"Glamour Shot? Are you in here?"

Press made his way into the Golden Sun Motel after failing to meet up with the cloaked mare. He had made his way over to the checkpoint Glamour Shot had set up for him at the scheduled time, only to find that the bald mare was nowhere to be seen among the crowd of ponies inside the barn. The brown stallion now feared for his safety at the hands of the malicious puppet master, since the last time he messed up ended with him receiving a couple of burn marks on his underbelly.

The newspaper director was currently stepping within the dark motel room, his knees threatening to buckle under him, and they nearly did when the door was slammed shut by a blue aurora. He turned towards the spot by the window that Glamour Shot fancied, aforementioned mare currently writing down a few notes in a notebook in the moonlight offered by the very same window plane.

"What is it Press? I've got a lot of information to document, so I can't spare the time for idle chattering." The cloaked mare, without her hood on, turned her head to face the frightened stallion, an unusually neutral expression on her face.

"I just wanted to give you my report for today, just like you asked." Press was calmed slightly by the fact that Glamour Shot hadn't begun to punish him for messing up, then again, she shouldn't have to since he followed her orders to the tip of the letter.

"Ah, yes, well let me hear it then, I'll need to add it in with the rest of what I've learned from the Elder Council." The bald mare seemed to perk up slightly at the fact that her assistant hadn't messed up again like he usually did.

"Today, Twilight Sparkle and Spike left their library in the late afternoon, and headed over to a food stand owned by a stallion named Haymitch. The targets seemed to be well acquainted with the stand's owner, keeping up a conversation for several minutes, and headed towards the outskirts of Ponyville to visit a friend of theirs, called Fluttershy. While the targets talked with Fluttershy, a cyan mare by the name of Rainbow Dash crashed into the cottage they were in, who was also a friend of the group. Twilight Sparkle and Spike decided to confess their relationship to their friends, but they already knew and were okay with their situation. The targets left the house shortly after and headed back to their library, so I stopped my shift there, and headed back to the barn where we were supposed to meet." Press looked proud of his job well done, his years of working as the newspaper director attuning his presentation skills, but he followed up his report with a question.

"Why weren't you at the checkpoint, Glamour?"

The devious mare's eyes sparked slightly with anger at the tone of voice in Press' question, as if he could question where she was supposed to be.

"Because I got bored, Press, that old hag has no backstory to her accusations other than saying that it's against their religion. In the end, I just got frustrated of hearing her repeat the same thing over and over again, so I left the meeting and came back here, but now I know that I'll have a average sized group of mindless idiots unknowingly help me reach my goal."

"What is your goal." Press had never really discussed the reasons behind Glamour Shot's orders, simply doing as she said in order to avoid her barrage of blackmail to leak out into the world, so he was genuinely curious as to her reasons and what she planned.

"My goal, Press? My goal is to exact my revenge on those two," Glamour Shout pointed a cloaked hoof towards a dartboard with a picture of Twilight and Spike, "they took my normal life away many years ago, so I plan on doing the same to them, and nothing will get in my way."

"How do you know that everypony will follow along with this long enough to achieve what you want, what if Twilight and Spike persevere through all of this." Press began to regret his words the moment they escaped his mouth, anticipating the burns, but nothing happened, Glamour Shot instead raised her head a little higher from her sitting position in order to look at the director in the eyes as she spoke.

"There is a truth in ponies, Press, and this is it, the only thing ponies love more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall trying." Glamour Shot's voice was clear of emotion, she simply spoke her raw thoughts, "Some day you'll come to embrace those words, for when one knows their enemies, they can never lose."

The cloaked mare returned to her documentation, adding in the newest information she gained, and left Press to his thoughts and rest. The earth pony made his way to his spot on the floor and curled up in order to get some sleep, but was interrupted as something fluffy hit him on the head, causing him to look up at the bald mare.

"Keep the pillow, you've earned it for doing your job right."

"Thank you, Glamour Shot."

Press lay his head down on the plush object he was given, finding it much better than the itchy carpet that lined the floor, and quickly fell into a deep sleep, one devoid of the usual ink infested nightmares he had been suffering for the past few days.

"The time is near, Twilight and Spike, Fortuna has her cards playing in my favor, and we will truly see how much the public can wear down those who oppose what they want." Glamour Shot punctuated her monologue by shooting a dart at the couple's picture, hitting the purple dragon right between the eyes, and a grin spread on her muzzle.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Spike was up early again, early meaning before Twilight woke up, and walked across his bedroom and towards the bathroom in order to take a relaxing bath. The drama that had been going on the past days was starting to affect him a bit, tiring him out quicker than he usually would be. After his bath, he brushed his teeth and went downstairs to brew up a batch of coffee for Twilight and himself.

