumphantly in the center of the room admiring his handy work. He was about to leave when he noticed a blank scroll lying on the floor, he thought it best to pick it up. Two steps over towards the bin in twilights study an idea popped into his head. 'Maybe I could write a letter to the princess and ask her to be a little more lenient with Twi, she’s putting way too much pressure on herself at the moment and its beginning to reflect on me!' So Spike quickly jogged on over to Twilights desk, grabbed a quill and began to scratch out a letter.

Dear Princess Celestia;

It has come to my attention that since Twilight has become a Princess you have seen fit to entrust her with more complex work at a larger quantity. But I was just wondering if you could maybe back up a little with what you're giving her because she is starting to get really stressed and I don’t believe it is healthy for her. She is always tired; repeating tasks more than twice without knowing it and has even begun to neglect me! I am not bad mouthing her because I know she dose not mean anything by what she is doing. You know what she is like Princess. So I implore you, please let twilight have some time off.

Your loyal subject;
Spike the Dragon

Shortly after he finished his short letter Spike quickly rolled it up, applied the wax seal and sent it off in a small spurt of green flame for the Princess to read. Something felt off about his fire though. But he brushed it off as either simple fatigue or guilt for going behind twilight like this. He was soon shaken out of that state of mind by another stabbing pain rolling across his upper back causing him to wince. "Agh! Bed now guilt tomorrow." Spike said as he then began to wander off to his basket at the foot of Twilights bed. He really hated sleeping down there like some sort of pet but it just seemed to fall through the cracks in his mind and become sealed away as 'not important'.

Spike slowly made his way to the bedroom trying as hard as he could to make little to no noise, awakening twilight is the last thing he wanted to do. When spike arrived in the room shared between Twilight and himself his eyes immediately zoomed in on his basket, his eyes felt as if they were growing heavier just by looking at it. He waddled over to his basket like a fat little scaly zombie before unceremoniously slamming his body down into it. He barely had to wait one minute before he was cast off into a deep sleep completely oblivious to the luminescent white mist floating across the floor and over to his now comatose body.

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