A/N - Here's (new) chapter 7, which comes directly after (new) chapter 6. It is substantially shorter than most of them have been, and yes, it is quite obvious that not a whole lot goes on here. I wanted to put this out now, as I've kind of hit a few-month-long plateau as far as how I want to handle the next part of this story. I would've waited until I had at least 5000 or more words, but I think I've made you guys wait long enough for something new. The next part may take a LONG time to get out because of this plateau. Otherwise, it's Spike's plans and Twilight gathering her friends for the confrontation to come. Sorry it's heavily rushed, but I wanted to speed it along as the next part will no doubt be fun for me to write. Thanks for the patience.
Reptilian eyes shot open as the first rays of the morning light reached through the curtains of the humble, wooden window. The same eyes took in the boring, brown ceiling, searching for visual clues as to the half-forgotten night before. Slowly, a build up of understanding and realization of those important events coagulated in the little head that housed them.
"Uuuun...I wonder how long I've been out."
A ray of light momentarily blinded Spike as it crossed his vision path. From the looks of the sun outside, he could tell that he woke up pretty early in the morning, possibly even a tad earlier than both Twilight and him usually would.
"Mmm...good, I haven't slept in much."
The numbness in his arms and legs from Twilight's spell had worn off, as was evident from how his claws reflexively went to his face to hide from the rest of the sunlight. Before even attempting to stand up, he stretched his cramped legs, unused since the little bolt of magic drilled into his mind. Everything was in working order again, at least as it seemed. Now then, first thing's first...
"Twilight's gotta still be here, right?"
He wobbled up on his legs, arms flailing like windmills at a small loss of balance. As he composed himself, he shuffled over to the door of Twilight's new room. With claws and ear on the door, he made an auditory scan of the room for signs of sleeping breaths, a running shower, humming, anything really, just to confirm she was still there. However, the reply was silence, and this was very unnerving to the purple dragon.
"She must not be here right now. I don't hear anything going on downstairs either, not even a peep. She's definitely got the advantage on me when it comes to time."
Spike chewed on his nails forlornly, gaze settling on the steps to the lobby floor.
"I wonder..."
The fire breather ran down the stairs, not caring anymore as to his noise level. No one was there to hear him anyway. Looking around the war-torn primary room, Twilight having done a number on many wooden furniture pieces last night, Spike scanned fervently for a pen and paper, wanting to see if this "curse" the violet unicorn had put on him was real or not. A royal blue quill and fresh parchment rested on one of the only unscathed podiums, just begging to be written on.
"Oh boy, exactly what I was looking for!"
With a wide grin in his cheeks, the little dragon stepped closer to his prized destination, having gained a boost of confidence, though still wary of the possibility that Twilight wasn't bluffing. There they were, right in front of his grateful eyes. Just one note to Princess Celestia, and this whole matter would be ended in a heartbeat. He nervously picked up the pen and paper, finding that no ill effects had taken hold of his body.
"Phew...that was cl...!"
Tendrils of white, hot fire suddenly engulfed the two objects, connecting to the assistant's own claws, burning them in a seething bath of indescribable pain.
"Oh my...what the...!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Spike was blown back into a wall on the other side of the room with the explosive combustion. His appendages burnt for a while longer before returning to normal, albeit with some charred black stripes adorning them. The hurting Spike slowly picked himself back up from the near crater he made in the library wall.
"Ooh...ack...answers that question now, doesn't it?" He blew on the claws in a bid to cool them off, and held his aching upper back as well as he could after the traumatic blow.
The severity of his situation continued to pour through his brain as he heard a few short, frantic knocks on the door to the outside.
"Could that be Twilight? Oh sweet Royal Sisters I hope not..."
Spike tentatively opened the door, fearing the pony or ponies on the other side. He blew an "o" of relieved air as the two pegasi that had knocked on the door were none other than Fluttershy, and a nice surprise, Rainbow Dash as well.
"Oh Spike, I came as soon as I could," Fluttershy was glad to see Spike more or less unharmed, though he looked disheveled and half-awake. Rainbow Dash flew casually into the tree-house while the yellow pegasus noticed the burn marks on Spike's hands.
"What did Twilight do to you last night, Spike?"
