Chapter 9 - Invasion of the Changelings
While Spike and Sally continued kissing, the Mobian girls were showing their powers to both the dragons and the curious ponies that couldn't help but stare at the weird-looking group.
"My device allows me to use several powers. Not more than one at a time, but if you are smart, you can use the same power in many creative ways." Fiona explained Puff. "For example, I can use this to do lots of things at once."
Fiona used her device to get her multi-cloning power; a few moments later, Puff was gasping at the sight of a dozen beautiful identical females surrounding him.
"Whoa... this is great! It's like... dating a dozen girls at once without cheating on any of them!"
The Fionas chuckled at this before tickling the dragon from several sides at once. The other couples grinned and laughed at the scene.
"Hey, that's cool, isn't it?"
Everyone stopped laughing when hearing Spike's voice.
"Spike?" Lyco asked while looking around.
"Hey, where are you hiding?" Garble groaned a bit. "Don't tell me one of those Stones can make you invisibile!"
"Invisible."
"Ah, so you admit it!" Garble growled softly.
"I was correcting you. Anyway, I'm not there right now. I finally got the Mind Stone, with lots of help from Sally, of course... and well, one of the ways I can use this stone is to talk directly into your minds." Spike explained. "Some of you have WAY TOO MUCH free space in there."
"HEY!" All the dragons complained at once.
"Great, guys, I wasn't saying names and now you all admitted it."
The dragons face-palmed while the girls giggled.
"Anyway, Sally, Adam and I are going back with the Princesses to get more information on the next Stone. You guys and gals continue enjoying the date. And Puff, you only eat the donut, not the napkin."
Puff, who already had a napkin in his mouth, grinned at this and removed it. Once Spike's voice was no longer heard in their heads, they went back to eating.
A few minutes later, Spike was greeted by the Mane Six, along with the Princesses and Shining Armor, all of them congratulating him, while Sally and Adam looked at this from a few feet away.
"YOU REALLY CAN READ MINDS NOW, SPIKE?" Pinkie said in her usual excited tone. "READ MINE, READ MINE, READ..."
"Uh... Pinkie... I just gave your mind a quick read when I first got the Stone... and it's like trying to read a whole encyclopedia at once." Spike cooled her down. "Same with Twilight's mind, but at least with her I know how her encyclopedia's volumes are arranged."
"Very ironic you mention an encyclopedia, Spike." Luna advanced at the dragon. "The next Stone, the Time one, is hidden in the Star Swirl The Bearded Library."
"A library?" Spike arched an eyebrow before grinning. "Heh... now THAT'S a Stone I'd probably be able to find even without the training. All these years as Twi's assistant was training enough."
"Glad I can help." Twilight chuckled yet agreed with him. With the purple unicorn's love for studying, Spike had spent countless hours helping her with the books both at Canterlot's Academy and at Ponyville.
"Still, it's good you have the other Stones, Spike." Celestia explained. "As you know, each Stone has some protective measure. In this case, the Time Stone is protected by a series of riddles, all of them hidden at the Library, and the first one, the riddle that starts the whole search, can only be revealed if you have both the Mind and the Soul Stones."
"Okaaaay... so, when can I start?" Spike asked.
"I have the book with the first riddle." Cadence said, smiling. "It's an old spell book from Star Swirl The Bearded... but I have it at home, at the Crystal Empire. And, as you might imagine, it has some protective measures too. Nothing as extreme as the magical protections used for the Stones, of course, since, then again, you can't read the riddle unless you have the Mind and Soul Stones."
"We can send a message to our servants at the Crystal Empire so they can take out the book." Shining Armor proposed. "And then, one of our fastest ones can go get the book; either Rainbow or Sonic can do the trip in a short time."
"Usually I'd be the first one volunteering, but I wanna see the things Spike can do with the Staff, so... let's tell Sonic. I left him outside, trying some vegetarian chili dogs; you Canterlot ponies really have everything!" Rainbow chuckled.
"Then it's decided. I'll send the message; now, just need paper and..." Celestia stopped talking when noticing Spike was already in front of her with ink, paper and a feather, ready to start writing.
