Planning A Change
Arc: Childhood
Chapter 6: Planning A Change
I couldn’t help but grin as my mother dropped me off at Twilight’s place the next day. With only the long spiral staircase left in my way, I began to climb up the steps while my mother stayed behind waving at me.
“Stay safe Midnight!” My mother yelled out to me. I smiled at her as I continued to ascend before ultimately reaching the door. After knocking with my hoof the door was opened, revealing Spike on the other side. He held a Power Pony comic in his claw and the moment he saw me his face beamed.
“Midnight! You’re here!” The dragon exclaimed before turning around to call Twilight. “Hey Twilight! Midnight’s here!”
Soon the purple mare appeared at the door carrying a large book with her magic. After closing the tome, Twilight stared down at me while giving me a small smile.
“Hey Midnight! Glad to see you here!” The young pony said before showing me the cover of the book, which had the title “Advanced Arcana” written on it. “I’ve just got this book from the library so that I can develop my magic even more! It's really cool for those who want to study as a spellcaster.”
I simply smiled at Twilight, happy to see how much she liked to study. Of course, I knew that she tended to go too far and isolate herself from the world, up to the point where she couldn’t even remember the names of her study group friends, but I planned to change that.
“So I’m guessing that you’ll soon have them come over to study with you right?” I asked her as we all headed inside. The unicorn simply raised an eyebrow as she set the heavy book onto the table and opened it.
“Erm… Who?”
I was about to deadpan at Twilight when I soon realized that I hadn’t specified who ‘them’ were. After giving myself a small face hoof, I looked back at Twilight with a sheepish look.
“Oh uhm, your friends! The ones in your study group?”
The purple unicorn blinked at me before darting her eyes around, clearly trying to remember who I was talking about. After a few seconds of silence though she looked back at me with no answer prepared.
“Who?”
This time I did end up deadpanning at her, and after jogging her memory a bit, her eyes widened as she realized who I was talking about.
“Oh! You mean Moondancer, Twinkleshine, Minuette, Lyra, and Lemon Hearts right?” Twilight said before slightly leaning towards me. “I did get their names all right, right?”
“Yes indeed!” Spike exclaimed as he gave Twilight a thumbs up from the side. I simply blinked as I stared at his claw. Ponies don’t have digits, yet somehow it just felt right seeing Spike’s claw form that gesture. Of course, having lived with him for a long time, Twilight was unfazed by what I was being fazed by, instead, she simply smiled at the young drake.
“Thanks Spike. And well to answer your questions Midnight, no, I haven’t invited them. Now thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve ever invited them here at all.” The purple mare said as she scratched her head.
“Then why not invite them now?” I proposed excitedly. Twilight simply blinked at me before rubbing her mane, her mood shifting a bit as her eyes darted around the room.
“Erm… I’ll think about it.”
With that the purple mare began to read her book, becoming instantly lost in the sea of words and letters in front of her. As her horn began to glow with the power of the book’s first spell, Spike motioned something with his claw. Even though I shouldn’t be able to know what it meant, I just knew that he was telling me to come with him, and thus we separated ourselves from Twilight as we went into our own little corner.
Our ‘little corner’ by the way was something that Spike organized after our first meeting. Two bean bags were set in a corner along with a small shelf that contained every Power Ponies comic currently published. The series had taken the entire comic industry by storm, publishing at a rate never seen before. Sometimes the library barely had enough time to organize one issue of Power Ponies before a new set arrived. And these comics weren’t just a few pages. They were full-blown issues that other companies would only post once a week.
Soon, other companies increased their production rate to try to keep up with the growing series, but even so, the Power Ponies were just too fast and powerful, landing them a spot as one of the most popular comics in Equestria. Already around 20 Issues have been published and it’s just been two weeks!
As I sat on one of the bean bags, Spike gazed at me with a curious look while I reached my hoof to grab a comic. Upon noticing his stare I looked up and gave him a puzzled look of my own.
“What?” I asked with a confused stare as I watched the little drake form a soft smile.
“Do you really think you’ll be able to convince Twilight to speak with her friends and invite them over here?” The purple dragon questioned, to which I hesitantly nodded.
