Paper Spike and the Thousand Year Door

by Sakunyan

Chapter Two: Professor Cheerilee

Chapter Two: Professor Cheerilee

Twilight, Sweetie Belle, and Spike waited anxiously outside of the door. After a few silent moments, they could hear hoofsteps coming from inside. They seemed to stop once they reached the door.

"Who is it?" A cheerful sounding voice echoed from inside. As happy as it sounded, one could still sense that the resident inside was a bit nervous. Twilight couldn't blame her considering what had occurred in the town so far. Luckily, though, she felt much safer after being able to recognize her old friend's voice.

"Cheerilee, it's me! Twilight Sparkle!"

"I'm here too, Cheerilee!" Sweetie Belle chimed in. The door slowly opened as a pony's eye came into sight, double checking the sources of the voices. Her eye widened when their faces registered.

"Sweetie Belle, you're back! And you brought Twilight and Spike? Oh, my!" She undid a lock on the door and hurried the three inside, quickly shutting and locking the door behind them. "What are you two doing in Rogueport of all places?" Twilight cleared her throat.

"Spike and I came from Ponyville because we were sent a message from Rarity requesting us to come here. Sadly, though, it appears we came a bit too late as....." Twilight trailed off as Sweetie Belle cut her off with a hoof-motion, indicating Cheerilee didn't know of Rarity's whereabouts yet.

"What do you mean, 'too late'? Did she need you to bring something to her for her project?" Sweetie Belle stepped up this time.

"Cheerilee.... this morning when Rarity and I went out on our walk..... we were ambushed. Rarity is being held hostage by Filthy Rich and Diamond Tiara's family. They're after the Elements of Harmony." Shock filled Cheerilee's face.

"Diamond.... Tiara? As in my former student? What... why would they do that? What in Equestria is going on?" Twilight frowned and handed her the letter Rarity had written requesting her own Element of Harmony. Cheerilee's brow furrowed as the story was being confirmed. "But that doesn't make any sense! Diamond Tiara isn't- wasn't- evil, she was just a bit... ehh... spoiled!" Sweetie Belle sighed in frustration.

"Well, she is evil! They kidnapped my sister! We have to get her back!!" Cheerilee frowned.

"I know we do, and I'm sure as soon as we find Princess Celestia she can help us sort all of this out in Canterlot."

"Princess Celestia's doing business with Luna and Cadance in Twilight Town right now. I'm not sure how to get there at the moment, or how long she'll be staying there. Maybe in a few days and some research, we could go out and-"

"A few days? We need to go out there now!" Sweetie Belle's voice squeaked in her frustration. She appeared as though she were about to cry, looking rather helpless and afraid. Cheerilee unconsciously reached out a hoof to stroke her mane but was smacked away in rejection. "If we don't save Rarity soon, who knows what will happen?"

"But Sweetie Belle, it's too dangerous to go out and look for your sister just yet! We need to get help before we do anything like that! I told you, she'll be safe soon, we just need to prepare!" Sweetie Belle growled angrily at Twilight's plan, which seemed very unsatisfactory. She sat her flank down on the ground with a thud and crossed her front legs, resting her chin on her hooves.

"If we can't get Rarity back, I......" Sweetie Belle trailed off and buried her face further into her front legs. Twilight grimaced.

"Alright, Cheerilee, do you have a map of this area? I need to find the most direct route to Twilight Town. She said she was on important business so I don't want to rush her here," From this Sweetie Belle responded with an angry sigh. "but Spike, I need you to write a letter giving a brief explanation and tell her that we'll be on our way shortly. We'll also need to pack supplies, so maybe you could show me to the nearest shop, Cheerilee?" The mare nodded and began ruffling through papers on a desk, searching for a map. "Spike, you ready to take a letter?" After a response of silence, Twilight turned to the baby dragon. "Spike?"

"I'll go and save Rarity myself." Twilight frowned, then laughed and patted the little dragon on the head.

"Oh, Spike, I know you like Rarity but she'll be just fine. I don't want you risking your life out there looking for her and I'm sure she would want the same!"

"No! I'm going out to look for her! There's no time to waste waiting here for her return!"

