AN: This is set post series. But, not too far into the future. It's really just snippets of mindless fluff, so you have been warned if you were expecting deep substance. Also, thanks to Jeenalight for helping me come up with ideas and edit this.

1- Hotarla vs. Hunter

Walking on tiptoes one early morning, through the corridors of Arachna Castle, Sparkle stopped in front of the door to Hunter's room. Although most of the doors were closed, his was cracked open slightly. Convenient.

Sparkle turned her head to the miniature spider waiting behind her. Well, Hotarla had actually grown a bit since the war's end, but she was still small compared to the rest of the spiders which inhabited the castle.

"Shh…" whispered the princess. "Don't make a sound, yet." Despite her words of caution, the girl was grinning, her head filled with visions of what was in store.

Once she peered through the open door, Sparkle could confirm that Hunter was still sleeping. Not that this was surprising. He typically wasn't an early riser, unless he had a good reason to get up. And reasons to be overly prepared were in short lately. Even Igneous had loosened up a little.

Carefully, Sparkle opened Hunter's door all the way, and signaled to Hotarla to follow her inside.

Sparkle bent down to the spider's level, doing her best to whisper even softer than before. "Okay now, Hotarla. We're going to surprise Hunter. Wake him up, just like we planned."

On cue, the spider bounced up, propelling herself onto the boy's bed. It was like a beast pouncing on its prey, only the beast this time was of the cute and fairly harmless variety.

Left and right, the spider hopped around over the unsuspecting Rider's head. Sure enough, he was awakened, and sure enough, he was not expecting his first sight to be the underbelly of a hyperactive dancing spider. He was too stunned to even scream.

"Good morning, Hunter!" a high-pitched voice echoed from above.

"Good morning… Hotarla…" he replied, his body twitching. "That was you, right?" he mumbled.

"Mhm! It was me," the spider answered.

"I see," answered Hunter. He wanted to be polite, especially knowing the spider he was dealing with was only a kid. But still, it was too odd a situation for his mind to fully wrap around. "What are you doing?"

"Talking! I'm talking!" the spider exclaimed, her many eyes aglow.

"Yeah…" replied Hunter, skeptical.

"Hunter, do you not understand the problem here?" It was Shadow's voice, echoing out from the boy's manacle. He may not have physically seen the situation, but he could still hear it perfectly well.

"Problem?" Hunter glanced around the room, or as much of it as he could see laying down and with his vision obstructed by spider legs. He could at least make out Sparkle's figure near the doorway, and she looked to be giggling profusely. She was so caught up in her amusement that she hadn't managed to say anything to Hunter yet.

"Let me spell it out for you," Shadow answered, sounding exasperated already. "Hotarla. Doesn't. Talk."

Hunter's mouth hung open, as he suddenly understood.

"You're right. I've never heard her talk before. Not in real words, anyway."

"Now I do! Now I do!" she answered.

"That's right," replied Sparkle. "And, Hotarla, maybe you should come down now." Much as the situation amused her, she was still concerned for Hunter, who was likely in quite a bit of physical discomfort.

"Okay," Hotarla said, and jumped off onto the floor. "Down!"

"Thank you," replied Hunter. "Sincerely." He sat up in the bed, trying to mask his pain with a smile. Though, he didn't feel like getting out from under the covers quite yet. "You know, this is actually pretty cool, Sparkle!"

"I know," replied the girl, who was smiling triumphantly. "I really wanted to surprise you. We both did."

"We did!" Hotarla chimed in.

"Well it worked," Hunter replied.

"Says the one who was too oblivious to notice," Shadow commented.

"Well… I was too surprised to notice!" Hunter shot back in defense. "And stifled." He shook his head. "But anyway, Sparkle, Hotarla, when did this start?"

"Yesterday!" Sparkle and Hotarla both answered in unison.

"It's about time," Hunter replied. "I mean, it was cute and all when she always said 'kyu kyu', but this is more normal."

"Actually, Hunter, I think she's pretty advanced for a spider," Shadow said. "At her age, they don't tend to talk like this."

"Oh! I didn't know," he answered. It was actually rather fascinating to Hunter.

"Hotarla is advanced?!" Sparkle exclaimed. "This is great!"

"It's great!" echoed Hotarla.

"And now, you two are the first to know the surprise," Sparkle added.

"It's an honor," Hunter said. "But I thought you would want to tell Lumen before me."

"I'll tell him," Sparkle replied. "But he's a lot harder to wake up."

"And we like you!" Hotarla added. "We do!"

Sparkle smiled.

"That's right, Hotarla."