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In Swept a Blizzard

by Wintergreen Diaries

Chapter 5: Friendship is Frustration (Just One Thing)

Previous Chapter

Though Twilight hadn’t realized how badly she needed food, by the time she finished eating, she felt like a new pony. Sipping on the last of her water as the afternoon sun warmed her back, Twilight watched with quiet amusement as her guest regressed in age approximately ten years, sparring with Spike using flimsy leaves of lettuce and generally putting forth no effort towards cultivating his image. Perhaps it was for that very reason that the mare found herself so at ease, that willingness to present himself as he was. While he seemed to fluctuate between quiet sobriety and adolescent excitement, Twilight couldn’t say she minded either: they both had their charms, and it kept things interesting. Though she was loathe to interrupt the boys from their game, she knew that there were yet things on her mental checklist that needed their attention. Just as the heroic dragon triumphed over the wicked wizard, she cleared her throat and took a moment to appreciate their completely unabashed expressions.

“Not a single ounce of shame between the two of them,” Twilight thought with fondness, making no effort to hide her mirth. “All right, you two, I think you’ve both had enough salad for a day,” she began, disarming them both and placing the tattered leaves back in the bowl. “Spike, are you all finished with your chores?”

“Almost! Just a few more shelves to organize,” he quipped in high spirits.

“Alright, then, go ahead and finish up there. I’ll take care of the kitchen, and together we should have this place tidied up in no time!” Bidding them adieu with a quick salute, Spike tottered off to be about his work while Twilight gathered the entire contents of the table and lifted it over to the sink. Switching on the faucet with a quick flick of her magic, Twilight plugged the drain, poured in some soap, and waited patiently for the water to pool to about halfway before gently lowering down the tableware into the suds with only minimal clinking. Humming softly to herself as she began studiously scrubbing each dish to a pristine shine, she didn’t notice that Cerulean had joined her at the sink until he moved the faucet head to the other side and began rinsing the dishes she had finished with.

“Oh, you don’t need to do that,” Twilight said quickly, slightly embarrassed. “You’re my guest; You shouldn’t have to do house work.”

“Hmmm, perhaps not, but I’d still like to help if that’s alright,” Cerulean replied cheerfully, flashing Twilight a smile before returning his attention to the bowl he was freeing of bubbles.

“Well, alright… as long as you don’t feel compelled to do so on my account,” Twilight consented after a short pause.

“Let’s see now,” Cerulean began with a hint of amusement, “you took me in when nopony would offer a place to rest, showed me kindness when others regarded me with fear, gave me the opportunity to free myself of weeks worth of filth, and fed me the first proper meal I’ve had in quite some time…” Hearing a clink, Cerulean glanced over to find Twilight bashfully avoiding eye contact, though she couldn’t seem to hide the faint smile tugging at the corners of her muzzle. “Trust me,” he assured her softly, “helping you wash the dishes is the least I could do.”

“Then why is it that I’m the one who feels indebted to you?” Twilight returned, welcoming the warmth welling in her chest from his expressions of gratitude. “You came to comfort me when I was feeling down, even though we had only just met. You took the words I hadn’t meant to say and used them to encourage me rather than remind me of my mistakes, and brushed aside my quirks as if they weren’t bothersome at all. If I can be honest, I… think it’s really me that should be thanking you.” Though she knew to look up then would make it apparent how taken she was finding herself to be, Twilight had to make sure that Cerulean knew she had meant what she said, and as she turned towards the only stallion who had left her with a shred of confidence, she found her guest similarly afflicted.

“You… that’s really how feel?” he asked with evident bafflement.

“Well… yes, I do,” Twilight returned slowly, growing hesitant as she noticed a faint blush showing violent against Cerulean’s blue coat. “Is that okay?”

“It’s more than okay, Twilight,” he replied, turning back towards the sink. “So many times, it feels like it’s only the ponies who accomplish great things that receive any kind of notice, while those who dedicate themselves to consistent, though lesser, displays of goodwill are taken for granted. That fact that you appreciate the smaller things that most would ignore, it…” he paused, glancing over at her. “It really means a lot to me.”