As Spike was pouring himself a cup of the awakening elixir, he heard a muffled groan from upstairs that caused him to instantly put down everything he was doing and run upstairs with the help of his wrist guard. When he reached the bedroom, he found Twilight sitting up on their mattress with a hoof pressed against the base of her horn, her eyes sealed shut as she tried to get rid of the slight pain that had formed there.

"Twilight, does your head hurt? What's wrong?" Spike was beginning to get tired of repeating the same lines he had said yesterday, but not enough as to keep him from worrying about his marefriend.

"Ow, yes Spike, I feel dizzy and this headache won't leave me alone." Twilight's amethyst eyes opened up to look at their owners dragonfriend.

"Do you want me to get some migraine pills?" the purple drake didn't like to see his partner the way she was, every flinch in pain given off by her being mimicked by him.

"Please do, but I think I should visit a unicorn doctor, the pain is coming mostly from my horn." the lavender mare's response caused Spike to run off and come back with two pills and a glass of water.

"Here you go Twilight, and about the unicorn doctor, I don't think there are any here since this is a earth pony town." the draconic assistant was racking his mind for anyone in Ponyville who had a medical degree on the unicorn branch, but nopony came to mind.

The librarian put the pills in her mouth and washed them down with all of the water in the glass, getting rid of a dryness she didn't know she had in her throat. Twilight began to get off of the bed, but found that her legs felt really weak, as if she suddenly weighed more than she could carry, and began to stumble to her right. Spike teleported to her side and supported her by letting her lean against him slightly.

"Okay, I think you should stay in bed today, you look really tired and should rest." the dragon tried to guide Twilight towards the bed, but the mare instead tried to walk towards the stairway heading down into the living room.

"It's...It's not that bad, Spike, I just need to walk it off." As, the lavender librarian moved sluggishly, she felt like if her stomach was tied in a knot, which made the trek downstairs quite uncomfortable.

Upon reaching the library's main lobby, or the living room, Twilight flopped down onto one of the couches in front of the idle fireplace. The pain from her horn was beginning to dull slightly due to the medicine she was given, but it never really left her.

"Twilight, I really think you shouldn't be walking around like that if you feel sick, and you've been like this since yesterday." Spike had his arms crossed and tried to keep a stern expression on his face, but the worry was enveloping any other kind of face he could put on.

"I know, but I really think I should visit a doctor here in Ponyville, just to make sure that there is nothing wrong with my body that is causing me to feel so unbalanced, but the problems with my horn will have to wait until I can schedule an appointment with a unicorn expert in Canterlot." Twilight began to rise from the couch, not really wanting to, but she had to put Spike's and her worries to rest.

"Fine, we'll visit the medical center, but I'm coming along too since I don't want you walking around without someone to help you." With his mind spoken, Spike continued to support his marefriend as she walked towards the library's entrance.

Twilight lit up the door in a flickering purple aurora, barely able to will it open as she walked out, and having an equally difficult time closing it behind her. Her magical abilities worried her, since magic was her special ability, it was a little heartbreaking to see her own talent being so weak.

The residents of Ponyville looked on as the lavender mare and the dragon made their way through the streets heading towards the Tenderheart Hospital, some of their expressions putting further confusion and worry into Twilight's mind. Most of the ponies that the pair knew gave them cheerful smiles and a wave, but the rest of the ponies gave them looks of disgust with a couple of glares in the mix. Those one of the ponies who smiled at the odd couple, Twilight believed his name was Rift Raft, was confronted shortly after greeting them by one of the ponies that glared at them. The confrontation looked more like a debate, with each member speaking and pointing a hoof at the other before they switched positions.

The bickering between the two ponies kept up even after they had left Twilight's field of vision, but she couldn't really hear anything they were saying anyway, yet she felt as if she knew why some of the ponies were acting weird, but she couldn't put her hoof on what it exactly was.

Spike noticed the glares directed at them as well, but instead of trying to deduce why they were looking at them like that, he decided to return all of their harsh stares, causing some of them to back down. The drake felt like if he needed to protect his marefriend more carefully now, so he pushed himself closer to her, accepting the extra weight to support her better.