"Heh, what can I say? Some habits are die-hard... and it will be fun to write a note that doesn't start with 'Dear Princess Celestia', you know?" The dragon shrugged and, after everyone chuckled a bit at this, Celestia dictated him the note for Cadence and Shining Armor's servant; Spike then used his fire to send the message, feeling actually happy for doing this again. In the meantime, Rainbow had already gone outside to get Sonic, and by the time they returned, the message was already sent.
"Sure, I'll be back soon. I might not be familiar with Equestrian geography, but I can follow the train tracks to the Crystal Empire." Sonic grinned. After giving him some basic instructions, and a backpack so he could transport the very delicate and rare book, the blue hedgehog dashed away.
Unknown to them, a little brown bird had been watching and hearing the whole thing from a nearby window, and its eyes glowed green before flying away.
"Okay, while Sonic returns, can yah show us the things yah can do with the Stones, please?" Applejack asked the dragon.
"Sure, let's go outside." Spike smiled. "So, any trick you'd like to see first?"
"Yes, can you use the Reality Stone so I can get more control of my Pinkeen Sense? I have had this weird combo since Sonic left and I really want to know what it means." Pinkie asked him.
This was enough for the whole group to get alert. Everypony knew by now that Pinkie's sense, while unexplained in origin, was usually right.
"Okaaaay... yeah, guess I can use the Reality Stone for that." Spike took out his staff and transformed it into a glove; he put it on, and then placed his gloved claw/hand on Pinkie's head. A moment later, they both got covered by the Reality Stone's glow, while Spike used the Mind one to protect his brain from Pinkie's wacky one.
Spike and Pinkie, in their minds, found themselves witnessing hundreds of events at once; then, Spike used the Reality Stone to find the exact event that triggered the Pinkie Sense's reaction; the mysterious bird at the window. A closer look revealed its true nature.
Spike and Pinkie gasped and got out of their mutual trance. They both turned at the rest of the group; they had been in a trance for only a couple of minutes but it felt like hours for the dragon and pink pony.
"Guys, what..." Spike and Pinkie interrupted Twilight.
"CALL PRINCESS CELESTIA, NOW!"
The mysterious bird was now at the Canterlot's gardens, surrounded by several similar ones, all of them chirping at each other in conversation, until Celestia, Luna and Adam descended over them.
"You can drop your charade now." Celestia frowned at the largest bird. "Chrysalis."
The bird got a toothy grin, and then started growing until it was around Celestia's size, while growing pony-like legs and body, its birdy wings morphing into insect-like, and its eyes glowing evilly.
"Well, this time you were more alert than usual, uh, Celestia?" Chrysalis smirked. "Or maybe those Stones are more useful than I thought."
"You got tired of trying to impersonate Royal Family members, and now you are doing bird mimicry?" Adam growled at the Changeling Queen.
"It's amazing what you can learn when everypony thinks you're a little, cute bird." Chrysalis smirked. "And before you think I'll be an easy defeat, Celestia, let me tell you my Changelings and I have been feeding on Pony Love for several weeks now."
The Alicorns frowned while their horns glowed with magical energy, and the birds around Chrysalis started morphing into Alicorns as well.
"The three of us can handle a few imposters." Luna frowned.
"I know. Too bad for you I have several ones all over the city." Chrysalis smirked while sending a magical signal to the rest of the Changelings. As she said, all over Canterlot, several birds, squirrels and mice morphed into their natural Changeling shapes.
"And too bad for you we have our own defenders all over the city too." Celestia frowned before closing her eyes.
"Spike, the entire city has been infiltrated by Changelings."
"Got it, Princess." Spike replied telepathically, the dragon standing on top of the tallest tower while the Mane Six, the Mobians and dragons (that Spike had contacted as well) moved all over Canterlot, all of them spotting Changelings when they revealed themselves.
"They have strength in numbers. We should too." Fiona frowned before using her multiplying power.
"Good idea, Fiona." Spike, who got Fiona's actions perfectly, grinned when this gave him an idea. "Alright... Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy... get ready to meet your sisters!"
