Day Three Twilight

Twilight Sparkle woke to the sound of chirping birds. Birds were twittering in the bird feeder, ponies were ambling along on business of their own, and the sun was shining as she opened her eyes and gazed with marvel at the beautiful scene cascading out her window.

Rainbow Dash and her team must have gotten up early and cleared all the clouds!

There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and to top it all off, a smell was wafting from SugarCube Corner to signal that somepony had baked a batch of truly delicious breakfast pastries.

"Wow, what an amazing day! Spike, come look at this!"

Twilight waited for Spike for a minute or two. Then a few more. Then a few more. Then a few more. After ten whole minutes of no reaction from Spike's bed, she moved the sheets off his bed. "Spike, wake up it's a…."

She faltered. Spike looked terrible. He had bags under his eyes which were puffy and red. He was staring off into the distance as if not really seeing anything at all.

"…beautiful day," she finished.

Spike coughed.

"Oh, Spike, what's wrong?" asked Twilight. Spike snapped out of his daze.

"Nothing," he said grumpily as he got up. "What a rotten day," he said, looking out the window. He stormed downstairs and sat down at the bottom step.

Twilight looked at her friend with some concern. "Spike, are you sure nothing is wrong?"

"I said I'm fine." Spike grimaced. "What are you doing today?" he asked.

Twilight was a little taken aback by the change in topic, but answered, "Nothing much. I'm just going to read my favorite book again."

Spike snorted. "Big surprise," he said. " I'm going out if you don't need anything," he said, turning towards her.

"Well actually, I could use your help in––,"

SLAM!

Spike meaningfully shut the door on his way out.

Twilight shook her head. "What's wrong with him?" He had never acted this rudely to her, even if he was acting weirder than her friends normally were.

Well, with the exception of Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie is always the exception.

This was a problem, and whenever Twilight Sparkle had a problem, she did what she always did: She thought it out. She thought back to when Spike had started acting so strangely. She remembered he had acted weirdly during breakfast before the games. She remembered that he had caused an awkward moment in the stands and that Rarity had then started acting differently too. Right after she and Spike had made contact. Rarity had run away from her afterwards. She had snapped at Twilight and had looked as though she had been…

No, she couldn't have been crying. Why would she?

Pushing that to the back of her mind, Twilight continued thinking. Spike had also acted odd at the games. He had come up with stupid reasons to stay behind and he had come home much later than he said. The next day he had seemed distracted and had made excuses to be by himself. He had come home hours later and had seemed really sulky about something, but when questioned had simply said that he was tired. He had even lied to Fluttershy just to leave.

And that was another thing! How had Rarity, so clever and careful, let her Opal get so wet like that? Her Opal! The cat who Rarity constantly fretted over! Soaked!

It's a puzzle all right.

She rushed to her shelves and took down all the books she could reach and started researching. She would get to the bottom of this, or her name was Whigtilt Plakers. She started reading at once, hoping that she would find something soon so she could have her two friends back. She had decided that whatever was going on, both Rarity and Spike were involved. She started in history, hoping that maybe similar circumstances had happened in pony history. She found nothing. Next she tried her medical section hoping for a disease or sickness that might have attached itself to her friends. Once again she found nothing. She looked in every section and in every book she could find, but nothing had the information that could explains her friends sudden changes in mood.

But just as she was about to give up, she found something. An old book entitled Creatures of Equestria was lying behind a copy of A History Of Magic. Twilight scanned the pages closely. There was a page on Unicorns, a page on Pegasi, a page on Earth Ponies, and one on dragons. There was even one on parasprites.

This would have been useful! Where was this when I needed it?

But then suddenly she found what she was looking for. A page with a large picture of a strange looking creature, a cross between a dragon and a bunny, had the following paragraph.

"IMP, VEXATION"

"Different than their brothers and sisters in demonhood, imps delight in the misery of others. Of all the manifestations of imp, the Vexation Imp is possibly the worst. While most demons are either wholly good or wholly bad and feed of off plants, the Vexation Imp feeds of off anger and sadness. Vexation Imps sneak in through windows and cracks and prey on creatures who are asleep. Most chant a spell and throw dust on their victims while others poke them with quills while they are walking. The latter takes residence in thorn bushes so as to prick the individual without suspicion. Once they have enchanted their prey, they cause them to act wildly or recklessly. Results range from species but most act on their most primitive instincts. Hunters like wolves, dragons, and griffins act aggressively and lash out on others. More passive creatures like ponies, small woodland creatures, and leprechauns are more likely to act passionately and become easily hurt or sensitive. Vexation Imps also have been known to change size and appearance. They have been documented as looking like anything from ponies to flies to dragons. The more skilled have even been seen to change into objects. Once they have fed, they usually stay to watch their prey fight and despair for they delight in such things. Fortunately, there are many ways to catch or reveal Vexation Imps listed below."

Twilight read on, taking notes about the Vexation Imp.

So some fairy thinks he can come to Ponyville and mess with Twilight Sparkle's friends and get away with it does he? Well we'll see about that!