Spike the Knight

by vadram

Chapter 75 Preparations part 2

Preparations part 2

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Fluttershy’s home was only a little further from Applejack’s than the library was, the only problem was that there was no road that connected the two. In order to reach one place from the other a pony had to take the long way around the path that headed into town, Spike had no such problem. He just ran through the smaller apple orchard that separated Ponyville from the Everfree forest, it took him about the same amount of time as the trip from the library to the apple farm, half an hour, more or less.

After wasting a couple of minutes mentally preparing for the pain that will follow after he changed back, he took a deep breath and said “go,” turning back into his real form. All the time he spent preparing for the pain did him no good, it still hurt, it hurt a lot more than it ever hurt before. He could not stand it and dropped to the ground screaming from the pain he inflicted upon himself.

After a couple of minutes of screaming and crying the pain died down enough that he could pick himself up and go and talk with Fluttershy.

He found the pink maned, yellow pegasus checking to see if she locked the door.

“Morning Fluttershy,” Spike said as he appeared from behind an apple tree.

“Eep!” Fluttershy jumped, scared by the sound of his voice.

“Calm down Fluttershy, it’s me Spike.”

“Spike what are you doing here? Are you hurt?” she asked as she ran towards him and picked him up so that she could examine him for injuries. “Twilight was so worried. She made the whole town search for you.”

“Sorry,” Spike said looking sincerely apologetic. “I am sorry I made you all worry.”

“It’s okay Spike, I am just glad you are safe,” Fluttershy said putting Spike down now sure he was all right.

The two talk a little more as they headed towards town so they could reach the market early.

“Can I ask you for a favor?” Spike asked Fluttershy after they had been walking for a while.

“Umm... Sure... what do you need?” she asked, not sure what Spike wanted from her.

“I will be going on a vacation next week, and I was wondering if you could come and take care of the library for a couple of hours?”

“Umm... Spike I don’t know, I never worked in a library before... I wouldn’t know what to do.”

“It’s not hard. You just have to write down what books a pony takes and what books he returns.”

“Only that?”

“Well that, and sometimes some ponies will ask you to help them search for a book they can’t find.”

“I don’t know Spike.”

“Please... It would help Twilight a lot, and you could make a few bits on the side.”

“Okay Spike, for Twilight. But only for a few hours.”

“That is all I ask for.”

They talked the rest of the way. When she asked him what was he up too, he just told her that Twilight will explain. They talked about money for a bit, and Fluttershy managed to talk Spike into paying her half a librarian salary for only a quarter day’s work, he did not expect that.

They parted ways when they entered the town, Fluttershy headed towards the market and Spike headed towards Carousel Boutique to talk to Rarity before he would go shopping.

He had to wait a couple of minutes before Rarity opened the door, Spike knew that it was because she had to make sure her mane looked perfect before anypony saw her, but he would never tell her that he knew, or thought he knew, how her mane looked when she got up in the morning.

The conversation with Rarity went about the same as the one with Fluttershy. First a round of questions about where he had been and what did he do, then Spike trying to convince her to take care of the library for a few hours after Fluttershy left. Rarity accepted his proposal a lot easier, and Spike was glad he did not have to mention money, not that half a librarian's salary is that much anyway.

After convincing Rarity to help Twilight Spike went about his normal activities for the day. First he went to the market and picked up some food, the some other supplies from various shops around town placing orders for certain supplies to be delivered directly to the library during the week he would be away, it cost more, but, as far as he could tell, there was no other choice.

“Food check, library check, all that is left is cleaning,” Spike thought as he headed back to the library. The rest of the day went out as normally as an average day would, library work, dinner, lunch, dishes, a little cleaning, then bed. Twilight spent the whole day in the lab.

On the next morning Spike found a note next to his bed.

Spike cancel appointments, write and send apology letters,

Twilight

“Great, another wasted day,” Spike said as he crumpled the note.

“The letters can wait, I have to find Rainbow Dash.”

He spent most of his morning looking for the cerulean pegasus, and he would have spent the rest of day searching without any luck, if he didn’t have the brilliant idea to ask for Pinkie Pie help. The two of them, but mostly Pinkie, found her in less than an hour, she was sleeping on a random cloud that, for whatever reason, floated above the hospital.

Even if he told her it would help Twilight, Rainbow Dash did not want to waste her valuable time cleaning some pony’s house, she hated cleaning her own. He attitude changed when Spike mentioned that if she did that, he would try and convince Twilight to invite the Wonderbolt over for an official visit or something. And with that his plan was set, everything was taking care of.

The rest of the day was spent taking care of the library, canceling meetings and writing apology letters, while the rest of the week passed on just as uneventful.

Twilight exited the laboratory the next day, the carved bone bested her. Three days of studying it and she could not tell you anything that you would not be able to see with your naked eye. It was made out of bone, which bothered her greatly, it had intricate carvings on it, but, as far as she could tell they were not part of any known language and they did not appeared to mean anything in particular, and if you let some magic to flow into it a green flames appears out of thin air.

“Any luck?” Spike asked after he saw her exiting the basement, levitating the bone carving beside her.

“Another one for ‘The List’,” she said defeated.

“Did you test it?”

“I did. I send a simple test message to the princess, and I received her reply. It take a while for the message to materialize, and I have no idea why the message appears from it and not from you, but aside from that it works fine.”

“So will it replace me?” Spike asked jokingly.

“Not in a thousand years,” she replied.

“So, maybe?”

They both laughed and Twilight went on to schedule the meeting she canceled.

When the day of his departure finally came, Spike got up early in the morning and left while Twilight was still asleep. On his way out he met Applejack, who was carrying Twilights food for the day, they exchanged pleasantries and Spike gave her his key.

“I hope you said your goodbyes, because Kirabo and Zecora had something special planned for you,” the voice inside Spike’s head told him, he guessed that it was Imamu speaking to him.

“Great,” Spike said, clearly not overflowing with enthusiasm.

As soon as he was far enough from the town and was sure that there was nopony around he changed and started running towards Imamu’s cave. The pain was great, but paled in comparison to the one he felt a few days ago.

“Head over to Zecora, Kirabo will be waiting for you there,” Imamu told him, and Spike slightly changed his direction now heading towards the zebra’s hut.

Comments

[Loremaster101]

I hope all is prepared, and that Spike can actually go now

[khatre]

Why do i get the feeling that Spike's week long vacation with endless gems and lava swimming pools will turn into the Knight version of Hell Week?
Poor Spike ... he is looking forward to those gems ...

[APoeticHeart]

I hope Twilight sees all of the things Spike is doing to make sure she has an easy week at the library without him. Also, I have a sinking feeling something bad might happen during his vacation.