Finding Friendship

by Kamen-Zero

— Interlude II —

December 12,
Year 1,005 on the Grand Celestial Calendar.

Today marks the end of the first term of the school year, with classes closed until after the holidays. The fact that Winter Break is a practice in this school honestly baffles me. The Queen's School for Gifted Unicorns is a prestigious university that churns out some of Equestria's most brilliant Wizards, Sorcerers, and Scholars. You'd think "Winter Break" wouldn't be much of a priority. But here I am, on vacation for the holidays. At the very least, the reprieve will make for a nice opportunity to recuperate and catch up on my journal entries.

I am beyond proud to say that I am currently in the top percentile of my class. Through hard work and determination and an undying sense of stress and dread, I have managed to excel in every course I am enrolled in. Or at least most of them. The fine art of divination continues to elude me, and my grade shows that fact clearly much to my shame.

I'm just going to change the subject now before I have another panic attack. Anyway, the research paper on long dragons I was asked to write on behalf of the Queen was an astounding success. She was also pleased to know more about her precious pet, so much so that she insisted I turn the paper into one of my teachers as an assignment. Speaking of, the long dragon seems to want nothing to do with her daycare service. At least that's what it seems like since he keeps running off to my tower. His day guard is not too pleased about chasing him all over the castle grounds, either. He keeps telling me that precautions are being taken to prevent his breakouts, but they have yet to have any effect outside of delaying the inevitable.

Anyway, that's all I have time for today. I've been told that Cadence plans on visiting today, and afterward, I'll be headed home for the holidays. I'm looking forward to spending some time away from academics for a couple of weeks, as hard as that seems to believe.

Another pinching sensation ran up Twilight's wing, causing her to wince in pain and flinch, causing the springs in her mattress to creak loudly. A feather fell from the spot she had attempted to preen, adding to the small pile that had accumulated by her sides. Not enough to be worrying, but enough to remind Twilight of her current string of failures. The feathered limbs at her sides were proving to be more and more of a nuisance with each passing day, and her current task was only expediting the process.

"Almost, Twily," a voice spoke through a chuckle, "You need to do it gently, or you'll keep hurting yourself."

Twilight's head swung around with a glare that would turn a cockatrice to stone, a low growl emanating from her throat as she stared at her guest. Sitting just across from her on the bed was a pony well known to the public eye. A nation-known symbol of love, tranquility, and beauty. To just about everyone in the world, this mare was known as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, future ruler of the neighboring Crystal Empire to the North. But to Twilight? The pink alicorn was simply Cadence, a somewhat dorky pony who had been one of Twilight's closest friends, and former foal-sitter, for as long as she could remember. And currently? She was as far away from how Equestria knew her. No regalia, no gems, and her candy-colored main tied up by a simple blue ribbon. The tabloids would have a field day if they could see her now.

"This is stupid," Twilight muttered through grit teeth, "Don't they make combs for this?"

Cadence giggled again. "Afraid not. Preening requires a bit more of a... delicate touch."

"What about a spell?"

The older alicorn seemingly couldn't stop laughing. "If you want to write one, go for it. But you're going to have a lot of work on your hooves. No one's ever written one. Mostly because no one's ever 'needed' one, until you."

"It can't be that hard." Twilight scorned as she looked back to her wing, reaching down with her mouth and attempting to groom herself again. Taking her current mentor's words to heart, she moved with grace and precision.

"That could very well be true. But trust me, Twili," Cadence poked at her horn with a hoof, "Getting used to this? I guarantee was harder than getting used to those," she gestured towards Twilight's wings.

"But I don't want to get used to them," Twilight almost whined back, wincing again as she once again failed in her attempts at preening.

A somber mood overtook the room, most noticeably in Cadence's expression as her smile sunk away. "Twilight... you know that—"

"That it isn't a choice anymore," the younger alicorn snapped back, "I know. The point has been made."

"Twilight... please don't do this."

Twilight sighed heavily, resting her head on the plush surface of her bed. "I'm sorry... Still getting used to all of this... ya know?"

"I know. You don't have it very easy right now. But trust me when I say—"

"TWHY LITE!" A sudden voice called out, spoiling the dreadful atmosphere and drawing the two alicorns' attention.

"Get back here!" A clearly upset stallion called out in pursuit.

Twilight's mood shifted in an instant as her attention was solely redirected towards the commotion, and she quickly leaped off of the bed to head towards it. Confused, Cadence followed close behind in an attempt to unveil the mystery for herself. The veil was soon lifted as a purple and green blur raced up the stairs towards them, Twilight in particular. Backing up from the shock, she was soon privy to a serpentine form waving around and in between each of her legs in sheer excitement. She instantly knew what, or rather who, this was. In the months since the sandwich incident, as she called it, the long dragon had at least doubled in size.

"S-Spike?!" Twilight blared, trying to keep herself from being knocked over by the dragon's energetic show of affection. "Again? Really?!"

"Sorry, sorry!" The stallion guard called out as he came into view. The golden armor the earth pony stallion wore instantly identified this individual as a member of the royal guard. If Twilight were not preoccupied at the moment, she would have recognized him as the dragon's personal guard, assigned to watch him while the Queen was busy. He trotted up the stairs, a frustrated glare locked firmly on the dragon currently harassing Twilight. "The little bugger got out again!" As the guard reached the top of the stairs, he caught sight of Cadence and his demeanor changed immediately, stone-faced and now standing at attention. His previous task all but forgotten.