"Oh, it's really good to see you, Fluttershy," Spike was genuinely pleased, as he felt like it was the best time for them to plan on their attack, "Don't worry about the burn marks, Twilight's just trying to keep me from picking up pens and paper today, considering what we found out yesterday."
Fluttershy eyed the small purple lizard, concerned by what he said, "...What did you two find out yesterday, Spike?..."
Spike rubbed his hands on his face tiredly, trying to wake up further and explain everything clearly.
"Princess Celestia sent us another message last night. She couldn't make it to the presentation tomorrow because of some "other business" she has to attend to."
Fluttershy's countenance uplifted as the obviously good news was relayed to her, "That's wonderful Spike! It takes care of everything now, right?"
"Please Fluttershy, let me finish." Spike made a serious face, beyond the point of fooling around, "So, the princess told us that she will be coming to the presentation a day early...more specifically, she's going to be here TONIGHT!"
The shy pegasus squeaked in shock, not taking to the development as cheerfully anymore. "I...I really hope...you're ready today, Spike! That doesn't sound like it's going to be enough time to do much at all."
Spike felt horrible, his head bowing in shame.
"I'm sorry, Fluttershy...but I'm not ready! I couldn't get the recipe finished, I hardly even thought much about how I was going to get her away from here. I was under the assumption that I'd have another day."
Both the yellow pony and Rainbow Dash, having been distracted slightly by the indent in one of the library walls, showed defeated looks at Spike's admittance.
"...B...But..." the dragon tried to cheer them up again, not wanting despair to overtake them just yet, "...I've been having some ideas about what we could do instead."
Rainbow Dash jumped into the conversation finally, though kind of cutting Spike off in the middle of a thought, "What about sending a letter to the princess? That should be the pretty obvious thing to do, right?"
"Well...if I could, that would've solved the entire problem, but right now..."
Spike pointed Dash over to the podium he had just been knocked away from, gingerly touching the quill and paper, eliciting electric shocks and more claw pains from them. Dash's eyes went wide in surprise, noticing that this would certainly impede Twilight's assistant from penning any letters to her mentor. As Spike cooled his hands down yet again, he regarded Dash with a confused smile.
"So Rainbow Dash...did you end up believing me after you talked to Fluttershy?"
Dash moved her forelegs against each other in thought.
"Um...I don't really know what to think, but if Fluttershy says that you aren't crazy, and that Twilight really has been acting weird, and put that spell you have on your claws, then that's good enough for me right now."
The slightly conflicted pony gave him a determined face, pledging her support with a tap of her hoof to the wooden floorboards.
"Thanks Dash, you'll definitely be a big help soon," Spike wearily gestured to her.
"Big help?" Dash's lips scrunched up in confusion, "What are you talking about, Spike?"
The dragon had been going over some scenarios in his dreams, none of which really seemed like they would work out too well for them. Then again, he tried to piece together some of them into new plans, and he was hoping that the two would agree to assist him with this.
"Fluttershy, Dash," he started, taking in a deep breath for a long talk, "the only thing we really need to make sure of today, disregarding anything else, is that Twilight and Princess Celestia cannot meet each other under any circumstances."
He went over to the yellow pegasus not but a foot away, "Fluttershy, did Twilight tell you anything last night that might be of some use to us today?"
Fluttershy immediately perked back up again, "Oh, yes, that's why we came over here today, to warn you, Spike. Twilight told me that she's going to gather up Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and both Rainbow Dash and I to confront you about your problems with Twilight and her "coltfriend". They're going to try to bring you over to my cottage and tie you down so that you'll be as far away from the library as possible when the princess arrives. I just saw her a little while ago, heading out to Sweet Apple Acres. I think she was alone, so we've still got some time, but not much."
Spike gathered every little detail he could from what she had just told him, going over various possibilities.
"I see, well, that's good actually. I figured that something like that was going on, since she was recruiting you guys. I had a similar plan to what Twilight was thinking, except instead of me being trapped at your place, we'd make it so that she would be instead."
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy nodded in understanding. Spike wanted to turn the tables on her, so to speak.
"Fluttershy?" Spike asked in an authoritative way.
"Yes, Spike?"
"If you could, I'd like you to go back to the cottage for now, and wait for me to meet you over there. Don't let Twilight find you there though, try to find someplace to hide from her so that you won't have to go with them."
The shy pony thought it over, not completely following him at this point.