"Getting Celestia's help wouldn't solve anything anyways...." The three others turned to Sweetie Belle, who still had her head buried. She lifted it up. "I threatened Diamond Tiara with that already, getting Celestia's aid. She said it wouldn't work. She didn't tell me why, but she wasn't hesitant about it, like she was speaking the truth..... She told me the only way to get her back was to hand over the Element. That or just finding her myself and releasing her from them..." Twilight shook her head.

"No, no, I'm sure she was only trying to scare you with that. There's no way her and Filthy Rich could keep off Princess Celestia and Luna, that would be impossible for two Earth ponies! In these situations, the bad guys make those kinds of things up all the time. You can't just believe them; trust me!"

"But I do believe her! I don't think she was lying!" Tears of frustration began running down Sweetie Belle's face. "And even if you think she's lying, what if we take the risk and she's not? What if we try to get Celestia's help and it ends up making things worse? Think of what they could do to Rarity!" After managing this sentence, Sweetie Belle began full-on sobbing, collapsing to the ground.

"Sweetie Belle, I promise that-"

"Enough, Twilight! Celestia won't be able to help us!"

"Don't you think you're being a bit irrational, Spike?" Twilight snapped in annoyance. Afterwards, she turned around and grabbed some spare paper and a pen from Cheerilee's cluttered desk. "Here; if you don't believe me then send her a letter right now. We can see what she says about the situation and ultimately prove you two wrong!" Glaring, Spike yanked the objects out of Twilight's magic field.

"Fine, we will!" Muttering to himself, Spike began penning down a request to Celestia for help, explaining the situation and how the villains were wanting the Elements of Harmony. After he had finished, he blew his magic fire on the letter, sending it away. "There, letter sent. Now let's see what the Princess sends back to us!"

The group waited for a little bit. Twilight knew the Princess usually would respond with a letter about five minutes after receiving one. Of course, sometimes it was a bit longer. As time went on, she began chewing on her lip in anticipation. Eventually, twenty minutes had passed and still they hadn't received a letter back from the Princess.

"Well, maybe the Princess is just-"

"The Princess can't help us! Apparently things are even worse off than we thought if she can't even send a letter back!" Spike stepped in front of Twilight and grabbed her neck, pulling her face closer to his. "Twilight, something is wrong! Rarity is missing, so is the Princess, apparently, and some seemingly normal ponies from Ponyville have gone crazy evil! Something has to be done!" He let her go. "And I'm going to be the one to do something about it...."

"Spike, even if there is trouble, what could you possibly do to save Rarity from Filthy Rich? You saw those pony guards back there! There's no way you could take them all down!" Spike clenched a small fist and turned away.

"There's nothing that will keep me away from Rarity. You can't stop me from going after her." Twilight frowned, shaking her head more.

"Spike, it's impossible, listen to me-"

"No, you listen to me! I'm going to find Rarity and that's final! Do you understand?" Spike's tone had taken a drastic turn, one Twilight wasn't used to. Her baby dragon had taken on a persona of his own by now and wasn't going to do as she told. She sighed, knowing how risky this was.

"Alright, Spike, we'll go out and search for Rarity tomorrow." Spike shook his head.

"Two problems with your sentence, Twilight. One is that we're going out to search today, not tomorrow, not two days from now, today! Second, you're not coming with me." Twilight's eyes widened with shock.

"Spike, you can't stop me from-" Spike held a hand to her mouth to prevent her from speaking.

"Twilight, you're staying here and guarding the Elements with Cheerilee! You're also going to be trying to get in touch with the Princess, as well as mapping out where we need to go to get the other Elements, you got that?" Before Twilight could begin protesting again, Spike held up a finger and glared menacingly. Twilight sighed. She knew he wouldn't be able to survive without her help. Yet, he was able to manage himself when he followed the Great Dragon Migration. How much more dangerous could this possibly be? She didn't want to know.

"...Alright. You can go look for Rarity." Twilight felt as though she was making the biggest mistake of her life, but desperately wanted to trust his plan. "But what do you mean I'll be keeping a hold of the Elements?" Spike reached into Sweetie Belle's side bag and pulled out Rarity's Element of Generosity, handing it over to Twilight.

"I'm going to go out and find the other Elements. When we get all six we can lure out Diamond Tiara and Filthy Rich so we can trick them into giving back Rarity. That's one of the reasons I need to you try to get a hold of Princess Celestia, ok?" Twilight nodded, trying to think the plan through. Cheerilee stepped in.

