Refusal

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

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He wasn't sure if Twilight had been avoiding him, or if luck just wasn't on their side.

Maybe a bit of both?

Probably a bit of both.

He hadn't managed to find her before the second set of events, instead he just ended up filing into the stands with the rest of the kids.

He'd fired off a 'Congrats on the win' text to her, but she hadn't responded.

Probably too busy. He didn't know how much prep went into the next bit.

Watching her and her team lining up to be announced gave him a solid idea, though. Fitted uniforms, and those were definitely fitted uniforms, took forever to get in and out of.

He held his arm over the edge of the stands, holding up his poster.

Spike scowled when he saw her teammate, the one with her hair up in buns, elbow her and point at him. But seeing her grin and look down told him she hadn't minded.

"-In this event, our qualifying competitors will face off in Archery, Speed Skating and finally, Motocross!" Dean Cadance was in top form for the announcement. It seemed she genuinely enjoyed this part of her job.

"So, if the competitors are ready!" She raised an airhorn and fired it. "Each competitor must hit a bulls-eye before their team can start the next leg of the relay!"

Sour Sweet bolted, and as little as Spike had to say about her he had to admit.

She was good.

The hurdles didn't slow her down. The mud pit was easily traversed. And most impressively, she fired off a trio of arrows all at once, landing one bulls-eye.

Spike clapped and cheered alongside the rest of his school before dropping silent.

Twilight had a rough start. And a rougher fall.

He watched her falter and drop at the first hurdle. Pick herself back up, look at him and give him the oddest smile before stumbling forward.

Spike shifted uncomfortably on the bench.

There was something wrong here. He didn't know what that look had meant, but he knew it wasn't good.

Twilight swung limply back and forth over the mud pit, Sour Sweet glaring at her and... Was she pulling on her own hair?

None of the other students seemed to be too concerned.

Maybe that was normal?

Applejack had caught up by this point. She fired off a few arrows before hitting her own bulls-eye. She turned to look at Twilight afterwards.

Spike felt it then. Just a trickle, but the magic that he'd pushed so deep was acting up. Churned by his frustrations at watching Twilight struggle and be torn down for it.

And he couldn't do anything.

Well, that wasn't true. He could do something.

'Just a touch, all it would take.'

He shook his head. A touch of telekinesis redirecting an arrow mid-flight might not be noticed by everyone else, but Twilight would see it.

And she would question herself, for needing help. And him, for thinking she needed help.

'Calm, just calm down.'

Applejack, far down below, must have picked up on how badly Twilight was doing. She'd stepped next to the erudite and was talking to her.

Whatever she said must have worked, because the next arrow Twilight let loose hit its mark.

The other competitors from Crystal Prep took off and were cheered on.

Though Spike wasn't among them.

Spike, the dog, had just jumped up to the archery platform and been picked up by Twilight.

Sour Sweet, on the other hand, was backing away while staring at the poor little pooch. She had a look on her face like she'd just seen something... Out of this world.

There was a whole host of possibilities he could think of, though he couldn't settle on a single one. Not without actually being down there to see what had her so freaked out.

Eh, she probably just didn't like dogs.

Or not.

Twilight had hugged Applejack, and she'd done or said something because her magic, her Honesty had responded.

And Twilight's pendant had as well. It floated open, draining the orange aura off of Applejack.

Spike simply stared from where he sat, his eyes wide and mouth open.

This... This was going to be a problem, he just knew it.

When Twilight fell over, loosing her pendant from her necklace, he saw it. Not what was inside of it, but what it was doing.

Rifts. Holes. Tears or whatever else you wanted to call them, they were opening around it.

And tentacles, thorned green limbs thicker than his arms were creeping forth from them.

He latched on to the trill of magic, biting into his own arm to keep from screaming out in pain as scales roared their way down from his shoulder, and made a grabbing motion.

The tentacle wrapped around Twilight's ankle was severed, dropping her to the ground next to the pendant she'd been reaching for when she'd been intercepted.

He bent over, resting one claw and one hand on his knees while he tried to catch his breath. When he looked up again, he could just make out Rainbow Dash flying around a great, flytrap-like maw.

If absorbing Honesty had been enough to open rifts like that... He needed to get down there.

He needed to get Twilight to call off whatever research she was doing before she got a hold on the other four elements!

"And Canterlot High wins!" The dean shouted over the nearby loudspeakers.

The stability of local time and space was threatened and she was worried about a game?

Spike swore he'd never understand that woman. Or mare.

Or both.

Or just the female gender in general.

None of them made any sense!

Author's Notes:

Silly Spike. Twilight already has three of the other elements.