Light The Candles

by Salohcin-Silverwing

Chapter 4: Back and Forth

Chapter 4 - Back and Forth

Spike couldn't believe he was actually glad to be away from Rarity, but he simply couldn't take one more second of acting as her mannequin, especially since it was for fillies' clothing. I feel sorry for the filly who has to wear that…thing.

Today held a large share of disappointment for the little dragon's special day: a ruined chance to impress Rarity, humiliating favors, and to top it all off, not a single pony had wished him a happy birthday! I might as well go back to the library and sleep until the day's over with. Spike shuffled his disappointed little feet in the direction of the library, suddenly finding the idea of reuniting with his warm blue blanket a very tempting offer.

*****

Oh no…why's he back so soon?!

Spying from her telescope, Twilight Sparkle watched nervously as her assistant shuffled closer and closer to the library. Desperate for more time, she lit her horn and cast a spell on the room downstairs, resulting in a tumbling crash that caused half the books in the library to tumble onto the floor.

Twilight rushed downstairs to open the door for Spike, observing curiously that his face was rimmed with discouragement. The first thing Spike noticed, however, was that Twilight was standing awkwardly in the center of the room to greet him, a strangely cheerful expression on her face, complete with a toothy grin. The library itself was a mess of books piled carelessly around the floor, which made Spike scratch his head in wonder. This wasn't out of the ordinary for most weekends with the eager bookworm known as Twilight Sparkle, except that Spike distinctly remembered re-shelving all of those books the night before.

"What gives, Twilight?" questioned Spike. "I'm gone for a couple of hours, and you've already dis-shelved half the library?"

Twilight gave Spike a sheepish chuckle. "Oh, this? I just needed to…rearrange some things, that's all. You know, liven things up a bit."

Spike rolled his eyes. That's just like Twilight; thinking that moving a few books will change a whole room. Usually, he would have complained about the mess, knowing full well that he would have to do most of the work, but he was too disappointed to worry about that now. "Well, you have fun with that. I'm going to bed."

Spike turned his direction towards the stairs, making it halfway up the steps, but Twilight raced him to the top, blocking his way. "Um…excuse me?" Twilight ignored Spike and gently pushed her assistant down the stairs.

"Sorry, Spike. But I need…um…I need...celery! That's it; I need you to pick up some celery for me."

"But you gave me the day off today, remember? And besides, why can't you do it?" But before he could protest any further, Twilight telekinetically tossed two twinkling coins at Spike. (try saying that 5 times real fast.) Too tired of arguing, Spike went out the door, heading for the marketplace. But I thought Twilight hated celery…

After Spike was out of earshot, Twilight yelled "All clear!" A few seconds after she gave the signal, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy jumped out from behind the large piles of books. "Wow. That was a close call."

"Tell me about it." came the voice of Rainbow Dash as she shook a copy of The Complete Works of Emily Hitchenson from her face. "But why don't you try warning us before clobbering us with literature? These hardback poetry books pack a punch!"

"Sorry…I didn't have much time to react."

As soon as each pony cleared themselves from their respective avalanche of books, Rarity came bursting through the back entrance to the library.

"Sorry I'm late, Twilight. I stalled Spike as long as I could, but I felt absolutely horrible for putting him through that."

Twilight couldn't help but giggle. "You did fine, Rarity. Plus, I got the bonus of seeing Spike in that dress." Applejack and Rainbow Dash also joined in on the laughter. Fluttershy and Rarity smiled slightly. Soon, the laughter subsided and Twilight resumed her serious face. "Alright, let's get back to work. There's still a lot to do, and not much time!"

*****

Grudgingly, Spike made his way to the marketplace. Confound these ponies and their sad eyes; they drive me to do their bidding! It was almost impossible to say no to a sad-eyed pony.

The marketplace was busy as usual: carts were busy selling merchandise such as apples, flowers, newspapers, and anything else that might interest the average pony. Even Vinyl Scratch had set up a booth to sell her new album, Electric Trot. The customers cheerfully socialized around the market square, barely taking notice of the depressed little dragon that walked up to the vegetable stand.

"Two celery stalks please." mumbled Spike, barely even making eye contact with the vendor.

Carrot Top, the vendor of the vegetable stand, neatly stacked two celery stalks in a bag and handed it to Spike upon receiving two coins. As she noticed the unusually depressed face on her customer, Carrot Cake tried to cheer him up with a little light conversation.

"So who are you getting the celery for, Spike? I've never seen you eat your veggies, and I thought Twilight didn't like them."

"I don't know why, but Twilight asked me to get them, so here I am." From his tone of voice, Carrot Top could obviously see that he was not in a talking sort of mood. I wish I could do something to cheer him up. Before Spike could walk off, Carrot Top tossed a slice of carrot cake into his bag. She simply smiled and said, "On the house."

Spike smiled slightly at the generous pony. Even though it wasn't a juicy ruby, the slice of cake did cheer him up a bit. It's the closest thing to a birthday present I've had all day.

*****

Rainbow Dash carefully observed Spike through the telescope back at the library from across Ponyville. She could see Spike turning around, holding a small bag in his hands.

"Um, Twilight? You might wanna look at th-" WHOOSH! Twilight rushed up the stairs and peered through the telescope before Rainbow Dash could finish her sentence.

"Uh-oh. That's not good." mumbled the purple unicorn.

"What's the matter? You don't like celery?" inquired Rainbow Dash.

"Yes...I mean, no. I mean...but that's not it! I thought we'd have more time than that."

Twilight pondered for a second. "We need more time, but it's going to be risky."

"What are you talking about, Twilight?" Fluttershy and Rarity joined Twilight and Rainbow at the observatory. A serious expression came across Twilight's face. "We need to go to…Plan D."

Gasps of shock came from the other ponies as soon as Twilight mentioned "Plan D."

"Surely you don't mean-"

"Yes, I do." interjected Twilight. "We're gonna have to bring in Ditzy Doo."

Comments

[Path_of_cloud]

Carrot Cake tried to cheer him up with a little light conversation.

Carrot Top. Carrot Cake's just a little filly silly.dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/sillyfilly_Pinkie_Pie.png