The Bug in The Cave

by Skijarama

...And The Pony he Saved

Twilight Sparkle stared out the window of the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville with a small smile on her face. A mug of tea floated in the air next to her, held gently in her magic. The town beyond the window was happy and cheerful, everypony going about their day to day routines.

It had been about a year since she left the Badlands and returned to Ponyville. The first months back had been pleasant, if stressful, as she worked to regain her lost strength and get back into a normal routine. Her friends had been plenty supportive on that front, helping her out whenever she stumbled and cheering her on when she wanted to stand under her own power.

After she had regained her strength, her daily routine was back to normal. She went about her life, happy as can be, solving local problems, learning lessons, sending letters to Princess Celestia, and deciding not to join an expedition to some other part of uncharted territory. She knew the odds were small, but she was happy to just read about what the teams found upon their return.

Every so often, though, her mind would wander back to Thorax, or her time spent in the Badlands. Every time they did, she would find herself missing him more and more, wondering how he was doing; if he was making any progress in improving the Hive like he said he would. She had kept an eye open for any signs, no matter how small, that his actions had borne fruit, but had never once heard of anything. Over time, she realized that worrying about him wasn’t helpful, and since she was sworn to silence anyway, she slowly began to put him out of her mind.

Sadly, he would be brought back into her mind in the form of the wedding in Canterlot. Her eyes drifted past the ponies of Ponyville, over the houses, and soon alighted upon the city up in the mountains. Her smile faded, and she took a sip from her tea. There were still visible signs of damage along the city walls and towers.

The wedding had happened only a few months ago. When the changelings attacked, Twilight had been shellshocked. She had hoped to see changelings again — one in particular — but not like that… When she had been forced to defend herself and her friends, she had been hesitant every time a changeling crossed her path. She had to be sure none of them were Thorax before she fought back.

It had been a nightmare. The city had almost fallen. There had been countless bits worth of property damage, and a few ponies had wound up hurt. It had all seemed hopeless there for a little while... But in the end, the day had been won, not by the Elements of Harmony, but by Cadance and Shining Armor.

Twilight knew that emotions could supercharge magic, of course, but she had never imagined that love could empower a barrier spell to such an incredible extent. Shining Armor, empowered by Cadance’s love for him, had formed a whole new barrier around the city, and in a few short moments, blasted all of the changelings out in a wave of blinding light and affection. They had all been sent scattering for miles and miles, vanishing into the horizon, scattered and disorganized.

The changelings didn’t come back after that. Twilight figured they had slunk back to the Badlands to lick their wounds and hide from any reprisals that may come their way. The world knew about them now. Unfortunately, they knew about them as enemies more than anything else...

She gave off a quiet sigh. Ever since that day, she had wondered about Thorax, again and again, worrying for the friendly drone that had saved her life. Sometimes she wondered if he had been in the swarm that she and her friends had fought through. Sometimes she feared that he had been hurt, or worse, in the fighting. If he had been there, had they crossed paths? Had he seen her fighting against his kindred as hard as she was? Had she attacked him, not realizing who he was?

Such thoughts had plagued her mind for months now, and she still had no answers. All she could truly do now was hope for the best and carry on with her life.

Speaking of which…

The door to her room swung open, and Spike came waddling in with a big grin on his face. “Hey, Twilight. I’m back!” he proclaimed with a cheerful voice.

Twilight turned back to him, finishing off her tea and setting the mug aside. “Spike! Where have you been? You just kinda ran off on me without saying anything,” she said, adding a slight scolding edge to her voice, though not enough to upset him at all.

“Oh, sorry. I was helping Rarity and Sweetie Belle look for stuff with Zecora out in the Everfree Earlier,” he said with a shrug. “Sweetie needed to collect samples of local plant life for some school project or other. Rarity was tagging along to help her, and they wanted me to come with, so I could scare off any ‘big scary monsters’ in the forest.”

Twilight rolled her eyes knowingly at Spike. “Heh. Alright, if you say so. And how did that go?”

“It went pretty well, I think. Only thing that went wrong is I almost slipped and fell into a pit.”

Twilight blinked. “A pit? What happened?”

“Oh, uh, while I was looking around, I got spooked by an animal in a cave. I ran as hard as I could, and I wasn’t looking where I was going. I almost slipped and fell inside, but the animal saved me. Turns out, it was friendly.”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. Something about the way Spike had said all of that struck her as strange. She decided not to question it for now, though. “...Okay. Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked, giving him a quick examination just to be sure. “You didn’t scrape anything, right?”