"Why would you want me to meet you at my house though? If Twilight thinks I'm abandoning her, she'll know what's going on, and might even come looking for you."
"Trust me, Fluttershy, I know Twilight, she'll just think you didn't want to come because things might get too violent. I wouldn't ask any other pony to do this if I knew it would be suspicious."
"Oh...well alright, that sounds fine then." Fluttershy didn't like the thought that things might get out of hand between everypony, but acquiesced to Spike's request despite it.
"While I'm here at the library, before I meet up with you, I'm going to do a few things to the other girls I might regret later, but it'll be a good cover. Since they're all expecting me to deny what they say I'm doing, I'm going to disorient them by playing the very part that Twilight has told them I've been. When they try to catch me, I'll jump out the window and run to your place, Fluttershy. This is where you, Rainbow Dash, come in."
"Me?" Dash was, once again, only half listening to the long list of things Spike wanted Fluttershy to remember.
"Yes, since you can fly back to your cloud home faster than anypony I know, I want you to go there now, but let Twilight recruit you into coming here. Just show some offense to the things I say to you or any of the others, and after I run out the window, I want you to distract them for a while. Since you can see further because you can fly, tell them I'm going in the direction of your house, and have them search the place as long as you can, since they'll check everywhere else after that, and Fluttershy's cottage will probably be one of those places."
"Sounds pretty simple, you've got it, Spike!"
Spike turned back over to Fluttershy, "Now then, Fluttershy, I'm going to have to use your kitchen to whip up something fast for tonight's presentation. Hopefully, I can get it done before Twilight tries to knock your door down."
Fluttershy cringed a little in fright. It seemed as if Spike was asking her to take one for the team and possibly get roughhoused.
"No no," Spike comforted her quickly, "She doesn't want anypony to know about her "instability", so not only will she come back alone, but I'm sure she won't outright maim you or anything..."
Spike mumbled to himself apprehensively, "...unless she thinks you already know..."
Luckily, Fluttershy didn't hear that addition, watching Spike intently to make sure she had everything straight.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat a little, "Do you still have that bear cage down in your basement, Fluttershy?"
The animal lover thought for a few moments, "Yes, I do, but I usually only keep it around now for storing personal things."
"That's all I needed to know. We're going to get Twilight to chase us down the stairs and trap her in that. Then, I'll rush back over to the library, get everything prepared, the princess will come and I'll tell her Twilight's sick and I'll be doing the presentation in her place, she'll be thrilled with it, all's well that ends well!"
Rainbow Dash asked one more question to solidify the plan in her head, "Then we figure out how to deal with Twilight, right?"
"Right!"
The three of them took another collective breath, hoping for everything to turn out well, and for nopony to get too physically injured. Spike spoke up first again after a few seconds of working the details out.
"Alright, let's get to it! I've got to get to work, making everything perfect when the others come to get me."
They broke ranks, Fluttershy heading back to her home as did Rainbow Dash, waving to each other one last time before they followed through with what they were doing. Spike was left in the library alone once again, musing to himself.
"Oh Celestia, I hope this works..."
The plan was only too perfect in the mind of the crazed violet unicorn. It had taken most of the morning, into the early afternoon, to gather up Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash for the little...pow-wow they would be partaking in at the library, but it had been so worth it.
There were only two minor details that put her off, making her stray a bit from the picture-perfect image in her head, and giving her a small dose of uneasiness at the outcome of the intervention. One had to do with Rainbow Dash. Twilight thought on it:
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Twilight, along with her other three friends accompanying her, stood patiently at the doorstep of Rainbow Dash's cloud home, Twilight providing the spell for cloud-walking, of course.
"Who is it?" A female voice inside indicated that the rainbow-maned pony was at home, but she sounded just a hair jumpy.
"It's me, Twilight, and I brought everypony else along with me! I know Pinkie Pie spoke to you about Spike's problems, and that's why I'm here."
"Oh...I'll be right out!"
The other three tag-alongs eyed each other, apprehensive to have to confront a good friend who would no doubt be angry with them when he realized what they were at the library for. They wondered amongst themselves how anyone so little, cute, and harmless had been a terror under their noses the entire time. Though, if Twilight was telling the truth, then this whole situation was for his own good. Within a minute or so, Rainbow Dash made her presence known with a click of her door swinging open.
