Like Old Times
It was another day at Twilight's castle. Spike, who usually kicks back and reads comics, was busier than usual this time. Since Twilight was out of town, Spike decided to please her by dusting the many bookshelves in her castle. While books were usually Twilight's best friend, for some reason she never dusted the shelves, or the books in general. Or at least, never dusted the bookshelves in all the rooms. Spike decided to fix that today.
Of course, he couldn't do it alone. He asked Starlight Glimmer, another pony who lived in the castle, to help him out with his plan. Of course, she had agreed. Since then, she has dusted the books alongside Spike, while dusting other things too. Like tables and knickknacks. Then, for shelves that he couldn't reach with a ladder, Starlight levitated the books downward so he could dust them off. Then, as she did that, she dusted the shelf. After doing the same routine for a more few hours, the entire castle was almost done.
"Why is there so much dust?" Starlight asked the dragon after they were done dusting a bookshelf. "You would think that for a castle that grew from the ground not too long ago, it would still be spotless."
Spike chuckled in amusement. "Well, there are some rooms that haven't even been used yet. So maybe that's how the dust piles up quicker."
"For a big castle like this, it's not surprising." Starlight told him with half-closed eyes. She looked around the castle corridor. "How much work do we have to do?"
Spike looked down at the walls. He spotted a door on the left that reached the end.
"What about there?" Spike suggested. "We went down each door in order. We only have this one and the one on the other side."
Starlight shrugged. "Fine by me."
The two opened the doors, prepared to start sweeping. But to their surprise, they only found five books on a shelf, and a table and a chair.
"Huh. What do you know? I guess Twilight doesn't have every book the world." Starlight joked.
"What even is this room? There are not many books." Spike asked almost to himself. He rushed over to the shelves and grabbed one of the five books. He squinted when he saw the faded navy blue colored cover.
"What even is this?" Spike asked with a puzzled expression. "There is no title. Just gibberish."
Curious, Starlight levitated the book to herself. She nodded, understanding Spike's confusion. "I don't understand this language either. Must be an ancient language or something."
"Well, whatever it is, it is very dusty. And old." Spike noted, rubbing the cover with his finger. His finger was filled with dust.
"Should we just leave?" Starlight suggested. "It's pretty clear that she doesn't use this room far too often if she lets a book collect that much dust."
"I said every room, and I meant it." Spike told the lilac pony, acting a little serious. "Even if she doesn't use this room very much, Twilight would appreciate the thought."
"Suit yourself." Starlight responded. She levitated her extra duster. "You'll do the books, I'll do the tables."
Following her order, Spike dusted the book with the gibberish title, and put it back, then moved on to the next one, which was even more gibberish than the last one.
When Twilight comes back, she needs to tell me what kind of books these are. Because I don't have the slightest clue. Spike thought.
Spike continued dusting the book, but he swept the dust downward, facing himself. Due to the dust flying directly at him, Spike felt an itch in his nose. Then, before he knew it, he sneezed out a fiery breath. Literally.
"What was that?" Starlight immediately asked the dragon. Her eyes suddenly became wide. "The books!"
"What about them?" Spike asked as he sniffed. As he looked at the shelf, he quickly realized what she meant.
"I'm dead." he said in a hushed, shocked tone.
"You're what?" Starlight immediately trotted over to Spike.
Spike quickly turned around, and got to his knees in front of Starlight. "I'm dead meat, Starlight! Dead!"
"Woah woah, calm down." Starlight told the dragon calmly, although from the look in her eyes, she was worried. "What makes you think that?"
"Oh, I so am dead! Just look at what I did!" He said, pointing a claw at the ashes.
Starlight looked at him blankly. She didn't share the same fear. "So? Those are just books. Twilight probably doesn't even know that those books even existed."
"Maybe not, but Twilight hates it when I burn up books. It's like a pet peeve of hers or something." Spike started sweating as he paced around the room. "What do we do?"
Before Starlight could answer his question, Spike came up with an idea.
"Starlight, you're good with spells. Do you think you can bring the books back from the ashes?" He suggested.
Starlight looked at the ashes that were on the floor, not looking hopeful.
"I can't bring burned books back to life with my magic." Starlight told him.
"What?" Spike gasped, but then he couldn't help but feel annoyed.
"You probably learned every spell there was, but you don't know how to resurrect ashes?" Spike said as he crossed his arms.
Starlight lowered her ears, as if she was offended. "Well, I'm sorry for not doing the impossible." she said in a snarky tone.
Spike softened his gaze, then rubbed his forehead. "I'm sorry. I just get really stressed over things like this."
Starlight dipped her head in forgiveness. "It's ok, Spike. I can't blame you for freaking out."
She then turned to the ashes. "But what can we do? We obviously can't leave it like that." Starlight told him.
"And we can't show this to Twilight. She won't forgive me if I destroyed those books. Which were probably important because it's gibberish. When it comes to Twilight, gibberish writing is always important!" Spike objected.
"I'm home!"
They both tensed when they recognized the voice.