Spike sent a magical blast from the Reality Stone, hitting the Mane Six... that soon became the Mane Sixty Six!
"Eleven of each one." Twilight grinned at her copies.
"Heh... once this is over, we can start our own soccer teams." Rainbow grinned at her copies as well before all the blue pegasi got her trademark smirk. "Alright, we became more than 200 percent cooler; time to show these Changelings what that means!"
The battle started and it extended all over the city. The Fluttershies intimidated large groups of Changelings with their stares, the effect multiplied by the large number of yellow pegasi doing it at once; the Rarities alternated between physical attacks and unicorn magic blasts; the Applejacks started a stampede, stomping on several Changelings while charging down the street; the Pinkies were pretty much driving the invaders crazy with multiple antics and tricks; the Rainbows became a group of multicolored missiles flying at top speed and hitting the Changelings before they even had time to try a counter; and the Twilights performed a variety of spells, including one that made the Changelings get stuck in a shape so they couldn't morph into larger animals to attack back. While all this happened, Spike was using his Mind Power to send quick images of the battles directly to Princess Celestia's mind, to keep her informed of everything; even if Spike obviously had improved himself greatly, even without the Stones, he knew Celestia's leadership and coordination skills would be much superior, especially in a massive battle scenario.
"You are very relaxed for someone whose forces are getting defeated." Celestia casually commented at Chrysalis, the alicorn princess noticing the changeling queen wasn't nearly as angry or upset as anypony in this situation.
"I'd be angry if defeating you was my only objective." Chrysalis growled softly while trying to attack Celestia again.
"That's what I wanted to know. Spike, Chrysalis' plans usually have more than one objective. Try to check up her mind; if it's too hard, try with her soldiers." Celestia informed Spike while fighting back. The dragon gave her a mental nod and started scanning Chrysalis' mind; he soon realized it was pretty hard, due to Chrysalis' strong will and magical powers, so he decided to focus on a random changeling instead. The dragon gasped at the information he got.
"Shining, this is Spike in your head!" Spike sent a quick message to Shining Armor while jumping off the tower himself. "This attack is mostly a distraction! They want the Stones, but they also want to release Discord!"
As Spike said, a large group of Changelings were about to invade the prison tower where Discord was currently imprisoned; even if he was depowered now, Discord was still a creature with thousands of years of magical knowledge, that would be extremely dangerous in Chrysalis' possession.
The changelings started battling the prison guards, and were about to overpower them when Shining Armor and Cadence arrived. The unicorn captain then attacked the changelings with some quick magical blasts to get them away from the tower before summoning one of his defensive shields around the prison, with Cadence empowering him with her magic. The changelings started pounding on the shield, trying to weaken it.
"Sorry, guys, Discord isn't taking visits today." The changelings turned to see Spike, who had grown large scaly wings thanks to the Reality Stone, and was about to strike them from an aerial position. "Let me attend you instead."
The changelings, instinctively, changed into Spike's current form, but, obviously, they couldn't mimic the Stones' granted powers. Spike then attacked them with quick fireballs that exploded upon impact, knocking out several of the changelings. A pair of changelings tried attacking him from behind, but Spike used his Infinity Staff, extended to the length of a 'bo stick', to hit them both with a single roundhouse move. Spike then saw some of the changelings were taking deep breaths, and being dragons at the time, this obviously meant a fire attack; Spike immediately started spinning the Staff at high speed, thanks to the Power Stone, practically creating a tornado around him; this protected himself with the wind, plus sending the flames back at the changelings.
Spike, taking advantage of the changelings' current stunned and injured state, landed in front of them, getting himself between the attackers and the prison. The dragon then grinned and, remembering something Tails had commented him about something called 'video games', morphed himself into a mechanical shape, until he was basically a cyber dragon. The changelings finally reacted and charged at him, Spike resisting their attack without receiving a scratch thanks to his metallic skin, and started punching them away, making sure they'd all end together instead of disperse around him, as he was about to try another trick Tails had commented him. Spike started focusing a large energy sphere in his hands, using both the Power and Reality Stones for this.