“Uhm… yeah? Like, I am on the path to becoming Twilight’s friend, if not somepony close to her.” I answered as I slowly opened the comic. Seeing that he was going to continue, I decided to put it away, letting him speak.
“Well, it’s one thing trying to become Twilight’s friend, and it’s another thing to try and convince her to socialize after so many years of having a book in front of her face. Yes, they’re her ‘friends’ per se, but I think the more proper term would be acqu… aqua… erm… somebody you know but barely have any connection to.”
The two of us simply blinked at each other at Spike’s attempt to say a word that neither of us knew. Even though he lived with Twilight, who seemed to be a prodigy genius, he still was around my level in terms of vocabulary. At least he knew the definition, he just wasn’t able to find the word.
I simply nodded my head as I thought about how I could respond to him. After formulating my sentence I opened my mouth and spoke.
“I know it will be hard, but it would be cool seeing Twilight’s friends with her. True friendship you know!” I said with energy. The purple dragon placed a claw on his chin, and once again I found myself dumbstruck as I knew that it was his thinking gesture. Upon realizing how I stared intently at his claws, Spike looked up at me.
“Hey Midnight, why are you staring at my claws?” The purple dragon asked, snapping me out of my days. I simply scratched my mane in embarrassment as I looked at him.
“Well uhm… you keep doing these weird gestures with your claws, but somehow I’m able to know what they mean. It surprises me ya know?” I stated, causing the baby dragon to grin.
“Ah that! Well, I guess it has to do with the fact that all in all, the direction of my movements is the same. Even though I have claws and you don’t, we both wave one of our hooves to greet each other. We both pump our arms into the air when we’re celebrating a victory, and we both extend our arms to shake.”
The purple dragon smiled as he extended his arm towards me, his claw outstretched in a form that signaled that he wanted to shake my hoof. I tentatively stretched my own and found that it felt almost no different from shaking a pony’s hoof, with the exception of his scales and somewhat sharp tips of his digits.
“See? Even though you might be confused, your mind already knows what each gesture means and how to respond to them.” Spike said before looking into my eyes again. “But anyway, you said that you think you’re able to convince Twilight to be more social right?”
“Right, that’s the plan,” I replied. The purple dragon stared at me for a moment as if he expected me to continue. Upon seeing me blink in confusion his eyes slightly narrowed.
“Wait, that’s it?” Spike asked incredulously. I simply stared at him for a moment, darted my eyes left and right, before nodding, to which the purple dragon face-clawed himself. “No Midnight it doesn’t work like that. You can’t say ‘Oh I have a plan’ and not plan out the details. You actually need to plan things out. That’s what Twilight told me and it’s helped me be organized and on time for whenever I manage her things.”
I simply nodded my head as I planned my response. Said planning took only a second as I responded pretty quickly to his statement.
“Well, I guess the plan would be to bring her friends over here and have them be together?” I said unsurely. The purple dragon continued to give me a narrowed gaze.
“Hm alright. And do you know where they live? Do you know how to convince them to come here? How about Twilight? How will you guarantee that she won’t go back to her book due to her lack of social skills?” The purple dragon asked as he looked at me. I simply opened and closed my mouth as I tried to form an answer. Unable to find a response to any of those questions I simply blinked as I decided to say something else.
“Wow, Spike… uhm… didn’t expect you to think so critically like that,” I stated, congratulating him for thinking more like a responsible teenager than a young baby dragon. Spike simply smiled at me as he noticed my awed expression.
“Well, I grew up with Twilight, one of the smartest ponies out there, so her intelligence rubbed off on me. Most of the time I still think like any other kid, but I have my moments. Anyways, I think it’s clear to me that you need help organizing your plan.” The purple dragon said, to which I slowly nodded while looking down a bit.
“Yeah, that I do,” I replied before looking up at him. “Can you help me?”
Having already expected that question, Spike simply gave me a huge grin while giving me a thumbs up. While I was still getting accustomed to the fact that I could understand his claw movements, this detail didn’t distract me anymore. I formed a smile of my own as the baby dragon spoke once more.
