Snakes on a Pegasus
The Study of a Winning Pony
Chapter 6: Snakes on a Pegasus
I had been slogging my way through the muddy trail leading out of the Everfree Forest and back to Ponyville. The rainstorm from yesterday had turned the various trails around Ponyville into a quagmire. I had been concentrating on keeping one hoof moving forward after another without slipping and falling into the gunk when I heard that melodious voice of hers.
“Oh, hello, Twilight,” Fluttershy said. I turned to look at my friend as she flew up from behind me. She gracefully landed with a few flaps of her wings, and she smiled warmly at me. Normally I love to see Fluttershy. Then again, she wasn’t normally covered in snakes. Coiled around Fluttershy were what had to be at least three dozen snakes, slithering and hissing as they moved about her body.
“Snaaakes!” I teleported into a nearby tree as part of a completely rational and measured response to the situation.
Fluttershy cringed away from me when I screamed at the scaled abominations infringing upon her body. She turned to look up at me as I precariously tried to balance myself on the branch I had landed on. “Um, is everything okay Twilight? You … seem to be up that tree for some reason.”
I tightened my grip on the branch I was sitting on to try and keep from falling. “Oh, everything is fine, just fine.” I forced out a chuckle. “I’m just … I suddenly decided to start climbing this tree–with magic. I used to like climbing trees all the time as a filly. So here I am, climbing trees, see?” I quickly switched to another branch when the one I had been using for support gave out beneath me and fell to the ground. I could have just told Fluttershy that I hated snakes, and that I didn’t want those things anywhere near me, but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She could be pretty sensitive at times, and her love for animals somehow extended even to something as horrendous as snakes.
“Um, okay.” Fluttershy turned her head away so that her face was obscured by her mane. “What were you doing in the Everfree Forest?”
One of my hooves slipped and scraped a strip of the bark right off the tree, but I managed to catch myself before tumbling over. This may not have been the smartest place for me to teleport to upon reflection. “I was just visiting Zecora and picking up some tea and a couple potions.” And also Cloud Kicker’s unmentionable potions ... Picking up those potions for my perverted study subject had gotten a raised eyebrow from her. My vehement objections about what I intended to do with those potions seemed to do nothing to correct her misunderstanding. After some amused chuckling, she gave some advice on certain subjects I wouldn’t feel comfortable repeating. I did not need advice on topics like positions. Even if what she wanted to talk about did offer an interesting insight into zebra culture, the context made things slightly more awkward than I cared to discuss with her. The rhyming didn’t help either.
At least I had gotten the teas to help with my headaches. The dull throb in the back of my head since the beginning of this convoluted study of Cloud Kicker suggested I was going to need plenty of the stuff to drink. Already this study was proving to have far more complications than I liked.
“That sounds nice,” said Fluttershy nervously. I couldn’t actually tell if she was really looking at me through her mane or not. “Y-you could come down and talk, you know.”
A few glances from those nasty things’ beady little eyes and hisses my way were all that I needed to convince me to stay right where I was. The risk of a broken limb was worth keeping as much distance from myself and them. “I think I’m good for the moment. I went through all this effort to get up here after all.” Fluttershy frowned and looked down at the ground. I felt guilty for seeming to shut down the conversation. “So what are you up to? I can’t help but notice all those–” I gulped, “–snakes all over you.”
Fluttershy looked up at me and gave me one of those wonderfully kind smiles of hers. “Oh, I’m just taking these poor dears to some nice new burrows.” She nuzzled one of the scaly monsters. “I’m afraid they have already overburdened their ... prey around their old burrows. So it’s time to move them to new ones so that they can eat.” She visibly cringed at that last statement. This topic looked like it was almost causing her physical pain given how much trouble she was having talking about it.
I nodded slowly and tried to not concentrate on all those snakes crawling their way all over her. “Right, sure, a regular migration type of thing.” That made sense considering Fluttershy was Ponyville’s local animal caretaker. I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised Fluttershy would have to deal with things even as vile and repulsive as snakes. I mean, seriously, the things ate other creatures. That pleasant thought brought another question to mind. “Where are these burrows, exactly?”
Fluttershy pointed in the general direction of Ponyville. “Oh, a little bit behind the library. There are some really nice burrows that haven’t been used in a while, so I want to move them over there.”
I nearly tumbled out of the tree when this news hit me. “B-b-behind where?” I didn’t like this bit of information, not at all. “Wh-what’s w-wrong with Whitetail Woods? Or their old burrows?” Or anywhere that was nice and distant from my home … and me. That would be nice.
She looked back up at me and gave me a concerned frown. “Um, I'm afraid the badgers and shrews already have the burrows of Whitetail Woods reserved right now, and they don't get along with the snakes very well.” She scraped a hoof along the ground. “I don’t like having to break up arguments, so I just prefer to keep them separate.”
Fluttershy must be some sort of saint to be able to be concerned about those scaly serpents, much less let them touch her. “So there isn’t anywhere else besides near the library that you can relocate them to? There has to be other places, right?”