"What did Tails call this thing... oh, right." Spike smirked and, when the sphere grew as large as his whole body, shot it at the changelings while yelling "HA-DOU-KEN!"
The large, white energy ball became a huge energy beam that shocked every single changeling around Spike, and sent them flying several feet away, all of them already unconscious before hitting the ground again.
"Note to self; ask Tails the details of this 'video game' thing so we can make a few here. Heh, maybe 'Fighting is Magic'." Spike thought before sending another mental message to Shining Armor. "I'm gonna help with the rest of the fight. You keep the shield up, just in case."
"Got it. And great attack, Spike." Shining replied, getting a sly grin before getting back to verbal orders, directed at his soldiers. "I'll set off the shield for a moment so you can secure the changelings; they were too eager to get in here, so let's be nice hosts and receive them... as prisoners."
Spike grinned and used the Power Stone to mimic Sonic's speed, basically giving his legs the strength and speed necessary to move as fast as the blue hedgehog. A few moments later, he was at the battle site with the alicorns facing Chrysalis... and, since he wasn't used to move this quickly, Spike had to stop himself by using a few changelings as a brake.
"Heh, sorry; still, these guys are good for something." Spike grinned while looking at the changelings he had knocked out when trying to stop himself.
"You... You, Stupid, Little Pest..." Chrysalis growled at him.
"Oh, come on, can we cut the whole 'villainous rant' and get right to the part where you give up?" Spike rolled his eyes. "Really, I had enough of this with Discord, and I'm not in the mood to do it twice in the same day with you."
"He's right, Chrysalis." Adam grinned while advancing over two beaten changelings. "Most of your forces are already defeated, and the few that are still capable of fighting are outnumbered at least 50 to one."
Adam and Spike grinned at each other; obviously, Adam had made this calculation thanks to Spike giving him a few mental images of the battle besides the ones he had given Celestia.
"Then, I'll need to cut it down a bit... starting with you!" Chrysalis growled before morphing herself into a Manticore... that couldn't do anything; Celestia and Luna attacked her with a double magical blast, sending Chrysalis several yards away and impacting her through the closest wall.
"Infinity Stones or not, remind me to never make them angry." Spike whispered at a nodding Adam.
Chrysalis, partially recovered from the attack but still in pain, realized she stood no chance against 3 alicorns at once, especially with this overpowered dragon at their side and herself no longer having any help. The changeling queen then morphed into a peregrine falcon and tried to escape by flying.
"This one is mine." Spike grinned and, summoning his wings again, started chasing after the falcon.
Chrysalis started flying even faster, and when realizing Spike was about to catch her, she dived to make this a street-level chase. Spike then got an idea and sent another mental message.
Chrysalis was about to evade Spike by changing into a dove and trying to hide inside a house but then the dragons and their Mobian dates stood in her way, the dragons shooting large flames at her and almost making her a roast pigeon. Chrysalis then morphed into a cheetah to run away from them, gaining distance with ease... until Rainbow Dash and her many duplicates started surrounding her.
"Not so fast, Kitty Cat." The Rainbows chorused before attacking Chrysalis with a tornado, created by all the pegasi flying around her at high speed. Chrysalis was sent against another wall, morphing into a rhino to be strong enough to stand the hit but still resenting it. When touching the ground again, Chrysalis decided to change into a mouse, thinking that, being that small, she'd be able to hide and escape.
"MEOW!"
Chrysalis yelped in fear when looking at the feline face that popped in front of her... and got even more scared when realizing this wasn't a real cat, but one of the Pinkies wearing a mask. Behind this Pinkie, the rest of the pink ponies were holding mouse traps, nets, and a cage with... a real cat.
Chrysalis, fearing what would happen next, changed into a bird... and, due to fear, it wasn't even a quick, dangerous one, but a duck, and couldn't even use it to fly away as she found herself surrounded by all the Mobians (minus Lobo and Lupe, who were still 'busy' at their room, and Sonic, who was currently beating up the changelings that stood in his way), the dragons, and all the Mane Sixty-Six.
"You should morph into into a white flag now, you know?"
Chrysalis looked up to see a grinning Spike, using the Reality Stone to stand on thin air.