"Pinkie Pie's in Rogueport right now, as well as Applejack. I know that much for sure. I'd say start by talking to Pinkie Pie. She's currently in the town's bakery. Sweetie Belle, you know where that is." The filly nodded, standing up and trying to gain composure.

"I'm... I'm coming too, Spike." Cheerilee shook her head.

"Sweetie Belle, I'm definitely not letting you leave the confinements of Rogueport, do you understand? That would be dangerous beyond words! Imagine what your sister would think!"

"My sister would be grateful if she knew I was doing it to save her! I'm going out and that's final!" Sweetie Belle protested loudly, glaring straight into the eyes of her mentor.

"Sweetie Belle, you're not going and that's final!"

"Yes, I am going! You can't stop me!"

"Sweetie Belle, listen to me right now!"

"You're not my teacher right now so I don't have to listen to you!" With these words she began stomping towards the door, pushing against Spike along the way to get him to follow.

"Sweetie Belle, get back here this instant!" Leering back at Cheerilee, Sweetie Belle undid the lock on the door and opened it, allowing Spike and herself to leave.

"I'm going to go save Rarity and you can't stop me!" With that, she slammed the door on Cheerilee's face and began storming in the direction of the bakery. Inside, Twilight Sparkle began consoling Cheerilee, personally believing the young filly would be ok, although filled with a pit of worry at the thought of the two of them out on their own.

"So where is the bakery exactly? Are we lost? You're... ok, right Sweetie Belle?" The young filly stopped in her tracks and turned back to Spike.

"Of course I know where we're going! I know where everything in this town is!" Spike recoiled at her angry words. Her eyes softened. "Sorry, I just... I just really want my sister back." Spike sighed, patting her shoulder.

"I want her back too, sis. Believe me." Attempting a smile, they went on until Sweetie Belle stopped in front of a building which appeared to be a bakery. She set one hoof onto the front step.

"Don't move a single muscle, buster!" Sweetie Belle and Spike froze up as they looked to the source of the noise. Before them stood Pinkie Pie, looking frantic.

"Pinkie Pie? What are you-"

"No time for that, Spike!" Pinkie Pie began frantically searching on the ground, then her face suddenly lit up. "Spikey, what are you doing here?" She bounded over to him and hugged him tightly then gasped. "Oh no! I hope I didn't step on it!" She immediately checked her hooves, then sighed with relief. "Oh boy, that was close!"

"Pinkie Pie, what are you doing? We need your help!"

"You need my help? I'm pretty sure I need your help! I can't the special ingredient I dropped for my super special recipe!" Sweetie Belle and Spike exchanged confused glances.

"Why would a recipe ingredient be lost on the ground?" Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes.

"Because it's super tiny! Duh! It's a specially imported berry and if I lose it, you don't know how hard it will be to get a new one!" Spike and Sweetie Belle tried to ignore the fact that Pinkie Pie seemed to only have one of these berries and moved on.

"Well, I assure you, there's no way a slight movement is going to crush any-" Spike felt a sickening squish beneath his foot as he took another step towards the bakery. Pinkie gasped loudly. "Oops...."

"You squished it! You squished my berry! How could you!!" Pinkie Pie looked devastated to the point of tears.

"N-now, calm down! We can make it up to you! But first, you have to give us your-"

"You squished my berry! I'm not doing any favors for you until you do one for me, mister! Do you know how important that berry was??"

"Yes, but-"

"It was super-duper important!"

"I know, but-"

"Do you know how important that is? It's really super duper im-"

"I know, I know! Look, if we get you a new berry will you help us?!" Pinkie Pie froze. Her expression reverted to its happy state.

"Of course I will! Just come to me later and I can send you on your way to go looking for it, ok? First, though, I think you two need to head underground and take a looksie at the Thousand Year Door, hmmm?" Spike and Sweetie Belle were taken aback.

"What? But how did you know about the...." Pinkie Pie giggled and hopped up to the front door past Sweetie Belle.

"I'll talk to you later, ok guys?" With that she went inside the bakery. Sweetie Belle and Spike shared another confused glance as she closed the door.

"Do you know how to get underground?"

"Surprisingly, yes."

Comments

[Thorlol]

Pinkie, stop acting like Zess.T

[Orange Pudding]

TO THE THOUSAND YEAR DOOR.

ONWARD.