She took a moment to consider what I asked, then shook her head. “I’m afraid not. I keep track of which burrows are currently suitable for habitation, and the library’s burrows would just be perfect for these darlings.” She tilted her head as she looked up at me and gave me a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry Twilight, they know better than to bite ponies. They’re more scared of you than you are of them anyways.” The chorus of hisses that came up my way made me question her judgment on that matter. “You’ll hardly even notice that they’re even by the library, if you’re worried they’ll bother you and Spike.”
Just knowing that snakes were going to be near my home was more than enough to disturb me. I did not want the slithery things to be my new next door neighbors. I wondered if there was some way I could convince her to not move the reptiles near the library? “Um, I’m not sure the burrows by the library would be the best place for them if I’m going to be honest.” Kinda-sorta-honest, it was certainly my opinion that having a bunch of nasty, biting, poisonous snakes near my home was bad.
Fluttershy’s lips scrunched up in thought. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. They’ll be just fine behind the library, trust me.” One of the snakes crawled its way through her mane, and actually seemed to nuzzle Fluttershy affectionately. I discounted that idea immediately--how could a cold-blooded meat eater like that care for a pony?
I tried to think of anything that could save me from the terrible fate Fluttershy was about to deliver right to my backyard. Maybe... “Oh, it’s just that I’m doing a lot of experiments in the basement. Seismic stuff. The type of seismic stuff that isn’t good for snakes and their tunnels--nope, not at all!” I forced a smile on my face. That could become technically true. I now had plenty of space in the basement where I could run some seismic experiments that may or not may not negatively affect snakes. It’s not a lie if you make it true after the fact, right?
“Oh ... really? That doesn’t sound good...” Fluttershy shoulders slumped and she gave me a pouty face. I immediately started to regret what I had said as I looked down at depressed form of Fluttershy. “I know it’s a lot to ask of you, Twilight.” She pawed at the ground slowly as she looked at the ground. “But could you please hold off on the experiments until winter? If it’s not too much trouble. I can move them again when we switch over to winter weather and take them to warmer burrows, but they really need to eat right now so they won't be hungry when winter comes.” She looked back up at me and pleaded with me with her eyes. My heart was breaking just looking into those blueish-green orbs.
My resolve started to waver. “Um ... well maybe, I might be able to...”
I could see tears forming in Fluttershy’s eyes. “Please, Twilight. As a friend, could you do this for me? I know how important science is to you, but I don't know what I will do if those burrows aren't any good for these poor little dears.”
I almost broke, but a look at the cold, merciless glares from the snakes hardened my resolve, barely. “But they're really important experiments ... for science ... and stuff...” I was sure I could come up with something important enough to justify this. Maybe I could make it up to Fluttershy later?
Fluttershy looked away from me and started to go back down the path towards the Everfree. “Well, if it’s that important ... I guess I’ll try and figure something out.” She sniffled and stuttered. “I guess I could go back out to Froggy Bottom Bog. T-the hydra has p-probably migrated away by now ... probably.”
That did it. I couldn’t do that to her. “No wait, Fluttershy!” I teleported back down to the path a little ahead of Fluttershy. “Okay-fine-I'll-stop-the-experiments!” I gulped, committing myself to at least a few months of quiet terror. “B-but could they just stay out of sight, and out of the way. And out of the library. And its lawn. There are plenty of ... things in the library they shouldn’t be near.”
That seemed to pull Fluttershy out of her gloomy mood. “Oh thank you, Twilight. Don’t worry, you’ll hardly even notice these darlings. They’re kind of shy around ponies, anyway.” A menacing hiss I received from one of the snakes made me disagree with my friend. “I’ll make sure to ask them all to stay away from the library itself.”
I suddenly realized I was much too close to the snakes covering Fluttershy to feel remotely comfortable, and I teleported back into a nearby tree--for tree climbing, you see. “Please do, I’d hate for anything to happen to them.” I’m not sure if the expression on my face was a smile or a grimace.
“I will, I promise.” She flapped her wings and flew up near me in the tree, her sudden approach and lack of room for me to escape nearly caused me to slip and fall again. She frowned at me as I regained my grip on the branch I was on. “You really should be more careful with your experiments. I heard from Derpy a little bit ago that you had another explosion in the library.”
Oh right, that. “It was just a small one--minor damage by my standards,” I tried to reassure her. “I was showing Blossomforth around my lab down in the basement. Unfortunately, Spike decided to lower the protective shields I had set up down there. We got into an argument about safety procedures in the lab, there was a minor accident, and there was a bit of a chain reaction.” I groaned in exasperation. “I lost a huge chunk of my lab equipment in the explosion.”
She flew a bit closer to let me hear her whisper. “You didn’t lose everything again did you?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Pretty much, yes.”
Fluttershy grimaced at the news. “I'm so sorry to hear that. With all those experiments gone ... I hope the seismic experiment isn't the only one you were planning on doing? I would hate to hear that you can’t do any of your experiments because of me.”
“Seismic exp--Oh no, that’s fine, don’t worry about it!” This is one of the reasons I don’t lie: I’m bad at keeping lies straight in my head. “But really, everything’s fine. Sure, I lost all those experiments and all the work I put into them, but I should be able to rebuild it all with time and bits. So it’s really just a delay.” Though finding all the materials and rebuilding things like my summoning circle was not going to be fun. Weather monitors weren’t cheap either.