From Dash's point of view, the whole crew looked sort of menacing, in a rag-tag, bunch of vigilantes fashion. Applejack had a cowpony rope around her midsection, the intended purpose not lost on her. Rarity looked like she hadn't slept all night, and for good reason. She was probably closer to Spike than the rest of them were, given his huge crush on the stylish mare, and Twilight had thoroughly destroyed any innocence Rarity had concerning her little purple dragon. Pinkie Pie, well, was optimistic as ever, her brightly shining blue eyes and insane grin a testament to her never-ending belief that anypony can be reformed from their grouchy, grumpy, or in this case psychotic ways.
"Heeeeeey guys! Let's go over there and show that scaly slime-bucket what's what." She hoped in vain that she looked as ready to go as she thought she sounded. Twilight could smell her reluctance from a mile away.
"Um...Dash, are you alright today? You don't look very ready to do a whole lot."
Part of her problem was that she hadn't seen Twilight for the better part of three days. Did she always look so...haggard, unbalanced, or in Rainbow Dash terms...whacked out? Those pupils of hers were far too small for how Dash remembered her meek, scholarly friend. Her mane was unkempt, a crime against organization that Twilight never committed, unless she was going through one of...those fazes again.
"Who, me?" Rainbow squeaked, now convinced beyond a doubt that Spike was not full of it when he said she was exhibiting odd behaviors and dragging everypony else into her mad house, "I'm always ready for everything!"
Just to ensure them she was legit, she skyrocketed into the air with a flap of her wings, putting on an enthusiastic mug. "See?"
Twilight's face scrunched quietly in confusion. Rainbow was acting shady, she just knew it. It wasn't like her to look nervous about something like this, unless she was truly afraid of Spike, another absurd notion. Then again, she didn't have all day to worry about those schematics. She needed to talk to Fluttershy last, and Rainbow Dash was coming with them, which was all that mattered.
"Ooookay then, Rainbow Dash. I'm certainly glad that you want to assist me, you're a good friend."
The blue pegasus rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, floating down to the cloud with a large hay-eating grin.
"Yeah...that's me! A good friend..."
The other reason Twilight was apprehensive about the whole thing was because Fluttershy, despite her declaration to back up Twilight and help with the preparations for Spike's stay, was nowhere to be found in her own cottage at the time. She scraped her scalp with a purple hoof, recalling the scene:
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
"Fluttershy?" Twilight had yelled through the door of the shy yellow pony's domicile.
Silence...
"Hmm...have any of you talked to Fluttershy today? I thought she'd be home to greet us after I gave her the information last night."
"Haven't seen her all day!" Pinkie Pie was still bouncing energetically, ready to help the purple dragon out in any way that she could.
"Nor I, my dear," Rarity muttered, indirectly apologizing for not knowing.
Applejack quietly mused, still feeling a little guilty about what they were about to do, "Nope...I haven't."
"..." Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash, who was, once again, a little too quiet for the unicorn's taste.
"Have YOU talked to Fluttershy at all lately, Dash?"
"Nuh uh." Dash quickly shook her head.
"...Are you sure?..."
"Yep..."
Rainbow Dash made a strained smile, nodding rapidly, trying to look apologetic as well, but coming off more as suspicious. Twilight raised a brow at her clammy friend.
"Alright, if you say so..."
The blue pony pointed a hoof toward the door as a way to loosen the tension directed at her.
"Hey guys, why don't we check the cottage to see if she's hiding somewhere?"
Dash all but barged in, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake. The four ponies were a little uncomfortable invading Fluttershy's privacy like this, well...other than Twilight who would have turned over the whole place hunting her down had the others not been there, but they decided it could be worth a look. All four of the ponies shuffled into the building quietly, not wanting to disturb any animals that may happen to be asleep or resting peacefully.
"Oh, pony feathers!" Rainbow Dash thought to herself as she registered what she had done, "I hope Fluttershy hid REALLY well, 'cause they're going to search everywhere."
Before anypony could comment on her inactivity, she made herself look busy trying to locate the elusive caregiver. She noticed Rarity was heading into the kitchen and Pinkie took the upstairs bedroom. Applejack paired up with Rainbow to check around the living room, or more like do all the work while Rainbow Dash just hoped no one would find Fluttershy.
