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Prolouge1,457 words
Chapter One: Not Taken For Granite1,618 words
Chapter Two: Scaling New Heights1,122 words

Chapter Two: Scaling New Heights

5 Gems: by LoveandEdify

and also by today’s special co-author/editor...

Chapter Two: Scaling New Heights

“And that’s that. All teleported safely and soundly to their homes.” Twilight verified as she finished
casting a teleportation spell while Starlight used a different one to help clean up the mess.

“Phew, yeah” Starlight sighed exhausted as she levitated a napkin towards her to wipe off some sweat from her forehead. “Thank you so much for allowing me and my friends to crash here.” Starlight graciously thanked.

“No problem, Starlight.” she responded warmly, “Although I’ll have to admit, I wish that you and your friends weren’t nearly all stuck in a blizzard in Yakyakistan when I had to teleport you out.” she spoke softly, clear concern and compassion in her voice.

“Don’t worry, we’re all now...” Starlight was then interrupted by a rapidly galloping grey ghost of a blur, nearly dropping what had to have been a small satchel of sorts before Starlight caught it with her magic.

“I thought Maud was still here in the castle!” a rather confused and befuddled Twilight observed, earning a shrug from Starlight as they both raced to catch Maud before she was about to rampage into royals know where.

A few seconds later...

Luckily, they were able to figure out where Maud was going so that they could teleport to the area first ahead of her. Right in front of Spike’s bedroom door. Unluckily, even that high level of prepardness couldn't stop them from being bulldozed by the lovesick mare in a collision that sent all 3 of them tumbling directly onto the top of Spike's bed.

The good news was that they were just on the foot of the bed. The bad news was that they were
in a peculiar Twister kind of dotted position and poor little Spike was just waking up.

"I swear this isn't what it looks like." Maud explained in her usual stoic tone. Spike stretched
yawned, and slowly poened his eyes ready to greet the day.

"Well if it's breakfast in bed, Princess Celestia, that's exactly what it look li..." Spike's tranced
and dreamish tone stopped dead in its tracks when his vision finally cleared to see Twilight's mouth
opened in a gasp, Starlight's face almost squirm and Maud simply rolling her eyes at the whole thing.

Spike gasped and quickly hid underneath the covers while Twilight performed a spell that untangled
everypony and plopped them all off Spike's bed, yet still close enough to the spooked silly dragon.

After a couple of seconds, both Starlight and Twilight laughed at the hilarious situation as Spike
slowly creeped out from under the covers. Maud didn't feel like laughing, but did think the moment
was hilarious and gave a small smile.

"Ok, I think we all have some explaining to do." Twilight remarked after using her magic
to get the currently embarrassed dragon out of his bed.

About 15 minutes later...

"So yeah, I should've figured that you weren't Princess Celestia serving me pancakes. I'm sorry,
Maud." Spike sheepishly apologized.

There was a silence in the room for the next couple of minutes. Not the awkward kind associated
with paralyzing fear, nor the one that is meditative on mistakes or memories. But rather, the kind
that is there for only the sake of filling a void with its emptiness.

Dead silence.

"It's alright, Spike I once dreamt that someone brought me breakfast in bed too." Maud finally
interjected like ripples in water.

"Oh? Who's that?" Spike asked curiously yet humbly, as it remained unclear whether Maud had
forgiven Spike or not.

Maud gave a small smirk before responding. "My boyfriend." A brief chorus of "oooooooh"s
followed from Twilight and Starlight as they galloped off the bed and out of the room at breakneck
speeds, whinnying like schoolfillies.

"Oh wow. Congratulations." Spike offered awkwardly, oblivious to the other ponies leaving,
but still focused on Maud's now gentle and soothing smile. "I didn't know you had a boyfriend,
Maud. When do you think we'll meet him?" he asked curiously. Maud whipped her mane
confidently, accidentally hitting Spike's right eye in the process.

"Sooner than you'd realize." she firmly affirmed with a wink. Spike knew that Maud's
tone was monotone as always, but it was hinted with something else. Something else that he
couldn't quite put his scaly dragon claws on. What was it? He was brought back to his senses
by the sound of the creaking closet door. He turned to see Maud retrieving some sort of
leather sack and bringing it over to him.

"I brought you a gift for the trip." she explained, holding up the satchel that was
somehow unharmed by the one-mare stampede from earlier. Spike held out his claws and felt the
soft, leathery satchel before taking a small peek at the contents.

"I've packed you bread, butter and five rocks." Maud explained. Sure enough, as Spike peeked into
the bag, there was a loaf of break and a stick of butter, but he couldn't find the rocks for some reason.

"What for?" Spike asked; curious as to why one, Maud rarely seemed to know him and wouldn't have
a real reason to care about something like this; and two, he saved more than enough bits for treats
for the whole week and souvenirs for him and his friends when he returned.

"You will spread the butter on the bread and eat it." Maud explained matter-of-factly, although Spike
could tell by the emphasis of her words (despite their lack of clear emotion) sounded like he was
being scolded by Miss Cheerilee for not knowing his A-B-C's.

"And the rocks?" Spike dared to ask, trying to get to the bottom of this mystery before he had to
catch the next train.

"They're in the bag. I said I packed them." Maud clarified, as if Spike were actually a gargoyle.
Ears but no brain.

"Maud, is there something you're trying to tell me?" Spike asked befuddled, hoping to know
why exactly someone as stoney-faced and closed-off as Maud would be seeming to be this
open and affectionate as of late. Not that he had minded it, he actually enjoyed and hoped
that they could become closer friends. However, this wasn't the platonic adoration he
would typically receive from such a creature wanting to be better friends he was seeing
from her, but rather... something else.

Before Maud had a chance to explain, Twilight and Starlight alerted the two that it was
time to take Spike to the train station for his trip. Once the group was all teleported over there,
they all gave Spike a big group hug and watched intently as his train started off towards his
new adventure.

Author's Note:

My apologies if that ending seemed a little rushed. Funny story about that. So Peni and I were working together on this story, as you would all know. But all of the sudden, for the longest time, I was without a laptop because mine finally busted after serving as a reliable writing tool for the past 5 years.

I had most of the story written down and saved already, but once I got my new laptop, I knew that none of you deserved to wait another 6-8 months for an update. So I kind of rushed the ending to this chapter a bit.

My sincere apologies.

Anyway, shoutout to the always amazing Peni Parker for assisting me with this story.

Fun Fact: The scene where Spike utters about breakfast in bed was one of many possible joke ideas for after Maud crashes the crew into the bed is an excellent collaborative effort between me and Peni. I always had the scene planned for how Maud would crash everyone into the bed and have it be incredibly awkward while still being appropriate. In fact, Peni was the one who suggested that Maud would say, "I swaer this isn't what it looks like." as a creative way to put Maud's awkward attempts at love on display. However, she suggested that Spike's response would be him defending Maud. However, I decided to go a different route. Spike has been known to be a heavy sleeper, and him groggily responding towards the effect of him still being halfway in between dreamland and reality would be an absolute hit.

Anyhow, that's it for this chapter. Oh it's great to be amongst the living.

If anyone wants to volunteer to be a co-writer for another chapter in this story, let me know in the comments or DM me.

Next time, Spike enjoys his vacation but a certain rock-colored mare won't stay off his mind. Also, why bread, butter and rocks? How is Maud going to make her intentions clear with that kind of gesture?

We'll find out all of that next time.

Keep Loving, Keep Edifying and KEEEEEEEEP LoveandEdifying.

Catcha later.

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