Renewal

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

----

Marley looked at her reflection in a window. She stared, glared at her age lines until they receded.

Which didn't work.

This was a problem.

Well, her age was too, but that wasn't really a problem she could do anything about.

She'd expected this to taper off after a while, it wasn't unusual for a week or two.

The kids were scared they'd get shipped off again, do their chores and then some until they felt comfortable.

Realize she wasn't going to throw them away.

This though?

"Spike, I think we need to talk." She'd managed to find him in the kitchen, cleaning. He wore an apron and gloves.

Her apron. With frilly flowers and bunnies.

He also had his hair hidden under a bandanna, black with green flames.

"Sure. What's up, Miss Marley?" He dropped a rag into his bucket and turned around, a disturbingly innocent grin on his face.

"I just wanted to ask you some questions, that's all." She walked by him and opened the fridge, pulling out a pair of sodas.

She'd kill for something harder, especially for this kind of talk. But after the last pair of twins she'd housed before getting themselves shipped off to the juvenile detention center for selling her alcohol that wasn't going to happen.

"You're not in trouble, I just want to talk is all." She seated herself at the kitchen table and cracked open the can in her hand. He mimicked her shortly afterwards.

"Now, you know cleaning the kitchen this week is supposed to be Sweety Lumps' job, right?" She was staring straight into his eye as she spoke.

With one eye covered, his facial expressions were a lot harder to read. The rest of him, though? His body language was refreshingly honest.

And the slight tightening of his shoulders, his elbows getting closer together?

He thought he was about to get scolded. Or punished.

"He's not going to learn to be responsible for himself if you're doing his work for him, alright?" This wasn't completely new territory for her, unfortunately. He wasn't the first kid to act like this. "And you can't keep doing the work for the other kids, either. I'm not going to yell at you for taking care of laundry, Zest shouldn't have left it in the washer but just..."

She tried to wave her hand to encompass the whole of the house. To try and infer that the dishes, windows, vacuuming and just everything that had been done since he came to their home.

"I just wanted to impress..." He spoke quietly, unsure if he was justifying or explaining.

"And I'm very impressed, Spike. You've done a better job than I or any of the kids would have done. I'm sure you'll make a great house-husband if you don't pick a career. But this isn't about the work you've been doing all month." She took a long drink from her soda, using the moment to decide best how to continue. "Before you came here, were you doing all of this?"

"Yeah, it..." He hesitated for just a moment before he soldiered through. "It was my job."

She had wanted to hear almost anything other than that.

"How did you get that job?" Please say a newspaper. A help wanted ad. A window sign.

"Not long after I was born, my guardian gave me to somepon- Someone who worked for her. They looked after me, taught me some math and reading and then started teaching me how to be an assistant. A while later my guardian reassigned me, I was supposed to be the personal assistant to her student. I did that for a few years and then things kind of fell apart and I came here." He was smiling again, likely remembering someone he was friends with.

That... that was insane!

It was how you'd treat a pet not, not a thinking, intelligent child!

"How do you mean 'things fell apart'? I mean, we- you were found with a lot of bruising and burns on your-" She motioned her hand over her eye. "-that sounds like a lot more than just 'Fell apart'."

The only comparison she could think of involved a religious cult that had been on the news lately, its members giving up their children to their leader for position and prestige.

"Things fell apart. I can't really say much more than that." He seemed contrite, like he was keeping a secret that he knew was important.

"That's... That's fine, Spike." That was not fine. She didn't even know where to begin with that kind of mess. "Go ahead and finish up what you were doing but promise me something."

"What's that?" His chair screeched across tile as it slid back while he got up.

"Stop poaching the other kids chores. They get assigned for a reason."

----

Twilight walked into her library.

She didn't canter, nor she did trot. She most certainly did not run.

She was far too exhausted for that.

The train she and her friends had been on was long enough that she certainly could have gotten some sleep, but the atmosphere had been far too tense.

Unsurprising really, given that they'd only just barely uncovered a plot in the Crystal Empire to dethrone her brother and Cadence.

A plot developed and personally executed by Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings who still obeyed her.

Which, it seemed, were few and far between.

The queen's whole monologue had been about how much a victim she'd been, how her control had dwindled without love and that she was going to drain the Crystal Heart dry to reestablish absolute control over every last changeling in Equestria and beyond.

Cadance took exception.

Cadance took exception with extreme prejudice.

The righteous fury of a mother was not, it seemed, palatable to changelings.

Even if it was made of love.

The whole ordeal had left off on a sour note unfortunately. Cadance was extremely protective of her daughter and Shining Armor was sulking about being duped. Again.

The only hoof the elements of Harmony had in the whole debacle was Pinkie somehow unmasking Chrysalis. By accident.

So tensions in the Crystal Empire were at an all time high and the Empire was exporting it in bulk.

Starting with Twilight Sparkle.

But she was home now. Home and in her library. Her sanctuary.

Where the evils of the world couldn't get at her.

Except one.

She cast her gimlet gaze upon Starswirl's mirror, her eyes glaring at the mercurial tears seeping across...

She stared in confusion and awe as silver droplet were slowly, so very slowly seeping into the fractured mirror from the frame.

Some of the most minute cracks had faded away in her absence.

For the first time in days, Twilight Sparkle smiled.

Author's Notes:

I've never seen the sound of music.
I did not have this chapter planned, but I got to thinking on it and some of my past training in spotting abuse in children (Camp employee, nothing certified) and got to thinking. I don't have anything else to do while I'm at work.