Fluttershy let out a breath of relief. “That’s good to hear.”
“The good news is that I can replace everything that was lost.” My eyes narrowed as I thought of a specific baby dragon. “Though Spike’s still going to be grounded for a month for taking those shields down. Really, I don’t know what his problem is, but for the last few days he’s been especially grumpy with me. Maybe he just hasn’t been getting enough sleep lately. Normally he wasn’t so incalcitrant with me, but for some reason he’d refused to do as I said last night. Perhaps I needed to give him a talk?”
“At least nopony got hurt, right?” Fluttershy asked hopefully.
I shook my head. “Don’t worry, there was no loss of life or anything. Spike’s virtually fireproof. Blossomforth is fine too. She was only dead for a few seconds before I resuscitated her.”
Fluttershy’s eyes went wide as she covered her mouth with her forehooves. “Blossomforth was dead? That’s terrible!”
“She’s fine, she fine!” I said quickly. I thought back to the incident in the library and I failed to suppress a blush. “Physically anyways ... I think our pride will take a bit more time to recover.”
Fluttershy slowly lowered her hooves from her mouth. “A-are you sure? How long was she unconscious? Did you take her to the hospital afterwards to make sure everything like her heart rate was alright?” She swallowed loudly. “Being dead isn’t very healthy for a pony, Twilight.”
“You don’t say?” I teleported back to the ground. No sense being threatened by Fluttershy’s living suit of poisonous fangs and falling to my death at the same time. Of course, she flew back down to the ground with her scaly mob to stand next to me. This was quickly turning into one of those days. “Don’t worry, she only stopped breathing for like ... a few seconds before I banished the air elemental that had possessed her.”
Fluttershy’s mouth fell ajar. “W-what was g-going on in the library?”
I rubbed my face in frustration. “I’d prefer not to think too hard about last night myself. I gave her mouth-to-mouth right away, and she promptly came out of the magically induced curse that caused her to stop breathing. Her heart rate was probably fine, too. I know mine went through the roof when ... somepony found us like that.” My blushing reasserted itself with a vengeance. Why was I even going into details about this with Fluttershy? “Kind of sent the wrong message to all parties involved.”
Fluttershy tilted her head. “I don’t see how you could have been sending the wrong message. You were just trying to help a pony in trouble.”
I broke eye contact with Fluttershy. “It looked like we were ... kissing.”
She added to the awkwardness of that conversation by blushing herself. “Oh, I see. Wh-who walked in on you when you were--resuscitating her?”
I let out a groan and shook my head in irritation. “Cloud Kicker, of course.” Because who else would it be? I mean the universe has thrown a cockatrice, a ursa minor, parasprites, two dragons, a hydra, and two mad gods at me, so why not Cloud Kicker as well to just playfully prod me a bit?
Given the way Fluttershy cringed, I was going to guess she sympathized with my plight. “Oh ... I see. T-That would be awkward.”
“It was pretty embarrassing,” I grumbled. I walked past Fluttershy and waved for her to follow me. “Come on, we might as well make our way into town while we’re talking.” It did not seem like I was going to be able to escape my snake-y fate, so we might as well both make our way to the library instead of standing in the mud. I hated being inefficient with my time. Plus maybe the walking would take my mind off the snakes. No such luck, considering how I flinched every time one of the snakes hissed at me.
Fluttershy trudged through the muck to keep pace with me despite the fact she probably could have just flown right above the ground and stayed with me. Of all the pegasi I knew, Fluttershy had to be the one who flew the least. “Well ... hopefully Cloud Kicker didn't end up with the wrong idea. I mean, you and Blossomforth aren't ... you know ... as far as I know...” She trailed off, unable to finish the suggestion. Considering the fact that absolutely nothing sexual had happened, Fluttershy and I were blushing an awful lot right now.
What she was implying caused my eyes to widen. “What?! NONONONONO! We're perfectly platonic, perturbed by the petulant prodding of a particular pony who pokes and plays at possibilities!” My sudden burst into alliteration probably did not do much to prove that I had no feelings like that for Blossomforth. “I mean, we're not together. Like that. At all. I mean, we had only really met the other day.”
“Oh, okay.” Fluttershy seemed to be doing her level best to bring her full attention to the ground as we proceeded along the path. “Right, that’s ... alright, I think. As long as everypony was alright at the end of the day.”
“Yeah, that’s the most important thing.” Even if it was going to take me quite a bit of time, money, and effort to replace everything that had been lost. It was never easy to explain to the Princess or my parents why I had lost an entire lab ... again. Another series of hisses and more black, voided stares from the serpents coiled around Fluttershy disrupted my creation of a mental list of everything I was going to need to replace to remake my research lab. “So ... you’re going to make sure they stay out of the library, right? Um, Spike really doesn’t like snakes, you see.”
“Oh, I understand,” Fluttershy said with a nod. “Not everypony understands that they’re such wonderful creatures--a lot are actually afraid of them, for some reason.” She nuzzled one of the snakes that was hanging off her head lovingly. I suppressed another shudder. “Besides, I wouldn’t want any of them to get caught up in any of the, sorry, accidents you have in the library.”