"Heh heh," the blue pony chuckled nervously after the three of them had given up, "doesn't look like anypony's here..."
"Wait a minute!"
Oh no, that sounded like Twilight! They turned to find her standing in front of the door to Fluttershy's basement, incredulously eying the door knob as she tried to open it.
"This door is locked!..."
A fearful gulp silently went down Dash's throat as Twilight had possibly found a clue to locating the shy pegasus. She waited expectantly for Twilight to make a move, say something else, or unlock the door with her magic.
"...Oh wait, I forgot that she always keeps this door locked!" Twilight exclaimed in humor, chiding herself for being so forgetful.
Dash was beyond relieved as the unicorn trotted back over to the group, giving them all puzzled looks.
"So, did anypony find out where she is or may have went?"
"Not a clue, Twi," Applejack spoke up first, "She must'a left for some food for her critters or something."
"I didn't find anything at all in the kitchen," Rarity jumped in, "though I must say, her kitchen is sparkling clean, like she just tidied up this morning, so she must not have gone far."
Pinkie Pie scratched her shoulder, confused by the entire mess, "Yeah, I didn't see her up in her bedroom either. I wonder where she could've gone..."
Dash noticed, out of the corner of her vision, that Twilight's eye twitched just slightly. She might have thought nothing of it at first, but given that she knew how Twilight had planned this thing out so thoroughly, it was clear she was upset, and in no small way.
"Well..." Twilight huffed in disappointment, "we'll just have to continue this little intervention without her. She probably just got scared by what I told her and doesn't want to get too heavily involved. A shame too, because Fluttershy is so adept at helping ponies with their problems."
While the four other ponies slid out of the cottage without making too much noise, Rainbow Dash waited behind to vent the held breath she had stored for the last five minutes. Looked like nopony was going to see Fluttershy today except for Spike and her, and that was definitely a good thing. Dash wondered where she had hidden herself, not taking the easily excitable pony as particularly stealthy. Either way, it worked in their favor here, so she wasn't complaining. She flew outside to meet the others after slowly pulling the door shut.
Little did they know, the door that Fluttershy always keeps locked had been so for another reason. The knob slowly turned and the door creaked open when she was sure no one else had strayed back from the little pony-hunt group.
"Phew...that was close," Fluttershy was sweating from both the fear of being caught and the fact that it was quite hot down there without air flow, "now I guess I just have to wait for Spike then."
As her thoughts on the two incidents ended, Twilight looked her friends over. She didn't blame them for being unwilling to a certain extent. The fear of what Spike might possibly say or do and having to subdue him if he got violent or uppity didn't sit well with any of them, present company excluded obviously.
"Alright," she took a deep breath as they stood in front of the Ponyville Library, ready to impart "justice" on the little dragon, "Applejack, you've got your lasso right?"
"Right here, Twilight," she replied with a head motion to her midsection.
"Good, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, are all of you ready to do what it takes in the event that things get ugly?"
"If it'll help Spike get the treatment and care he needs to get better, then I'm all in!" Rarity put on a determined face, just wanting her Spikey Wikey back to normal again.
"I'm with Rarity on that one!" Pinkie Pie, with her wellspring of hope, cheered.
"Yeah...uh...bring'em on!..." Rainbow Dash threw a hoof around her other side in a ready-to-go gesture, giving her two cents in order to blend in with them.
"Okay then," Twilight started up, "remember, he'll probably lie about everything, so we've got to stay alert, and keep him from making us let our guards down. This is not only for what he's done to my coltfriend and me, but also for him, so that he can learn to control himself, and live here in Ponyville peacefully without hurting others."
On the outside, the demented pony put on an air of sorrow and resolve. On the inside, she was brimming with nasty delight. Spike wouldn't keep her away from the lovely Celestia anymore after this! She would've laughed evilly, as any villain they had fought off would, she really wanted to. However, she quelled the urge inside her, needing to focus more on the task at hoof. Then, with him out of the picture, she could seduce the princess with all the things she had been studying while she knew Spike was asleep or out on an errand.
"Okay, I'll go in first, and you guys just wait for a few minutes while I bring the topic up. I'll give you the signal to come in and start the intervention."
They all nodded in understanding of the plan. Twilight sucked in a deep breath, ready to tackle the situation head on. She opened the library door gingerly and stepped inside...