“For what it’s worth,” she started, placing a hoof on his shoulder, “I didn’t think they were small.” She couldn’t have anticipated that her words would move him so, and it was with great surprise that she found Cerulean’s neck pressed against her own as he closed the distance between them. Her hooves moved naturally to return the shaky embrace within which she found herself being held, and though she wasn’t one to disregard the task at hand, Twilight determined that the dishes could wait for a few minutes. Though she was perplexed by his behavior, the warmth that lay just under the cool of his coat was more than sufficient to prove that whatever had moved Cerulean, it wasn’t something to worry about. The apology whispered in her ear, however, wasn’t something she could let him get away with.

“Hey, there’s no reason for you to be sorry,” Twilight corrected gently as she pulled away. “Listen, I… I’m really new at being friends with stallions- actually, you’re the first that has stuck around long enough for me to even have the chance. I can’t guarantee that I’ll always have the right answers, and I may not have the qualifications to be your editor, but I do enjoy your company, and... I’d like to be your friend.”

“I don’t know very much about friendship at all,” Cerulean replied, averting his eyes. “I never had many friends, and fewer that stayed around for long. If I call you a friend, then it probably means you’ll leave, too…” Twilight’s spirits fell along with her gaze as she heard the words, torn between urging that he give friendship another chance while understanding full well just how painful it can be lose those friendships. Though they had always patched things up, she could count a number of times when her friends had left her alone, and those were some of the darkest days in her life.

“I… think I understand,” Twilight replied sagely, nodding slowly. “Even if you can’t return my friendship, I’d still like to show you what it’s like to have one.” Though it hurt hearing him express doubt in the magic that she’d spent the last three years studying fervently, the sadness it brought only made her more determined to help Cerulean see that friendship really did exist, and that it was something nopony should live without. “And,” she added with a hopeful smile, “if it’s alright with you, I’d still like to be your editor.”

“Again, you offer what I have no right to ask for...” Cerulean responded ruefully, meeting Twilight’s gentleness with what little hope he could muster. “I can’t guarantee that I’ll always be agreeable to your help, but I want you to know that no matter what I say, your care is more appreciated than you can know.”

“Well, I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually,” Twilight quipped, nudging him playfully towards the sink. “Come on, there are dishes to clean and we still need to get you to the dentist. If anypony can fix your breath, it will be our Colgate.”

“Still pretty wilting, huh?”

“Adding fresh vegetables to a pile of compost doesn’t make it smell any better,” Twilight returned with a giggle, washing the last of the glasses and lifting it over to Cerulean. “Besides, if you haven’t brushed in a while, I’m sure there’s some major plaque buildup that’s going to cause problems down the road if it isn’t properly cleaned; It isn’t just about your breath.”

There really was no arguing with the mare’s logic. Cerulean wasn’t about to deny her hospitality, and as he stacked the last of the dishes onto the draining rack, he grew curious as Twilight neared with her horn shimmering at the ready. He had heard ponies comment about how impressive some of his feats involving ice magic had been, but Cerulean found himself fascinated as the mare insta-dried the dishes, evaporating the water with a carefully controlled field of heat and sending out a billowing cloud of steam as the magic faded. Opening several cupboard doors, Twilight continued using her magic as she usually did with little awareness of how genuinely stunning her abilities were, sorting and stacking plates, bowls, glasses and other utensils with relative ease. She was almost finished by the time Cerulean found his voice, and she paused with only last bowl poised in transit as he spoke up.

“You’re amazing…”

“Huh? Oh! I wasn’t meaning to show off!” Twilight assured him, fidgeting nervously with the bowl. “I just like to use magic for everything, and I sometimes forget how that looks to other ponies, and...”

“What? No, I didn’t think you were. You’re just startlingly talented,” Cerulean corrected with a shake of his head. “I’ve never had any problem focusing intently on just one thing, but I can’t maintain split focus like it takes to levitate multiple objects. I can do two if they are both held in front of me, maybe three if I’m feeling ambitious, but that… I’ve never seen such advanced levitation used before. It’s really very, well, amazing.” Being complimented on her magic wasn’t terribly uncommon given that Twilight was a unicorn in an earth pony village, but hearing it from Cerulean made it mean so much more. Neither pony was expecting that he would be given a perfect opportunity to prove his point so soon.

WHAM. With her focus completely derailed by the jarring sound of pony warring with timber, Twilight yelped at the thunderous sound and lost her grip of the bowl, but as she braced for the sound of shattering glass, she found the bowl held steady by a shimmering blue aura.

“See? Just one thing,” Cerulean laughed, looking mightily pleased with himself.