“Nnnooooo, of course not,” I agreed. Perhaps some anti-serpentine wards placed over the library would help? Nothing lethal of course, probably, just something to prevent them from approaching the library or entering into the basement. With only moderate prejudice. I wouldn’t want to upset Fluttershy.
I began to consider my options when Fluttershy cleared her throat quietly. Actually it seemed to take a few attempts on her part to finally bring me out of my thoughts. “Um, you seem to be busy thinking to yourself; if it’s alright, I better get going. I hate to leave you behind, but I want to make sure I have plenty of time to get these darlings to their burrows.”
That made sense, it did sound like something that would take a bit of time. “I understand, you better get going.” As Fluttershy flapped her wings to get herself out of the muck, I looked in Ponyville’s direction and determined I still had quite a bit of walking to do. Especially while I had to force my way through this slop. While I was thrilled by the idea of some distance being placed between me and those snakes, I was also saddened by the thought of Fluttershy leaving.
I raised a hoof to try and get her to stop. “Hey, Fluttershy, before you go...”
She flew to hover in front of me. “Oh, what is it?”
I smiled at her. “Perhaps we could have some tea or something a couple days from now? I don’t have anything specifically scheduled for that time anymore.” My alchemy lab melting and then exploding spectacularly tended to preempt the conduct of anymore experiments. Hence the new open spot in my schedule. Besides, the other interviews I hoped to conduct would be tomorrow. The only other thing I had planned for tomorrow was taking an inventory and finishing up filing the insurance claims papers for the lab.
“That sounds wonderful.” She flew backwards and gave me a final wave. “See you in a couple days then.”
I waved back to her. “Yep, for some tea. We can talk about things, and ... spend some time together.”
She turned and started to fly off to Ponyville. “Bye Twilight.”
“See you later,” I called after her. And with that she became a slowly shrinking dot on the horizon and then she was gone. I sighed sadly and steeled myself for the rest of the lonely journey back to town. At least I had a meeting with Fluttershy to look forward to for in a couple days. I could really use the companionship after the last few days.
***
I entered the library after I finished flicking and scraping off the worst of the mud that had clung to my hooves. I needed to take a brief break after the exhausting trip to Zecora’s. It could be a bit of a long trip even when I wasn’t slogging through the mud. I closed the door and turned to see Spike stomping his way out of the basement and into the main library. He was covered in soot and grime, and he was carrying a trash bag that looked and sounded full.
“Hey Twilight,” he said grumpily. His eyes were half closed as he glared at me and his shoulders were slumped with fatigue. It would seem that he wasn’t enjoying cleaning up the mess he had caused. I suppressed the urge to feel pity for my assistant. We had safety rules for the lab for a reason, and Spike needed to learn not to break them. So in addition to being grounded, it was his job to clean the lab area. Though I was planning on helping him out later. Making him clean the exploded portion of the library basement was supposed to be a punishment, not an act of cruelty. Besides, I wanted the work to actually get finished sometime this month so that I could start putting my lab back together.
I levitated my saddlebags off my aching back and placed them in their designated spot by the doorway. “Hey Spike, how’s the basement coming along?”
Spike sighed with resignation. He dropped the trashbag on the floor and then sat on it. He was covered in soot and grime that stained his scales almost completely black. “It’s coming. I got a bunch of the junk cleared out. It’s just taking forever.” He looked down at the floor where he had left footprints all over the floor. “I’m going to need a bath though. All I’m doing is spreading soot around at this point.” That was not surprising given how filthy he looked. We were probably going to need to clean the tub when he was done cleaning himself.
“That sounds fine.” I looked back to the doorway to make sure I was not tracking in mud. No sense adding to the mess that we were going to have to clean up. It was always a major project to clean everything after the lab suffers one disaster or another. “Everything isn’t going to be fixed in a day anyways.”
“Oh ... right.” Spike wearily pointed to a brown envelope sitting on the table in the middle of the room. “The stuff from Derbyshire showed up.”
I walked to the table and grasped the envelope in my telekinesis. I considered it for a moment with a level stare. Seems it was that time of the month to deal with the paperwork from Derbyshire. “I might as well take care of all of this instead of procrastinating. I’ll be upstairs.” I tilted my head to look at Spike. “Oh, would you mind taking the tea out of my saddlebags and putting it in the kitchen for me?” I asked absentmindedly. The contents of the envelope were occupying my mind like they always did when they showed up.
His punishment to clean the basement lab he destroyed must really have put him in a bad mood, because he gave me a low groan before slowly walking to my saddlebags. “Fine, whatever, just add to everything else I have to do around here.” I shook my head and started up the stairs. I was just not in the mood for Spike’s dismal attitude. At this rate he was going to find himself grounded for even longer than a month.
“Hey, what’re these?” I looked back down the stairs as something jogged my memory. That memory sparked and set off a chain reaction of panic in my mind when I saw Spike holding one of Cloud Kicker’s contraceptive potions.