"You're depthspicable." Chrysalis groaned. "I hate to morph into this bird; I alwaypths get a lipthsp."
The changeling queen sighed and changed into her normal form, giving up.
"So, ready to go to jail... or a petting zoo?" One of the Pinkies joked.
"Ah, we'll decide that later. In the meantime..." Spike decided to copy one of Discord's theatrics and snapped his fingers, changing the Mane Sixty-Six back into just Six.
"Heh... that was cool; too bad we couldn't stay like that." Rainbow chuckled. "I was 600% more awesome!"
"Yeah, whatever. So, how are you gonna jail a creature that can morph into anything?" Chrysalis soon was regretting saying this, as Spike was taking a deep breath; a moment later, the Reality Stone allowed Spike to change his fire breath into freezing one, encasing Chrysalis in a thick block of ice.
"Now this is an ice cream I wouldn't like to taste." Garble chuckled.
"Well done, to all of you." Celestia arrived at that moment. "Now, we must secure all the changelings and..."
At that moment, some loud yelling/howling was heard all over Canterlot. Spike, using the Mind Stone, made a quick mind scan to find out what happened, and gasped.
"Uh, oh." Spike gulped a bit. "Chrysalis had an emergency plan in case this attack failed... several changelings that didn't come to Canterlot; that yelling came from the changelings we already defeated and that aren't unconscious like the others."
"A signal to attack." Celestia frowned and used her magic to make her own scan. A large number of changelings were heading to a nearby town, most surely to destroy it in revenge. "Basically, making us to pay for this defeat. Spike.."
"Got it." The dragon saluted and, after giving Sally a quick glance, he teleported to battle the remaining changelings.
The remaining invaders weren't as many as those attacking Canterlot, but they were visibly larger than most, even without morphing. Spike appeared in their path, right outside the town they were about to destroy.
"Alright, let's see if I can get creative here." Spike grinned and used the Reality Stone to change his outfit into a techno-suit of sorts, again, based on Tails' descriptions; it was easier this time since, thanks to the Mind Stone, he could give a quick glance to the young fox's memories.
The changelings then morphed into several beasts, from normal animals like bears and tigers, to supernatural ones like Timber Wolves and Manticores. They all charged at Spike at once, trying to surround the dragon.
Spike morphed his staff into a bright, techno disc, and threw it at the closest changeling, who had morphed into a panther, hitting it full force. The moment the disc hit the beast it separated into several smaller discs, all of them ricocheting and hitting the animals or, at least, forcing them to get defensive and cut their attack. Then, Spike made the discs to fly back at him and they all fused back into one large disc, morphing it into a battle baton he used to hit a bear's muzzle right when it was attacking him from behind. Spike roundhouse kicked two lions and then changed the baton into a light sword, cutting the poisonous sting off a giant scorpion before kicking the monster away. Spike's sword moves kept the rest of the attackers at bay, and then he changed it into a large staff that he spinned around him at high speed, not just hitting many beasts but creating a tornado-like wind around the dragon that blew the changelings away and made them change back to their normal forms.
"So, you guys give up, or you want me to REALLY get angry?" Spike smirked, realizing most of the changelings were unconscious now... but stopped when one of them morphed into an exact duplicate of Sally.
"S-Sally? I..." Spike shook his head and glared at the changeling. "How dare you copy her, you BUG?"
"So, this form 'bugs' you, Spike?" The changeling didn't just copy Sally's form, but also her voice. "I thought you'd like it."
Spike made a quick mind-reading, growling at what he found. This was one of Chrysalis' best soldiers, who didn't just copy a victim's looks but also his/her voice and mannerisms, pretty much like Chrysalis herself. Even more, the mind-reading revealed Chrysalis had planned this too, using the soldier to insult and/or attack anypony capable of stopping the invasion, just out of spite. The dragon wide-opened his eyes when realizing this soldier did his homework.
"You won't say it..." Spike gulped, especially when several of the town's ponies arrived to see the result of the battle.
"You want no witnesses, Spike?" The soldier grinned. "You don't want anypony knowing your secret?"