“That’s all fine and dandy, but I don’t think that bowl is my biggest worry right now,” Twilight explained with a sigh, opening a cupboard door to find that all her careful organization had been undone in a moment. “I’d better go see what that was about.” With her obsessive need for order crying foul and her plans to tote Cerulean about town pushed back, Twilight marched towards the inner room with every intent to give whoever had seemingly torn the door from its hinges a reproving diatribe they wouldn’t soon forget. Her mind was forced to take a brief hiatus as she found that the door wasn’t torn from its hinges, but actually blown from them in multiple chunks and several thousand splinters. There, in the center of it all, was a cyan pegasus with mane, coat, and wings coated in a gooey white substance that Twilight was all too familiar with.

“Rai-” Twilight started, barely getting out the first syllable before the pegasus with trembling limbs and heaving chest snapped to attention.

“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash cried out, dashing over and wrapping her unfortunate friend in a pasty vice grip of visceral terror. Twilight managed to squeak out half of a syllable of pure displeasure before she too was sharing in her friend’s condition, and she found her vocabulary suddenly filled with words she didn’t oft find cause to utter as the sickly sensation of viscous ooze once again graced her coat. “Twilight, you gotta do something! Pinkie Pie and Colgate have both gone totally crazy!”

“And that’s... somehow... news?!” Twilight fired back, straining against her bonds and finally popping free with an aggravating slurping noise. “At least when Pinkie Pie shows up unexpectedly, she doesn’t leave my door in a thousand pieces!”

“What? But I- whatever!” Rainbow Dash sputtered out with a dismissive flick of her hoof, landing a dollop of toothpaste on the tip of Twilight’s snout. “You wouldn’t be worrying about the door if you had any idea what I’ve been through this afternoon! It was horrible!”

“Let me guess,” Twilight began, donning a wry, knowing smile to accompany her half-lidded glare and droll tone. “Pinkie wanted you to try Colgate’s ‘special treatment,’ you agreed, and then got blasted with her mechanical menace of a toothpaste dispenser.” Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to retort, and then deadpanned as she realized that Twilight was actually a clairvoyant savant who had perfected the art of mind reading.

“I... well... yeah, pretty much,” Rainbow Dash muttered, her volatile state utterly defused by Twilight’s freakish knowledge of unorthodox dental practice. “How did you know?”

“Let’s just say I’ve already had my trip to the dentist today,” Twilight replied, lifting out a washcloth from the kitchen and scrubbing at her coat. The hug hadn’t left her terribly filthy, and with a little work she was soon fluoride free once more, freeing her mind to focus on Rainbow Dash. It was a rare sight, seeing a pony with an ego as expansive as the skies looking so thoroughly miserable, and after taking a few deep breaths and rubbing that space between her eyes that throbbed whenever she was stressed, Twilight reached deep for some compassion. She then found herself scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel as Rainbow Dash moved to preen herself, spat out a mouthful of toothpaste onto the floor, and then flicked her wings in a frantic attempt to dislodge the remainder of the paste.

“Rainbow Dash, stop! You’re making an even bigger mess!” Twilight barked, shielding herself from the spray.

“Well, excuse me for wanting to get this stuff off my wings!” Rainbow Dash snapped back with a challenging glare. “Wouldn’t you wanna get clean? All this mint is starting to burn!”

“At least you didn’t get it blasted straight up your nose!” Twilight returned with indignation.

“Well I- uh... but it-” Rainbow Dash stalled, simultaneously horrified at the thought of taking a laser blast to the sinuses and yet desperate to maintain her crown of victimhood. “You don’t know what it’s like to get it in your wings! I mean... these things are sensitive,” she pouted, craning around and giving them an experimental flap. Both ponies took a reprieve from their bickering as a large glob of gooey cavity protection fell from the tip of Rainbow’s wing with a fantastic plop, punctuating her point. “Even after I get all this junk cleaned off, it’s going to take hours of preening to get my wings back in shape...”

“Look, I’m sorry you listened to Pinkie Pie, okay?” Twilight began, doing her best to maintain a level tone. “But that’s no excuse to come rushing in here and ruin my library! You can use my shower if you want to get cleaned up now, but just… keep the toothpaste away from my books, alright?”