I spun and ran down the stairs. I quickly grabbed Spike and the potion with my telekinesis. I yanked the potion out of his claws and quickly ran to place myself between Spike and my saddlebags. “No, wait! I’ll take care of my saddle bags!” I did not want to have to explain why I had those types of potions in my saddlebag. I couldn’t be sure he knew what contraceptive meant, but there were plenty of ways for him to find out even if he did not. There was the whole fact we did live in a library, and while I normally encouraged Spike to use something like a dictionary to learn new words, this was one of the rare few things I would prefer for him to remained ignorant about until he was older. In the end, those potions could very easily lead to all sorts of questions that I didn’t want to answer. I really needed to think of a place to stash those where Spike wasn’t going to find them before I could pass them off to Cloud Kicker.
Spike struggled against my telekinetic grasp. “Hey! Let me go, I’m just trying to help!” After a few more futile attempts at breaking my telekinesis, he settled down and glared at me. “What’s your problem? First you tell me to unpack your bag, and now you're yanking me all around. I’m not some dog whose chain you can jerk around, you know!”
I tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t raise questions. Thankfully Spike had provided me with an excuse to not force me to get into topics that I really didn’t want to get into. “It’s just--you’re filthy, I don’t want you getting all that dirt all over my saddlebags. Just look.” I hovered my saddlebag where Spike could easily see the dirt marks his claws had caused, and then placed them back behind me. His growl of irritation didn’t suggest he was fully satisfied with my answer.
“I’ll take care of this; you just go and get cleaned up.” I quickly shoved the potion Spike had pulled out back in the bag and closed it. No sense giving Spike any more of an opportunity to read the label on the potion. Of course, Zecora had to be logical and label her potions to make sure somepony did not some kind of mistake like mix up a potion meant to deal with arthritis and another brewed for constipation. I’m sure that was a lesson Zecora or somepo-zebra else had learned the hard way.
I walked over to the stairs leading up and I placed Spike right next to them. “Now you go get cleaned up.” I gave him a slight shove to get him moving up the stairs.
Spike slowly made his way up the stairs. “Fine, be that way,” he said with a huff. He stopped to look down at me. “Are you even going to be home in time for dinner today, or should I just go ahead and plan on eating by myself again?”
I was really getting tired of his tone with me. Especially after the disaster last night. I was being pretty lenient with him due to the last two days being on the rough side, but my temper was starting to fray. I took in a deep breath. “Okay, seriously buster. You're already grounded for what happened yesterday, so why are you trying to make me even more upset with you?”
“Like it matters,” Spike scoffed at me. He crossed his arms and look away from me. “You’re not even going to be around to be mad at me anyways, so whatever.”
I stomped a hoof down. “Seriously, what has gotten into you? You’ve been nothing but snippish with me as of late, and on top of that, you destroyed my lab. Do you want to grounded for longer than a month? Because that can happen at the rate you’re going, and don’t think I can’t take away things like ice cream.”
He continued to refuse to make eye contact with me and shrugged his shoulders. “You’re not going to take me anywhere anyways, so what’s it matter if you ground me some more? Besides, your stupid lab was going to blow up sooner or later anyways, like it always does. Didn’t matter what I did.”
Oh that was it! He didn’t feel the least bit of contrition for what he had done last night. “It was not just going to blow up sooner or later! I put a lot of time and effort into those shields, and to make the lab safe. Not just to make the lab safe, but to make it safe for you and me. But then you had to go and abuse that talisman I had made and turn all of them off. Something that is exactly against laboratory safety rules, and for good reasons.” I jabbed him in the chest with a hoof. “I lost thousands of bits in equipment and all my notes down there. That’s a lot of bits, time, and effort lost because of you! Do you have any idea that a pony like Blossomforth would have killed for a weather tracker like the one that blew up in the lab? This isn’t like dropping a glass on the floor or something minor like that.”
Spike smacked my hoof away from my chest. “Oh, you’re one to talk about ‘lab safety.’” He poked me in the chest with a talon. “Like you weren’t getting sloppy with your own safety procedures.”
I lowered my head to get face to face with him. “I was not!”
“Yeah-huh,” came back Spike’s brilliant retort. “You got lazy all over the place because those stupid shields made you overconfident. Your alchemy lab was a disaster waiting to happen from all the stuff you left lying all over the place. I mean really, you had things that could turn into some sort of superacid when they got mixed lying right next to each other.”
I lifted my head out of Spike’s personal space as I thought what he just said about my alchemy lab. “I had a couple of important ongoing experiments going on. I couldn’t just pack everything up and keep them going.” Some of my alchemical experiments did take a few days or more to complete and monitor. Besides, there was always some risk when dealing with highly reactive chemicals like I experimented with. We just had some bad luck as far as the alchemy lab itself went.
Spike rolled his eyes at me. “Uh-huh, I’m sure that’s why you left everything on the table, and never cleaned up afterwards. You just waited for me to clean it up, which just caused you to yell at me for messing something up half the time. Wouldn’t want to screw up your next scheduled explosion, I guess.”