"Oh. She's home." Starlight said with a blank stare. "Great."
Spike sweated even more. He grabbed Starlight's chest in a begging manner. "You have to do something!"
"Me? What can I do?" Starlight said, a little shocked. "I can't use my magic on them. So there has to be a way—"
"Ah, there you are!" Twilight immediately opened the door. She had a wide grin on her face. "I was wondering where you two went."
The two just stood there as they stared at Twilight, each of them not sure what to do.
Twilight stopped in her tracks, confused by her friends expressions. She turned to the bookshelf. Her face was filled with horror.
Starlight and Spike tensed. This is the moment that they were scared of.
"Where's the books?" Twilight demanded.
"Uh what books?" Spike asked as he nervously stepped backward, but his footing was caught in the ash. He fell backwards as he accidentally kicked up the ash from his foot.
As the ashes feel in front of Twilight's feet, she looked angry.
"Spike! What did you do?" Twilight asked him in an angry tone.
"I sneezed! It was an accident!" Spike said to her, raising his claws to try to calm her down.
"You sneezed?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. Spike felt even worse now. She looked like she didn't even believe the truth.
"I-I-I-I did." Spike stammered.
"Twilight, don't scare him." Starlight came to his defense at. "It really was a sneeze. Why else would he burn the books?"
Twilight took one look at Starlight, then back at Spike. "You should've been more careful." she told him, still angry.
"I usually am." Spike told her, trying to speak up.
"And the one time you don't, you burn one of the most important books in Equestria." Twilight said in disappointment. "Celestia would never forgive me for this."
"Twilight, I—"
"Do you know how much these books cost?!" Twilight now yelled at the dragon. Spike immediately shut his mouth in shock and surprise. Meanwhile, Starlight just stared with eyes as wide as an owl.
"These books were the oldest books in Equestria. Do you know how much research and discovery ponies went through to find these?" Twilight interrogated. "Now all of that is put to waste because of your sneeze issues!"
Spike took all her words in. He wanted to cry, but for some reason, he felt angry. And he didn't hesitate to let Twilight know.
"Wow, they're so important that they became one of the dustiest books I have ever seen in my life! Congrats!" Spike said in a snarky tone. He even clapped his hands.
"Not funny Spike." Twilight told the dragon. She then went on. "This room hasn't been used for a reason. These books were very fragile, and even a single turn of a page could cause it to wither."
"Impossible. You're telling me that books can turn to dust because of a page?" Spike rolled his eyes.
"Yes! Why else was this room empty? I had to make sure the books were unused, and preserved."
"I think you forgot about a thing called a museum." Spike rolled his eyes in annoyance. "In fact, why didn't you put it in a museum instead of keeping it for yourself? Isn't that a bit selfish, don't you think?"
"It was for research issues!" Twilight now screamed at his face.
"Enough!" Starlight jumped between the two. She looked at the two one by one in desperation. "I don't want you to see you two rip each other apart over stupid books. Just apologize and move on."
Spike gently shoved Starlight away and walked up to Twilight.
"You know why I came in here? I wanted to help you. I wanted to surprise you by seeing this place shiny and clean, similar to how it was when it first grew from the ground. But if I knew that you would scream at me for it, I shouldn't have tried."
"This isn't about how I'm ungrateful for what you did. This is about how you CAN'T BE TRUSTED BY OTHER BOOKS!" Twilight screamed again. She then rubbed her head as if she had a headache.
"If I knew these kinds of mistakes would happen, why did I even make a dragon by assistant?" she said.
"Twilight!" Starlight said her name angrily.
Spike just stared at the alicorn, clearly at a loss for words.
Twilight blinked. Her eyes were now filled with regret. She pointed her hoof towards the door. "Just go. I need to be alone."
"Me too..." Spike told her. He slowly walked out of the room. Then he broke into a run.
Starlight watched with sadness and shock as he saw Spike leave the room after what had happened. She couldn't exactly process what had just happened. But all it did was make her both shocked, and angry.
Starlight turned her attention towards Twilight when she heard her sigh. She teleported the broom and dustpan to herself.
"I'm sorry you had to see that." Twilight told the unicorn while she was sweeping the ashes inside the dustpan.
"That argument was something that shouldn't even have happened—"
She suddenly stopped when Starlight quickly stopped the broom with her two front hooves, causing Twilight to stop her magic in confusion.
"Starlight, why did you—"
"You're not doing anything until you two sort this out." Starlight firmly said to her.
"Starlight, me and Spike need time before that can happen." Twilight told her, she didn't even sound disappointed towards her. Instead, she sounded disappointed towards herself. "Besides, I have every right to be mad. He destroyed priceless books!"
"Maybe you do. But you could've at the very least made the books fireproof." Starlight told her, her voice now calm. "You should've known those books were prone to accidents."
"How was I supposed to know he was going to burn it?" Twilight interrogated her.
"No one did, but it happened anyway." Starlight answered.
Twilight sighed in defeat as she looked at the ashes. "What am I going to do? Celestia would kill me if she knew that I burned them."