“Yeah, fine, whatever…” Slinking off towards the shower with her ego hiding in the corner alongside her confidence, Rainbow Dash started towards the stairs but instead halted about halfway there upon realizing she was being stared at by somepony she’d never seen before. What was even more curious to her is that said pony was a stallion, and seeing a stallion inside the library was about as common as celestial phenomena in that it only seemed to happen once every few years. Still shaken from her trip to the dentist but not wanting to appear weak in front of a guy, albeit a fairly girly looking one, Rainbow Dash dragged her confidence out of the corner and gave him an average how-do-you-do. “What’re you lookin’ at, huh?” Rainbow Dash snapped, glowering at Cerulean. “You got somethin’ you wanna say?”

“M-my apologies, I wasn’t meaning to stare,” came his quiet reply, and even Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but feel a little bad as he discreetly withdrew around the corner. She turned to ask Twilight where she’d found her new Fluttershy and immediately put her question on hold as she found herself held fast in Twilight’s disapproving gaze. With the words “fix it” being actively carved into her hide by the violet daggers being pointed her way, Rainbow Dash trotted towards the kitchen to try a somewhat gentler approach with the stallion.

“Hey, I wasn’t- wah!” Loosing a startled cry as she rounded the corner and found herself not inches from the pony in question, she launched herself into the air with a spray of toothpaste and met the ceiling with a dull thud before flopping to the ground with both hooves held over her smarting noggin. “Agh, what’d you go and do that for?” she half-growled, half whined. “Don’t you know it’s rude to- rrrrgh, rude to sneak up on ponies?”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t meaning to,” Cerulean murmured, giving Twilight a passing glance as she watched from the doorway. “I know they were arguing just a few minutes ago, but I think this mare is one of Twilight’s friends. She looks miserable…”

Too distracted with trying to ward off tears from the combination of humiliation from being a fraidy pony and the pain of using her head as a battering ram twice in one day, Rainbow Dash didn’t bother gritting out another accusation. She knew that he was obviously not at fault, and hearing him be so appropriately apologetic was only making her feel worse. Being confrontational was second nature to the mare, but even Fluttershy seemed to deal with it better than whoever the quiet blue guy was, and with no intention of giving him any more grief for fear of both Twilight’s judgement and that of her own conscience, Rainbow Dash focused instead on figuring out the least humiliating way to drag herself to the shower. Her thoughts were disrupted as she found herself quite unexpectedly cool, and she opened her eyes to find Cerulean standing before her with his horn shining bright.

“W-what’re you-”

“Stand up,” he commanded softly as magic continued gathering around his horn. “I can help.” Knowing that magic could be freaky business but not feeling particularly threatened, Rainbow Dash swallowed hard as she reassured herself that Twilight wouldn’t let him do anything strange to her. Shakily getting to her hooves, the pegasus grit her teeth and fought to tame the tremors that were giving her away.

“Could you, um… spread your wings?”

“You want me to what?” Rainbow Dash cried, her voice cracking at the end.

“Do it, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight exclaimed, her eyes shining with anticipation. “I’m sure it’ll be fine! Cerulean isn’t the type for funny business, so there’s nothing to be afraid of!” Incredulous, Dash slowly turned away from her excitable colleague and back to the stallion who barely stood above her in height. It was true that she couldn’t imagine the pony before her doing anything untoward, and while it was still an uncomfortable request, she knew she owed Twilight for something. Probably.

“You do anything strange, and I’ll pound you good, got it?” she warned the colt, meaning every word. Repaid with a contrite nod, Rainbow Dash looked away and slowly stretched out her wings, cringing as the gooey substance worked deeper into her feathers. There was a brief delay before anything happened, but with a gust of cool wind the aura in her peripherals grew, and she watched with skeptical fascination as ribbons of magic began wrapping around her foreleg. They didn’t seem to actually make contact with her skin, but hover just above it, and even as a pegasus she found herself growing intrigued as first one leg, then a wing, and then another leg were cloak in ethereal strands of aquamarine.

“Take a deep breath,” Cerulean instructed as the shroud covered all but her face. A droplet of sweat beaded on his brow as the strain reached deeply into his shallow pool of strength, but the thought of helping somepony on Twilight’s behalf brought with it what was needed to complete the spell.

From the sidelines, Twilight was beside herself with barely contained excitement as the last of Rainbow Dash’s muzzle faded from view. From there, the ribbons began to contract, tightening and eventually fusing with one another until there was nothing but a gleaming representation of Equestria’s best young flier. With a brilliant flash of light, the last stage of the spell loosed from Cerulean’s horn, and Twilight sat down hard as she looked to find Rainbow Dash completely encased in ice. Breathless, Twilight watched in awe as he reached forward and tapped the ice gently with his hoof in conjunction with a short burst of magic, and just as quickly as the ice had formed, it shattered into thousands of snowflakes.