Spike shook his head. “Nope, I’m alright. Only thing that took a ding or two was my pride.”

“What pride?” Twilight asked with a playful smirk and a raised eyebrow.

Spike pouted at her. “My pride as a fearless fire breathing dragon, of course!”

Twilight giggled and reached out to ruffle his head spines. “Okay, fair enough,” she said before sniffing at the air. She had to fight the urge to gag then and there. “Gah! Oh, oh no!”

“What? What is it?” Spike asked, clearly confused.

“You smell like a skunk that took a bath in Froggy Bottom Bogg!” Twilight declared, lifting Spike up in her magic and ignoring his following protests. “Your pride doesn’t mask that smell! Come on, you need a bath!”

“What the- HEY! Twilight, put me down! TWILIGHT!” Spike complained, kicking feebly at the air as the unicorn hauled him through the library for the bathroom.

She giggled in amusement at his struggle, allowing herself to get lost in the simple, mundane task of giving Spike a proper bath.

---

“You are an absolute witch, you know that?” Spike asked an hour or two later, seated on one of the many lounge chairs around the central room of the library. He was rubbing at his cheek with an annoyed grimace. “Did you have to go so hard with the loofa?”

“In my defense,” Twilight began with a cheeky smirk. “You were acting like an angry cat in that tub.”

“Because I smelled fine!”

“Trust me, you didn’t. I found no fewer than seven different species of stinky fungi growing in your pits, mister dragon,” Twilight rebuked, although, in reality, it was more accurate to say she found some moss stuck to his pits and decided to annoy him with it.

“Oh, that was a single bit of moss I picked up in that cave, and you know it!”

Twilight giggled again, well and truly foiled, before rolling her eyes. “Heh, okay, fair enough, you got me,” she confessed. “But really, you did smell. I wouldn’t have bathed you if I thought otherwise.”

“Meh,” Spike grumbled, sulking childishly in his seat for a few seconds.

Twilight smiled and stood up from her own to head for the nearby window. She opened it with her magic, allowing a gentle breeze of fresh air to wash over her face. She took a deep breath through her nose and let it out with a happy smile. But once again, her eyes slowly drifted up to Canterlot, and her smile faded.

Just like before, her thoughts drifted back to Thorax. She stared up at the mountain for a long time, her mind wandering aimlessly over all the time they had spent together. She glanced back at Spike to see he was now pulling a comic book from one of the shelves, probably a Power Ponies issue.

Even after the invasion, she had never mentioned Thorax to anyone. She had kept his secret even after it had been revealed to the whole world. Maybe it was some misplaced sense of loyalty that drove her to keep her knowledge to herself, keeping her promise not to talk about him even now. Perhaps she was just too shy to bring up that she had befriended one of the creatures that had ruined her brother’s wedding and almost the lives of everypony in Equestria.

Whatever the reason, she had stayed silent… but every so often, she felt the urge to speak up. Like right now.

Spike hopped back up into his seat before he noticed she was staring. He tilted his head at her in curiosity. “Hm? What? Is there still something on my face?” he asked, flipping open to the first page.

Twilight looked out the window. “No. It’s n-nothing,” she lied.

Spike blinked at her. He then gave off a quiet sigh and set the comic aside. “Okay, I know that tone. What’s bugging you?” he asked gently.

Twilight stayed quiet for several seconds. It would be no use to try and fend Spike off, now. The dragon was a master at seeing through her attempts at misdirection. She sighed and turned to walk back towards him. “I dunno, Spike. I was just thinking about the changeling attack on Canterlot is all…”

Spike raised an eyebrow at that. “Again? You’ve been doing that a lot lately. We won, Twilight, you can relax now,” he said.

“I know, I know,” Twilight admitted, plopping down into the seat next to Spike’s. “But… I can’t help it. I keep wondering about it, and…”

Spike waited patiently, letting her work the words out as she usually had to when dealing with something frustrating or emotionally taxing. That whole ordeal with the wedding had been beyond difficult on her and her friends, and doubly so on her family. It only made sense that he’d figure that was the reason.

She took a deep breath before looking directly at him. “Tell me, Spike… do you think there were any good changelings in that swarm?” she finally asked.