“I know what I’m doing with my own lab,” I protested. I turned to drop the brown envelope back down onto the center table of the library and then back to Spike. He had quickly taken up all my attention with this argument. The contents of the envelope could wait. “Spike, you are on real thin ice right now.” I gave him a threatening glare, but it seemed to do little to deter my assistant.
“Why, don’t like it when I point out when you are being stupid, and doing stupid things like leaving whatever that Cal thing was in your stupid circle thing?” Spike turned his back to me and started to walk up the stairs. “Because that wasn’t a stupid thing to do. I’m sure Blossomforth loved being possessed by him.”
“It was perfectly safe until you started using the talisman as a toy.” I felt my temper really rising as I watched Spike slowly ascend the stairs. “Get back down here mister! I’m not done talking to you!”
Spike stopped momentarily to look down at me. “Or what? You’ll ground me some more? I’m stuck here until the basement is cleaned anyways, and that’s going to take forever.” He turned back to walk back up the stairs.
“Spike,” I said with a warning growl. He was getting real close to ... something. Maybe I could ground him forever? I could always take away a food he liked for a while. “Don’t think I can’t come up with other ways to punish you? I’m sure there’s a book somewhere in this library that has suggestions.”
He stopped again, turned back my way, and let out an angry huff. “Well, see if I care. Not like you are going to be around to punish me.” He started his way up the stairs. “Also you and Blossomforth weren’t wearing your stupid safety glasses!”
“Spike. Spike! You stop right this instant.” He continued up the stairs despite me telling him not to.
“No, I’m taking a shower.” He stomped his way up the stairs and out of my view. “I’m filthy, tired, and I’m sick of you.”
I trotted up the stairs to the second story of the library after him. I saw him walking towards the bathroom, and I galloped around and in front of him to block his way. “Seriously, what is your problem with me lately? You have been acting more and more off this week.”
Spike tried to walk around me but I repositioned myself to keep blocking his way to the bathroom. He finally stopped and looked at me. “Jeez, I’m surprised you even noticed.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” My eyebrows raised in confusion. “Of course I noticed.”
“No you haven’t!” Spike let out a huff and gave me a frown. “You haven’t been around or done anything with me. I’m not your pet!”
I winced as Spike yelled at me. “Of course you’re not my pet, Spike.”
“It’s what you treat me like!” He tried to get past me again, and when I tried to block his path as he shoved his way past. “Just leave me alone! It’s what you're best at.”
“Stop being angry with me! You’re the one that’s in trouble!” I spun around and watched as Spike waddled his way with purpose towards the bathroom. I trotted up to the door and he slammed the door shut in my face. I knocked loudly on the door a couple times. “Spike, open this door! Don’t think ignoring me is going to keep you out of trouble! I need to talk with you! Why won’t you just tell me what’s wrong!” Apparently, his response to that was to turn on the water. Probably to drown out my voice if I had to guess. I tried the door and found it locked, big surprise.
I sat down in front of the door and stared at it. I was at a loss for what to do. Knocking the door down was an option I briefly considered in a moment of irritation, but I pushed it to the side. That wasn’t likely to help things. Besides, I wanted to have a bathroom door when I went to get a bath later too. I tried to calm down and think through what Spike had said to me. He was not my pet, nor some kind of familiar. He was family to me. I didn’t even understand why he should be the one angry with me. He was the one who got my lab destroyed. He could be so frustrating at times.
I stood back up. It was clear that Spike was in no mood to talk with me, and I was tired of dealing with him. Maybe spending some time apart would let him cool off. There were better things I could do with my time than getting into a pointless argument with Spike. I needed to keep my priorities straight.
I gave the door a couple more knocks. “Spike, I’m going out again to work on a project. You better still be in the library when I get back, or I’m going to be really mad. I’ll be back in a few hours.” Either because Spike could not hear me over the shower or because he didn’t want to answer, I got no reply. Perfect, just perfect.
I made my way to the first floor of the library and I strapped my saddlebags back on. The tea and potions could wait to be unpacked. I needed to get some distance between me and Spike. I wasn’t going to get any useful work done arguing with him all day. I double checked to make sure I had everything I needed and exited the library to take care of my next interview.
Why did Spike have to be so difficult sometimes?
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So here's another long awaited Chapter 6 of Study. Hope you all enjoy it! Chapter 7 is currently going through the editing process and so shouldn't take as long to come out. There is also another writing project I think I'm going to start writing on, and hopefully everyone will get to see the fruits of that before too long.
I would once again like to thank Chengar and Comma for all their help with this. I would also like to give a big thanks to my new prereaders Swiftest Shadow, mrjerrio, notMurpy, q97randomguy, Pav Feira, Droplet739, and fizzlefist. Without these people Study wouldn't be as good as it is.
If I missed anyone please comment here so that I can give credit where credit is due.
*sniffs*
I SMELL SHIPPING IN THE AIR
and after watching the premiere, it kinda irks me to see this kind of interaction
between Twi and Spike
but that's just my opinion
Im reading this on my Xbox
How messed up is that
Anyways....
Great chapter!
1598039
Who told you there might be shipping!? *Looks at Romance tag.* Oh...