“C-cold! Coldcoldcold, so v-very c-cold!” Rainbow exclaimed, scuffling away from Cerulean. “W-w-what the h-hay d-did you d-do that for?” she yelled, rubbing her forelegs furiously in an attempt to rid herself of the chill.

“You’re all clean now, aren’t you?” he returned with a hopeful smile, motioning for the mare to see for herself. Skeptical at first, she spent a few more seconds glaring at the grinning prankster before looking down at herself to find that she was completely free of the glop that had been smeared all over her coat.

“W-what the…” she said, staring in disbelief. Bringing her wings around, she brushed a few powdering flakes away and found them every bit as spotless as the rest of her. There were a few feathers out of place and she would still need to spend a decent chunk of time preening, but that didn’t change the fact that Cerulean had saved loads of time not having to shower, and that was reason enough to change her opinion of him. “Th-this… is... a-awesome!” she exclaimed, swooping into the air and landing in front of Cerulean. “I’m n-not gonna ask how you did it, b-but that was pretty radical. What’s your n-name?”

“Cerulean,” he answered, pleasantly surprised with the reception of his trick. “Oh, almost forgot!” Reaching down, he scooped some snow into his hoof and plopped it down on top of Dash’s bump. “Sorry about your head, uh…

“Rainbow Dash, nice to meetcha,” she replied promptly, offering a hoof bump. It took him a little bit to realize why she was waving her hoof at him, but he caught on after a few moments.

“I really wasn’t trying to scare you,” he began to say, though his worries were summarily erased as Rainbow Dash snickered at him for being so apologetic.

“Are you still going on about that?” Rainbow Dash laughed, rolling her eyes and holding her head with a rueful grin stamped on her muzzle. “Don’t even worry about it! Even though I’m Equestria’s number one flier, I’ve had my fair share of crashes, and that one was nothing. Oh, and for the record? I wasn’t scared. Anyways, I’ve got stuff to do, so I’ll be seeing you around. Later, Cerulean! Bye, Twilight.”

Brushing passed the unresponsive mare who hadn’t said a word since having her mind blown by such an intuitive use of unconventional magic, Rainbow Dash trotted off in high spirits while her friend tried desperately to find her voice. While the spell was no doubt taxing and the strain was evident in Cerulean’s fatigued grin, bearing witness to new magic that had both proved practical and impressive was something that Twilight had secretly hoped for but not expected to see, or at least not in that magnitude.

“See?” he chuckled weakly, feeling light-headed, “just one thing.” Plopping his rump down and bringing a hoof to his head, he closed his eyes as the strain caused him to sway.

“Th-that… was… AMAZING!” Cracking open his eyes just in time to see the mare leaping at him, Cerulean had little time to brace for impact before being bowled over by the power of scientific inquiry and manifest obsession with all things magical, also known as one Twilight Sparkle. “I didn’t even know magic could be used like that! I mean, sure, I knew that there were spells to conjure most of the elements, but using a restricted field to lower the temperature within an isolated space to freeze off toothpaste and then using a resonant frequency to shatter the generated ice structure? That’s not just smart, it’s genius!”

“You… deduced all that just through observation?” he asked, too astonished by the mare’s perception to manage volume above a murmur.

“Empirical analysis is extremely important for any kind of experimentation, scientific or magical!” Twilight explained giddily, unconcerned with the fact that she was, for all intents and purposes, straddling her guest. “Generating fields with that kind of complexity is highly advanced magic, but that’s nothing compared to manipulating the condensed moisture in the air to freeze evenly around a pony’s coat! Oh, tell me you’ll teach me how to use that spell! Please?”

“I-”

“Pretty please?”

“But it’s-”

“Please pleasepleaseplease please~?”

“Her enthusiasm is infectious,” Cerulean thought as he peered back at the beaming mare. There was no reason he saw to deny her request, and more importantly, he felt excited to do so, something that struck him as monumental in and of itself. “Are you, the editor, asking me, the scribbled mess, for instruction in the ways of winter?” Cerulean asked with a grin.

“Are you, the scribbled mess, asking me, the editor, a silly question?” Twilight chortled in reply, beaming back.