Spike’s eyes widened in surprise. “H-huh?”

Twilight looked ahead, gesturing vaguely with her hooves. “You know, good changelings. Not evil. Maybe they weren’t there by choice, or maybe they just didn’t realize that what they were doing was wrong. I can’t stop thinking about it. If there are good changelings in there, then, shouldn’t we reach out to them? You know, try and make them our friends so that we don’t have to fight them again.”

Spike scratched his head for a second, clearly taken aback by her request. “Uh, well… I…” he stammered. For a moment, she was expecting him to offer her a non-committal shrug and dismiss the question as a silly hypothetical, or even claim that there was no way there were any good guys in that swarm. But to her surprise, he actually smiled and nodded up at her. “Ya know what? I know there were a few good ones in all of that.”

Twilight stared at him. “You… you know? How would you know that?” she asked, though, in her heart, she hoped he was right.

Spike leaned back in his seat, his claws casually folding behind his head. “Eh… call it intuition,” he said, though it was clear that was a fumbling excuse. He was hiding something. “Ya know. There were just so many of them, it only makes sense there’d be a few good eggs mixed in with all the rotting ones.”

“Ha. Eggs,” Twilight snorted. “Because they lay eggs. I get it.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “...The point is,” he continued in a deadpan. “I’m pretty confident there was at least one good one in all of that.”

Twilight gave off a quiet sigh, leaning back in her seat. “Heh… glad you think so, too. I was starting to wonder if I’d gone a little crazy or something.”

“I’ve seen you crazy,” Spike deadpanned. “This ain’t that. For one thing, all of Ponyville isn’t getting embroiled in a war over your fillyhood Smartpants doll.”

“Oh, hardy har,” Twilight shot back, a tiny blush forming on her cheeks. Deciding that she didn’t need Spike poking at any more of her less-than-proud moments, she hopped down from her seat and made her way for the stairs. “I’m heading back upstairs. I’m gonna read some more. Keep it down out here, okay?”

“Oh, uh, before you go,” Spike called after her, drawing her eyes back to him. He had the look of a dragon that only just now remembered something important. He scratched his head for a moment as if trying to rack his brain for the right words. “Uh… did you hear about the, uh, the thing that’s supposed to happen near the Everfree Forest tonight?”

Twilight tilted her head. “...What thing?” she asked, confused.

“I dunno. Rarity told me about some cool thing that’s supposed to be going on over there,” Spike said, flopping back into his seat. “But, I was a bit too busy getting seven different species of fungus trapped in my armpits to remember any details.”

Twilight chuckled at that. “Okay, okay, I get it, I went in too hard with the loofa. Heh… But no, I didn’t hear about this.”

“Hm. well, we can probably see it from here,” Spike said with a shrug. “Supposed to be happening at sunset, I think. Have a look, might be cool.”

Twilight stared at him for a few seconds. Okay, Spike was definitely hiding something. He was a devoted and loyal friend, the best assistant she could ask for, and the little brother she had always wanted. But because of all of those things, it meant he was a terrible liar, especially to her. She squinted at him, sorely tempted to press the subject, and pry the answers out of him.

A few seconds later, though, she decided against it. It wouldn’t do to go harassing him if it turned out she was wrong. And besides, it was Spike? How harmful could this be?

She briefly paused halfway up the stairs and mentally decided to not answer that one before vanishing back into her room.

Comments

[Eroraf86]

Spike, you sneaky son of a wyrm.

[tsaukpaetra]

❤

[DraquineWarrior]

10227345
Which he is.

[Yoshifan30]

Okay so apparently two of the chapters was during the time of season 2 finale the Canterlot Wedding attack what's both Twilight and thorax has to endure this whole mess was the attack of the changelings Equestria already know their existence but they're are a threat now thorax can't ever go back there again knowing that they will do something bad to him once they know that he left and pharynx gave him the chance to make his Escape what's that was pretty cool of him to do that now Twilight on the other hand felt bad for attacking to her but unfortunately because they attack her brother and her sister-in-law and her friends she has to defend them it was trying to see if she can find thorax but she couldn't not in the chaos of the battlefield but thorax found her but he felt ashamed for even thinking attacking her and the other ponies but after a few months probably around season 3 premiere or before they look like they're going to need each other soon let's hope the others are understandable

[darklight731]

Alright, so a slight change from cannon, but it would likely end up going the same way. Nicely done.