Is it the fact that Spike and Twilight are having an argument that is irking you? If so, I can assure you this isn't the end of the book for their relationship. As anyone with family knows, you don't always get along with family. Or is there some other factor you don't like?
Perfect timing with this story, not just because of Twilight & Spike's relationship but also because Cracked has an article on lab safety.
1598077 Sorry, I keep thinking of Friendship is Witchcraft
when they were having that argument
"He never fails to disappoint"
also I know that this is really late with all these winningverse fics but
cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/30006828.jpg
All these intersecting storylines are making my head spin!
1597949 Well daum she's treating him like a slave D:
Let me guess... Spike is going through puberty. Sounds like teenage drama to me.
1598154
No, she's treating him like a misbehaving child.
Granted, a misbehaving child with fireproofing and enhanced durability.
Reading a winningverse fic.
Feels? Check
Something dramatic or interesting about to happen? Check
Waiting anxiously for next chapter to update? Double check
I am interested to see whats up with Spike, this dosen't seem normal......
Oh and I had great fun imagining the scene in Zecora's house.
1598240 Meh still leaves a bad taste in my mouth wouldn't you agree?
1598354 Nobody writes teen-age angst for two reasons:
1) they imperfectly remember the situation, but the feelings are there with startling clarity. Sometimes exaggerated clarity.
2) See 1 above, doubled.
1598154
eh, she's treating him like she does in the show in some episodes.
A nice build-up in this chapter, filling the Dam as it were. From this chapter i gather that Twi X Blossom is going to be a thing and considering their personalities it ought to be interesting and that is Before Cloudkicker gets involved.
taht and the Zecora scene described made me laugh.
Snakes on a Pegasus,
So glad i had some Winning ponyverse to read today.
Good Job of course! I will be waiting on that next chapter intently.
1598236 Looks more like abandonment issues to me, teen angst would involve him wanting more distance, not feeling neglected.
And how annoying would it be to feel ignored for a pony Twilight is constantly complaining about?
1598456 dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw8122-Twilight1.1.jpg
1598496 Eh so heres hoping spike doesn't have to stay in the library this season cheers mate ^^/)
1598292
Ohai, fancy seeing you here. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Twilight_Sparkle_lolface.png
Yeah, is it bad that when I read
My first thought was "Kinky! dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Colgate_bedroomeyes.png "
My second thought was - "Cloudkicker? Why do you have snakes in your... everywhere?" dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Vinyl_sad.png
I've been applying that to life waaaay too much lately. Wait, no. That sounded wrong.
Edit: Am I the only one thinking Bronystories Zecora?
Aww twilight, you're being a bad parent/big sister
aww spike is feeling neglected isn't he and twilight doesnt even realize it heck i wouldnt be surprised if spike ran away at some point
1598624
I wasn't going to say anything about bronystories....but kinda.
I am hoping for a flashback to the conclusion of when cloudkicker burst in on them.
Wait. You don't think cloudkicker/Luna might have had a word with Spike about certain stuff, and now he is conflicted/jealous.
Alright, seeing that this is the second time I've read this; Spike needs to cool down. He does have some good points about Twilight being very busy and not spending time with him, whining about it isn't gonna solve the problem at hand. Twilight wasn’t giving him a chance to cool down though, so leaving the library was probably the best option. Let them both clear their heads.
What's gonna happen next? I fervently wait for the next chapter.
1598236
If I'm not mistaken, these events are happening shortly before or during 'Hurricane Fluttershy'... which means we may be seeing some fallout from 'Dragon Quest'.
I'm thinking more about where this fits in the timeline; if I've got it straight in my mind, it's before 'Dragon Quest', isn't it?
And I'm now pondering Spike responding by bringing some reptilian pals with him next time he's left alone by Twilight..
1599297 1599301
The events of this story have thus far taken place before Dragon Question and Hurricane Fluttershy.
1599443
Ah. So leadup to 'Dragon Quest', then. Gotcha.
Fluttershy, master of the medicinally obvious.
1598240 1598354 I gotta disagree there. She's treating him like a slave. She's refusing to acknowledge that she had problems with the lab too. Yes he was at fault for turning off the wards but she also left the lab a mess. She also has been completely ignoring him, I mean c'mon in both seasons she very often ignores and overlooks him and his own well-being, often coming across as an employer more than a sibling. Which really jarred me since it felt very off that she's supposed to have raised him but often seems to have no idea how to take care of him.
1601216 Finally someone who sees where im coming from. ^^/)
1601235 Lol Thank my buddy, he put me solidly on the spike side of fandom. He honestly does get a raw deal though. I cannot express how happy I was to see him get his own window i won't lie.
One tiny thing bothers me. Twi's main objection to the snakes is the fact they are predatory. Twi has a pet owl.
1601310
That's a good point, actually.
Clearly we need some fan art of the snake wrapped Fluttershy.
Edit: Also, do not google "snake wrapped Fluttershy".
So, let me guess: TwilightxFluttershy?
1601383 YOU FOAL! Now they will do exactly that!
I think it's a bad sign if Fluttershy's the only character I recognized in this strip. Sure, drama is necessary, but it's gone to the point where I'm wondering where the Alternate Universe tag is.