“Hmmm, I suppose I am,” he pondered aloud, secretly thankful that the mare hadn’t noticed her position and spooked. While their coats weren’t touching, the height of her fervor was evident in the heat emanating from her body, breaking upon the cool of his own like waves lapping at the ocean shore. Inhaling deeply as a contented sigh welled within his chest, Cerulean held his breath for a moment as the lingering scent of Twilight’s mane tickled his senses before letting it out slow, purposefully pointing his muzzle away so as to spare her nose. “I’m not even sure I can properly explain each individual spell, but I can at least share the theory behind them. We should probably get going, though, before anypony else shows up.”

“Why would that matter?”

“This isn’t the most conventional position for studying.” Glancing down and staring for a couple of moments at the pony between her legs, Twilight offered a sheepish chuckle as she discretely backed away.

“I’m just going to go,” she started, pausing midway through as she bumped into her lectern, “...gonna go, um… right.” Embarrassed with her behavior and perplexed as to how Cerulean could be both accepting and calm in a position that would have had her stammering and breathless, Twilight wandered aimlessly over to the kitchen before realizing that she had no real reason to be there. Irked by her inability to focus, she returned to the main room to find Cerulean dutifully culling the fragments of wood into a pile with his magic, one chunk at a time.

It was therapeutic to watch the stallion focus so intently on the simple task, and it wasn’t long before she found herself beginning to calm. Listening with concealed amusement as Spike shamelessly tried to escape the inevitable chore of cleaning up Rainbow Dash’s mess by offering Cerulean a broom, Twilight remembered the task at hoof and reached into the closet to pack for their trip into Ponyville. Chuckling quietly as her assistant’s benevolent offer was politely refused, Twilight stuffed some bits in the bag along with some emergency reading material and cantered over to Cerulean, who had amassed a surprisingly large mound of chips in the short time he’d been collecting them.

“You do know you don’t have to worry about cleaning up, right?” Twilight reminded him in the hopes of easing any obligation he might have felt.

“Oh, I know,” he replied readily, standing with a grin. “I was only flexing my magic a little. I haven’t used it much as of late, and wanted to make sure I could still use my levitation for more than holding a dish.”

“What about the snow you were using to keep yourself cool when I first found you here?” Twilight asked, always one for details. “Doesn’t that count?” Not having known what it was she was asking, Twilight wasn’t expecting the ensuing silence her question invoked. Apart from blinking once, Cerulean made no motion to respond to her inquiry, nor gave any apparent sign that he had even heard what she’d asked. She watched him turn his attention back towards his pile of wood chips and, after adding a few more, he finally responded in a worryingly neutral tone.

“...I suppose.”

“Note to self: don’t ask about his snow,” Twilight cautioned herself, though she couldn’t help but wonder. “Why would that be a sensitive thing for him to talk about, I wonder? Being able to keep cool during the summer through skillful manipulation of the elements would be something to be proud of, not… whatever it is he’s showing now. Shame? No, not quite, but something close…” Chiding herself for getting distracted and shelving her curiosity with great difficulty, Twilight refocused and shifted the subject. “So, um… are you ready to go?”

“Sure am!” he quipped, shifting from passive to excited without notice. “These teeth of mine aren’t going to clean themselves. Unless, of course, you have a spell for that?”

“Not off the top of my head, but I’m positive we could figure something out!” Twilight proclaimed, pleased to see that she hadn’t dampened his spirits too much. “Still, it would probably be faster to just go see the dentist. Her office isn’t going to be open much longer, so we should probably get moving. Spike? Could you try to have this all swept up before we get back?”

“You can count on me!” Spike said confidently, practically pushing the pair out the door. “Don’t worry about a thing, you two. I’ll have this place cleaned up in no time! Have fun!” Spike didn’t have any particular appreciation for chores, but how could he think about himself when Twilight might have finally found what she’d been searching for? She might have had the wherewithal to rationally deduce that nothing was certain, but as Spike watched the pair canter into town, all he could see was his closest friend filled to the brim with hesitant wonder, and for that alone, he was grateful to Cerulean. “Now then, time to get started! It’s just one more thing, right?” he told himself as he turned around. The splinters seemed to have migrated to every nook and cranny of the library, showing on shelves and between books, and even on the stairs. “Just one more thing,” he repeated with a groan as he started to sweep. “There’s always just one more thing…”

Author's Notes:

Don't ask why. I don't even know.

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