The soldier's voice was now getting louder, so everypony could hear him/her perfectly. Spike wanted to silence him/her, but he was just too shocked to act at the moment.
"You don't want them to know that their hero is nothing but a heart-broken, pathetic excuse for a lover who got rejected by a beautiful unicorn that liked a stallion prince more than him? And that you only became a hero so another girl way beyond your league would love you?"
This was just too much for Spike, who literally snapped at that moment. He froze every single changeling around minus the soldier; instead, he silenced him/her with a hard punch at dashing speed, so hard the changeling returned to its natural form immediately. At that moment, Spike stopped holding back and went pure animalistic fury on it, punching, biting and slashing the creature with such rage the town's ponies ran away in fear; when Spike realized this, it made him even more furious.
"YOU WANTED ME TO BE A MONSTER? SO BE IT!" Spike roared at the last phrase and then grabbed the changeling's horn with his bare hands/claws, and snapped it like a twig... right before he realized what he was doing.
Spike dropped the now unconscious, broken and barely alive changeling, and looked at his own hands in fear, dropping the horn a moment later.
"I... can't... I am not a monster... but... I acted like one..." Spike was glad he had subconsciously stopped himself from using the Stones against this changeling, relying only on his dragon capacities, but the pure animal fury and Adam's training still made him a dangerous opponent. Spike braced himself, now afraid of his dragon temper.
"Spike..."
The dragon gasped and turned to see Sonic right next to him, with Rainbow Dash and Princess Celestia right behind the hedgehog. With a quick mind scan, Spike found out that they had arrived a few moments ago, just in time to see his dragon rage.
"I... I..." Spike didn't know if running, yelling or covering up would work in the situation he was in right now..
"Hey, Spike, calm down." Rainbow approached him. "You know we are here to help, right?"
"Y-yes, but... I... oh, look at the time; have to go. Bye!" Spike used the Power and Reality Stones to get back to his winged form and power up his wings to give himself some super fast flight. He was out of sight in no time.
"I can go after him." Rainbow and Sonic said at once, but Celestia stopped them.
"I know you have good intentions, but this is a very personal matter for Spike." The alicorn princess said in her usual motherly way. "Right now, we must attend this problem; the changelings must get jailed... and receive medical attention. Spike will get the right assistance."
Sonic and Rainbow, well aware of how they weren't the best option to attend sentimental problems, sighed and nodded at Celestia.
A while later, Spike was right outside of the Star Swirl The Bearded Library, looking back and forth from the library's entrance to his staff. The dragon sighed and looked down.
"How am I gonna even try to do this?" Spike groaned while rubbing his head's sides. He then cringed a bit when Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, Princess Cadence and Adam Warcolt approached him.
"Princess Celestia and the others already told you what happened, right?" Spike sighed.
"No, they didn't. They just said you needed some help now. Care to elaborate?" Adam asked him. Spike was tempted to keep silence, but he just couldn't say 'No' to Twilight's eyes; the eyes of a worried big sister.
The dragon told them the whole thing, from his battle with the changelings to the Fake Sally's speech, at times apparently getting physically hurt when mentioning some of the insults 'she' threw at him; of course, Spike didn't say out-loud that the changeling knew his 'secret', but it was pretty obvious by now, especially for this group.
"Oh, Spike." Cadence sighed and rubbed her head/muzzle on Spike's head, comforting him, while Twilight placed a hoof on his shoulder.
"Yeah... I know, it was a changeling and not the real Sally, but... what he... or she... it... whatever... the point is, the changeling was right. I'm a selfish, insecure and self-conscious little liar, and now it's more evident than ever, Sally will never see me as a friend again... and any other relationship, well, is OBVIOUSLY out of question. And Discord was right too! I'm nothing but a monster; I was raised like a pony, and because of that I doubt I'll ever fall for a female dragon... and any other girl won't see me as anything but what I really am; a greedy monster."
"Spike, you're not a monster. The ones who said this to you are the monsters; they realized they couldn't defeat you physically... at this point, I doubt any creature can... so they attacked your feelings; they knew that's the only pain you can feel now." Twilight sighed. "And no monster would have such nice, strong feelings as yourself."