“Why wouldn’t I? It’d be nice seeing Twilight happy around her friends instead of using them as automated ponies to gather as much knowledge as she could. I know where Moondancer, Twinkleshine, Minuette, Lyra Heartstrings, and Lemon Hearts usually go, so we could try and meet with them.” The purple dragon stated. It was at that moment that I realized a critical flaw in our plan.
“But wait, how would we be able to go out in the first place?” I asked, staring at the purple dragon. He scratched his chin a bit as he tried to formulate an answer to that. After a few seconds of waiting it was clear that he hadn’t thought about that either. Eventually, he decided to shrug before looking up at me.
“I guess we’ll have to hope that we stumble across them whenever Twilight allows us to go outside.” Spike simply stated, but even as I raised my eyebrow in doubt, the baby dragon himself didn’t seem to believe that such a course of action would work.
“Hmm… why don’t you give me a picture of them so that if I ever stumble upon them I would know who they are.” I proposed, to which the purple drake smiled as he got up from his beanbag.
“Yeah, that sounds like a great idea Midnight! Let me go get the picture!” Spike exclaimed as he quickly left. As I waited for the baby dragon to come back with the picture, I wondered how I would be able to convince Twilight’s friends to come to visit her in this library. Perhaps there might be one who was as interested in books as Twilight was? Or maybe one who wished to strengthen their bond even further?
Either way, bringing Twilight’s friends over to her place was a much better alternative to getting another blizzard attack!
“Hey Midnight! I have the picture!”
I snapped from my thoughts as I looked at the small frame that Spike was carrying. He quickly kicked his bean bag so it was next to mine and sat down on it, letting me lean over and see for myself.
In the picture, there was Twilight along with five other ponies, all of them around a small table. I would’ve said that they were all eating, however, I couldn’t help but shake my head with a smile as I saw that Twilight was stuck reading a book, her face forming a concentrated look as she was trying to tune out all the sounds around her, including that of her friends!
Meanwhile, there was another pony with the exact same mane style as Twilight, however, she was a cream-colored pony. Her mane was mainly red, though there were two shades of purple stripes running down the hair, and she wore some eyeglasses. Her similarity to Twilight surprised me, and I was tempted to ask if she was Twilight’s cousin or a fan of some sort.
Beside her was a cerulean-maned yellow pony. Next to her was a white cream pony with a pink mane, her mouth covered in the remains of a cupcake. Alongside her was a light blue pony with a mane that reminded me of the toothpaste I used. Her nose was covered with cupcake remains as well. And finally, there was a mint-colored pony with a cyan and white mane. All of them were unicorns.
“This here is Moondancer. She views Twilight as her role model.” Spike started, confirming my theory that she was a fan of sorts. “Ever since they’ve met in Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns, they’ve done everything together, that is, reading books! The pony next to her is Lemonheart. Then here is Twinkleshine. This one is called Minuette, she can be a bit energetic, but she’s great to have around. Finally, this is Lyra Heartstrings!”
I smiled as I skimmed over the picture multiple times, trying to memorize each pony’s appearance. Knowing what name belongs to what pony certainly helped!
“Alright! I think I got it! Here you go!” I exclaimed as I passed the frame back to Spike. “I will be on the lookout for them whenever I go out,” I stated, causing the purple dragon to smile.
“Thanks Midnight. And if we can work this out together, we’ll be able to bring Twilight and her friends close together soon!” Spike said before extending his hand for what I could only deduce could be a bro-hoof… bro-claw?
Ah, I already know I’m going to have a lot of fun tripping myself with these word choices.
“Uhm… yeah! Yeah! We’ll do this together!” I said as I recovered from my confusion as we connected our claws and hooves.
And I already know that things will be a lot of fun with Spike!
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still, nicely done!
*imagines Midnight sucked into a Power Ponies comic*
11252027
thank you!
11252044
ah, that'll have to be a story in a future chapter! I'm debating if he'd be there to participate in that story, if he'll have a superpower or not (like, there wouldn't be another character for him to replace), and what role he'd play.
nice
11252048
Youre welcome
11252055
yay