Cadence rolled her eyes. "At ease," she said calmly, walking over to her fellow alicorn in an attempt to rescue her from the dragon's frantic nuzzling. "What did you call him? Spike?" By this point, Twilight had managed to secure the long dragon in an arcane grasp, looking back to Cadence with confusion while the reptile dangled in the air by his midsection, kicking his legs in search for some kind of solid ground. It took her a moment to realize that Cadence had even addressed her.

"Oh... uhh, yeah," Twilight muttered, trotting back to the bed and setting the dragon down atop the plush surface. As she climbed back on beside the young reptile, he immediately curled up into as small of a ball as he could, as close as he could get to Twilight, almost purring with content as he made himself comfortable. This was practically routine for her at this point, it was the fastest way she had found to calm him down. The dragon would be asleep within a few minutes, and his guard would be able to return him to his own space. "We had to call him something... and he's got those spikes. It was the only name we could agree on."

Cadence's hoof found its way to her chest, and a dopey smile was made visible on her face. "Aaww, it looks like he really likes you!"

"You don't know the half of it," the guard muttered under his breath, "Keeps running off and coming here every time I look away for more than a few seconds..." His anger at the situation was obvious, and it equally clear that he was holding back the more colorful language due to the presence of royalty.

"He seems to be infatuated with me," Twilight continued, looking back to the small dragon beside her. "He even learned how to say my name... kind of." She looked back to the pink alicorn, eyes darting about for a moment as she placed a hoof by her mouth. "I think your aunt is really jealous," she whispered with a twinge of childlike glee.

Cadence found couldn't help but join in at the laugh at the Queen's expense. And as she looked over the alicorn and the dragon, and how quickly the later had changed the mood of the former, one could almost see the brilliant idea forming inside of her candy-colored head. Was it a bit manipulative? Most certainly. Would her aunt hate it? Without question. Could it help out Twilight in the long run? There was only one way to find out.

"Maybe the little guy should stay here then," Cadence suggested as casually as she could, "It would certainly get him to stop running away so much."

"It'd make my life easier, that's for sure," the guard muttered again, earning him a momentary glare from the princess in the room.

Twilight, meanwhile, glanced again at Spike. As per usual, the little guy had quickly fallen asleep beside her. She couldn't deny the fact that the long dragon had definitely taken a liking to her, that much had been made obvious from the start. For a while, Twilight suspected that it might have had something to do with the color of her coat and mane, the young dragon possibly mistaking her for some kind of maternal figure. Or maybe he was just fond of Twilight for giving him sandwiches. Regardless of the reason, the small dragon seemed to have an affinity for her.

And Twilight would be lying if she said that the feelings weren't at least a little bit mutual. She had no explanation as to why, but the little guy had actually started to grow on her. For a moment, Twilight was honestly considering the idea of becoming the dragon's caretaker, at least temporarily. She had already brought it up to the Queen that she wanted to try and develop his apparent language skills, something that the elder alicorn had been wholeheartedly on board of. Him living with her would give Twilight that very opportunity. Though a sense of reality suddenly returned to the young alicorn. She then proceeded to look back to her friend with a stone-cold face that rivaled that of the royal guards.

"You know she's never going to let that happen, right?"

"Oh, don't you worry about her. You leave aunty to me," Cadence explained with a playful grin and a mischevious wink. She stepped over and gently ran a hoof over the sleeping reptile. "You should worry about finding this little guy a place to sleep," she took a moment's pause as she observed him, "Other then your back, I mean." The pink alicorn giggled again.

Comments

[Comickook]

Love the journal entry concerning the start of Twilight's first Winter Break after getting into Celestia's School. And also really good look back on Cadance visiting Twilight during the start of the Winter Break and Spike's escaping from the guard assigned to watch him in order to visit Twilight.

Anyway, again, you did a really good job on the exchanges and characterizations in this "look-back" chapter.

[56]

Really like this story so far! Read it to this point in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for writing!

[Kamen-Zero]

9694961
I'm glad you liked it.
And thanks for pointing out all those little mistakes. It means a lot, and makes it better for future readers!

[Kamen-Zero]

9696648
Back then, he essentially was.
Obviously, that changed.

[Empty Shelf]

I like where this is going.

[JOEBLACK]

9709233
I'm not always right. It would have nicely explained why she had heard of the Everfree but not the town and why all of the buildings seemed so old fashioned to Twilight. Also, I was semi joking

[BirdsBooksBrownies]

"TWHY LITE!" A sudden voice called out, spoiling the dreadful atmosphere and.

Is that "and" at the end supposed to be there?

[chibilink]

The Queen's School for Gifted Unicorns is a prestigious university that churns out some of Equestria's most brilliant Wizards, Sorcerers, and Scholars. You'd think "Winter Break" would be much of a priority. But here I am, on vacation for the holidays.

Do ya mean wouldn't?

[Kamen-Zero]

10520705
I did mean wouldn't.

Let it be known that I will never try to deny my many (and silly) mistakes.