"But... Twi, you see me like a little brother..."
"Exactly." Twilight interrupted him. "And I wouldn't be a monster's sister; I wouldn't have helped raise a monster; I wouldn't have shared long hours of study with a monster; I wouldn't have moved to Ponyville with a monster; and I wouldn't be here trying to comfort a monster."
Spike was about to say something when Shining moved next to him.
"And that makes you my surrogate little brother too, Spike. Monsters have no families; or, if they have, they don't care. And you have lots of friends and 'relatives' that care about you."
Spike looked down and got a very little smile.
"Thanks... guess you're right, but... still.. there's still the whole problem with..."
This time it was Adam who interrupted him.
"Yes, your feelings. Spike, feelings are a double edged sword; they make you strong, determined, compassionate and brave... but they're also fragile, and something your enemies can attack in order to hurt you. And in this case, you're also hurting yourself."
"Yes, Spike, he's right." Twilight agreed with Adam. Spike groaned at this.
"Twi, forgive me for saying this, but... really, what do you know about love and heartbreak; you've never fallen in love, all you've done is spent most of your life with your nose in a book."
Shining and Cadence were about to snap at Spike, but Twilight didn't let them. She wanted Spike to say everything.
"You don't know what it's like to fix a broken heart by yourself." Spike was now getting teary eyes. "You... I... Twilight... I'm sorry if I'm offending you, and I'll probably start hitting myself so hard that even the Power Stone won't stop the pain, but in this case, you don't know anything."
"I know, Spike... in this case, I only know that I don't know a thing." Twilight sighed. "But when we first moved to Ponyville, I also knew little to nothing about friendship; and most of what I already knew I learned from you. So... if an egghead bookworm like me could learn about friendship, then you, Little Brother, can learn how to deal with a broken heart, and I can learn how to comfort you no matter what."
"Of course you can learn." Spike sniffed a bit before giving her a warm smile. "After all, when has Twilight Sparkle ever failed?"
"Hmmm... Applejack teaching me how to bake apple pie?" Twilight half-joked. "The only one who ate that attempt-of-a-pie of mine were you, and you dragons can eat rocks; literally."
"Twi, those were the best steel-hard ashes I've ever eaten." Spike grinned at her. Now Adam, Cadence and Shining were chuckling while Twilight blushed, embarrassed, but still smiling.
"Heh, fine, I'm not a chef; sue me." Twilight rolled her eyes while she and Spike embraced. "Feeling better now, Spike?"
"Yeah, a bit." Spike admitted. "I know I still have to... solve my situation with Sally... but yeah, I feel much better now."
The dragon then turned at Adam, mentor and pupil nodding at each other.
"Time to get... Time." Spike grinned.
"You're not gonna start making time-themed puns, right?" Adam smirked at him.
"No, that's my job." Pinkie emerged from nowhere. "If you have any doubt, just stay and WATCH me."
"Heh, hi, Pinkie." Spike chuckled.
"Yep, I know, about TIME I arrived, uh?" Pinkie chuckled. "I wanted to say something too, but you needed a hug and a chat better than a joke and a party; so, I was just waiting for the right MOMENT to enter. My TIMING was perfect, uh?"
"Okay, Pinkie, you can stop now; it got really old, real fast." Adam smirked at the pink pony.
"Guess everypony is gonna SECOND you on that." Pinkie grinned. Adam sighed and rolled his eyes yet smiled.
"Okay, you better start working on the next Stone now... and I'll be waiting outside so Pinkie doesn't drive me crazy."
A second later, Pinkie was riding Adam, and holding a steering wheel, while making car noises.
The other ponies and Spike started laughing at this while Adam sighed again.
"Seriously, living with this pink mare should be enough to be considered a hero."
"IT'S HERO TIME!" Pinkie laughed. "Oh, wait, we're going on an adventure, so... IT'S ADVENTURE TIME!"
Twilight levitated Pinkie and carried her inside the library while Spike followed them.
"Let's get inside before Adam decides it's time to see a psychiatrist."