This is the chapter that made me decide to give this fic a thumbs up (I get pickier on giving them out the more thumbs up a story already has). I appreciate that you're bothering to work in additional dynamics and complex, multifaceted relationships instead of just turning into a cheesy shipping story.
I do hope you resolve the Spike thing without dragging it out too much though. It seems to be one of those things that could be easily solved as soon as an impartial observer comes along to klonk Twi on the head.
Alternate universey? Meh, no more so than the LaToaWP, which this is based on. And like that fic, this story seems to occupy a kind of vague space wedged between 'completely different universe' and 'plausible canon expansion.' Regarding this chapter specifically I don't see anyone drastically out of character so much as focused on specific facets of their characters that any episode of the show might choose to emphasize or deemphasize for convenience of storytelling.
1601216
I think you need to evaluate what exactly being treated like a slave entails. If your opinion of slavery leads you to believe that being made to clean up a mess you helped create and denied full disclosure on someone else's problems, then I'm not sure we're thinking of the same thing when we say slave.
Well, now I want to read Zecora's advice. Advice on sex positions in rhyme sounds like a hoot!
1598292 Actually, it feels absolutely normal to me, considering the situation. He's had days where Twilight is out all day and when she is around, she's either busy or giving him orders. He's grumpy and feeling justifiably neglected.
1602388 Why would this be Alternate Universe?
1603763
Because I don't think Twiight and Spike here are more than one flaw from each enlarged to cover the whole character, for most of the chapter. The relation to the canon characters is tenuous. I'm sorry if I'm being unnecessarily blunt (I'm on some strong meds right now), but I just don't feel like reading this 'fic anymore. I'm hoping the situation gets reslved in the next chapter...
1603776 They're family. Family argues, and they can seem to turn into totally different people when they do, as certain feelings and passions dominate. But they're still around to make up afterwards.
So yeah, this isn't a side of the characters we usually see, but it has reasonable causes. If it STAYS this way for a while, then we can talk about either of them being OOC.
1603238
you're absolutely right, I think my brain had a stroke and forgot how words worked. Slave is definitely not the right term but I still think she treats him like rubbish a lot of the time. She claims to be his caregiver and friend but for the most part completely ignores him or unkindness on him. she complains that Rarity takes advantage of him but the truth is she does far more than Rarity ever does. That may be because Rarity has less chance to take advantage of him to be fair.
Thanks for helping jumpstart my brain into a sensible place. I'd still love to hear your counterargument despite my derps.
This chapter was funny I can't wait for the next one
I also hope Chenger updates life of a winning pony soon 
Cause i know he is watching this one and he is lurking in the shadows, going "My master plan is coming together mwhahahahah" 
Just kidding about the master plan stuff. 
1601383>>1601780
Aaaaand...done!
....
So, aside from one picture which really isn't all that bad and a couple eyebrow raising links(that seemed patchwork) I don't see what the problem is.
Anyway, Spike's issue isn't with being overworked. He feels neglected.
And I'm curious if the romance tag is for twi/shy because...well, never seen that before.
Isn't that the best thing about this fandom? You can ship anybody with anybody and there's really nobody crying foul about any of it.(not counting the "Dash is not a lesbian" people because they don't care when the other girls get shipped with each other.)
Well, she's just walked out to town with a bag full of Cloud Kicker's potions.
If something doesn't happen I will be surprised.
If he's already this mad just wait til he finds out Rarity is dating Applejack
1605228 Just a joke based on that one picture (assuming you mean the anthro Fluttershy one).
1605228 Well, shipping Lyra with anypony other then Bon Bon (and vice-versa) tends to raise my eyebrows but I have seen it done without drawing any ire (even from me) so yeah...
Really, Lyra/Bon Bon is the only ship that has ever earned the status of One True Pairing from me in any franchise ever. And even then I'm okay with fics where one of those two go with some other pony...
I may be a shipper, but I'm not a fanatic about it.
1605908
Yeah, that'd be the one.
1606008
Lyra and Bonbon are like Vinyl and Octavia. They kinda ended up as a packaged deal. Granted, I have a Lyra on Earth fic on the drawing board where she ends up with a human. That seems to be the exception the proves the rule though; You don't ship Lyra with anypony but Bonbon.
But what I really meant was that in other fandoms people tend to get entrenched in one pairing, but here people will have multiple pairings involving the same pony.
Example, I like Dash with Fluttershy, Twilight, Pinkie, and Luna.
I like Twilight with Celestia, Luna, Dash, Pinkie, Derpy, and(at least theoreticaly) Braeburn
And I like Fluttershy with Big Mac, Dash, and Rarity.
I'm glad somebody else noticed that Spike is basically a pet.
But everyone in this story is terrible and I hate them.
1598077
No, your characterization with Twi and Spike is just fine. If anyone has a problem with it from my comment onwards, it's their personal issues. Not an actual issue you need to worry about.
v This is the line where no fucks are given from this point on.
________________________________________________
Error there, but I like the dynamic you put on the Twilight and Spike relationship. It's definitely something I could see happening.
Fluttershy and her snakes was hilarious as well XD