Starlight put her hoof on her chin, thinking of what to do about the books.
Twilight's gaze sudeenly lifted. "Maybe I can resurrect them."
Starlight looked shocked. "But isn't that impossible?"
"To a unicorn like you, maybe. But I don't know if the same applies for an alicorn." Twilight told her. "After all, we can do spells that no other unicorn can do that easily. Even for a unicorn like you."
Starlight looked a little hopeful. But then something came into mind after she took her words into consideration.
"Oh really? If you think that bring books back from the ashes was so easy, what was with you with Spike? You acted like as if the damage was permanent." Starlight interrogated the princess.
"I never said it was easy." Twilight pointed out. "This spell takes time, and a lot of strain to do. I didn't want to put pressure on myself because of his stupid mistake."
Starlight's gaze softened. I guess that makes sense.
"I'm going to check up on Spike." Starlight said as she headed towards the door. "I'll also tell him that, according to your words, will be able to resurrect those books."
"No, I need you here." Twilight told her.
Starlight's head was tilted to one side. "Why?"
"To make sure I don't pass out while I'm doing that spell." Twilight replied. "I've never done this kind of trick before. Like I said, this kind of magic takes a lot of pressure to do."
Starlight chuckled to herself. "I'd never imagined an alicorn to pass out during a spell."
"Yeah yeah sounds stupid, but it can happen." Twilight told her with a bit of amusement in her tone. "Just get over here. Spike will be fine for a few minutes."
Starlight shrugged. "If you say so."
Spike had laid down on his bed for at least 20 minutes, thinking about what he had done. Since his bed was comfortable as ever, he thought about taking a nap. But guilt always seemed to peek into his mind.
Maybe I should apologize. Spike thought to himself. Now that he thought about it, the more he understood Twilight's anger. He destroyed books that were special to her, and all be did was argue with her instead of biting the bullet.
But then again, he couldn't control his sneezes. Not to mention the books were dusty and unused. So it shouldn't be surprising if Spike burned those books.
We're both at fault here, I guess. Spike thought. But even so, he thought that he should break the ice.
Spike hopped out of his bed as walked downstairs. As he approached the room where the crime happened, he could hear shouting.
"You can do it Twilight!" Spike sounded alarmed when he recognized Starlight's voice.
He ran to the door and opened it to see Twilight shooting her magic at the ashes, which were now taking the form of the book. He also noticed that Twilight was panting and she looked tired and weak. Somehow.
He also noticed that Starlight had her hoof on her neck, and her hoof on her back. As if she was trying to keep Twilight standing. She also looked stressed as well, but not nearly as much as Twilight.
Spike couldn't comprehend what was happening. "What is going on?" he demanded.
"Twilight is doing this 'very straining' spell that makes the ashes back to their original form." Starlight explained with her voice raised.
"No wonder she was disappointed when you burn these books. Apparently bring them back takes a toll onto you." Starlight also told him, which made Spike more guilty.
"How long does it take?" Spike looked immediately worried.
"I don't know." Starlight told him, looking and sounding equally worried. "But I hope it doesn't take long. I don't know how much energy she has left."
"Done!" Twilight suddenly gasped.
With all the magic she put in, she finally stopped activating her horn and started panting. Starlight still held onto her.
The ash-book suddenly glowed, and after light beamed out of it, it transformed back to it's original state.
"It... finally... worked..." Twilight panted.
"Twilight, you idiot. You should've had me help you." Starlight told the princess, sounding very worried. "You look weak!"
"I'm fine Starlight. If I could survive Discord, Tirek, and you, I could survive this." Twilight reassured her while she panted.
"Twilight!" Spike suddenly rushed over to her. "I'm so sorry I made you go through this! I promise to be more careful in the future if that kind of magic does that to you."
"It's... fine." Twilight looked at him with dreary eyes. "I... should've... put... fireproof... onto those books." she panted more.
"Say nothing more." Starlight silenced the princess. "I'm taking you to your bed so you could rest."
All Twilight could do was bleakly nod.
After putting Twilight to bed, Starlight and Spike walked downstairs, and headed back to the room.
"I never thought that a spell like that would worn out a princess." Starlight told the dragon, sounding shocked still.
"That type of magic could tire her out." Spike told the lilac pony. "Remember, she may be an alicorn, but she doesn't have much power as Celestia and Luna does."
"I guess." Starlight shrugged.
As they entered the room again, Starlight and Spike encountered the books.
"So, what do we do now?" Starlight asked the dragon. "Put them back?"
Spike put a claw on his chin. "Hm."
Then he had an idea.
We went into one of the library rooms, and came back with an empty glass case.
"Here, we can put these books in here. Then I will mark the sign." Spike suggested.
Starlight shrugged. "As long as it helps you to not burn them again.
"Oh, this should help protect them." Spike said as he put the books in the glass container. Afterwards, he wrote words on the cover of the container.
Do not destroy. Or else.
"Perfect." they both said.