The red and white building that was known as the Tenderheart Hospital came into the couple's view, causing them to pick up their pace a little in hopes to get the lavender mare checked-up as soon as possible. The hospital's double doors slid open on their own and granted the companions entry, only to find that the lobby was almost fully used up, causing them to groan in the horrible anticipation of having to wait until it was their turn.

The receptionist was one of the ponies that the couple already knew, so she was a part of the half of the room that wasn't glaring at them .

" Hello Nurse Care, how have you been." Twilight approached the pink attendant, starling her out of the paperwork she was immersed in.

"O-oh, okay I guess, can I help you two." The nurse was blushing at the sight of the unusual couple, but said couple chalked her blush up to embarrassment.

"Why yes, Twilight here would like to get a diagnosis for any illnesses she may be carrying." Spike answered for Twilight, a bit formal since he really didn't speak to Nurse Care much.

"Very well, I'll sign you up for an appointment later today, but I mean later today, you guys might want to walk around town for a while until this rush dies down." the Nurse seemed to wilt just by looking at the sheer size of the mass of ponies taking up the main lobby.

"It's okay, Care, I'll just wait it out here since the reason I came is because I don't really feel strong at all today." Twilight's words caused two of the glaring ponies ears to jump up. Nurse Care took their sudden interest into account and spoke in a hushed whisper to the lavender mare.

"Twilight, I don't think you should say stuff like the news of you being weak today, I've ponies around town have been talking about you two, and a lot of it wasn't anything good."

Twilight's heart got caught in her throat, much like Spike had at the very same moment, and a ounce of fear poured itself into her mind. When she asked the question she already knew the answer to, her voice was slightly shaky.

"What have they been talking about?"

"They've been talking a lot about what is going on between you and Spike, personally I don't see anything wrong with it since you've already told me stories of how long you two have spent your lives together, it's only natural that you would fall for each other. Unfortunately, most ponies don't know you as well as I do, so they see what your doing is wrong, I've even heard them mention that old mare from the Apple Family, they kept saying something about a meeting that she hosted yesterday."

Twilight and Spike suppressed a groan of annoyance at the elderly mare's involvement, having had their fill of her when they last spoke.

"Thank you for understanding us, Care, it's nice to know that not everypony is as narrow minded as Granny Smith."

The couple began to make their way towards a line of seats, composed of five plush blue chairs. Two of the seats were already taken up by a glaring mother and her son, whom was oblivious to his mother's state of emotion, both of them sitting on the far left seats. After Twilight and Spike took a seat on the far right chairs, the mother got up with an undignified snort and began to walk away, only returning to pick up her colt since he was still sitting in his chair, not understanding why his mother had gotten up.

"Seriously Twilight, how shallow can some ponies be?" Spike was whispering to his marefriend since he really didn't want to attract any attention towards her and himself.

"Well, I guess you're getting a perfect picture of it right now." the lavender mare suppressed any indignation that was stirred up from the mother's actions, knowing that there was nothing she could do about it at the moment.

"Do you think they could ever warm-up to us?" the dragon was seeking as much information as possible, and luckily, his marefriend was probably the smartest pony in Ponyville.

"Maybe, Spike, maybe with time, but not as long as Granny Smith is manipulating them like she is right now." Twilight began to think of ways to smooth things out with the general population about her relationship, even though she didn't care if they didn't like it, but her headache prevented her from losing herself in thought.

The lavender mare and the purple dragon waited in the hospital's lobby for various hours, only leaving once to go buy lunch from a little food stand they had set up on the inside of the building. The sun was beginning its descent from the sky by the time the couple's number was called out through the speakers, causing them to cheer inwardly for being able to escape the sterile room that had half of its occupants staring angrily at them.

"Ah, good afternoon Miss Sparkle, how are you feeling?" Doctor Dowse greeted his patient, and began to walk towards her in a weird limp since one of his legs had a contraption the supported it.

"Weird is how I would put it doctor, I've had a raging migraine all day, my magic is severely weak, my legs feel as if they can't support me, and my stomach is just a huge knot." Twilight listed off her symptoms to the fairly old stallion.

"Hmm, I wouldn't exactly know how to diagnose one's magic, but I can offer you some medication if you would allow me to take a few X-ray scans from your legs." the doctor wheeled in a black screen and placed it near the lavender librarian.

"Of course I would, go on ahead." Twilight stepped behind the screen, which only reached up to the base of her legs, as she accepted the offer.

The screen flicked on and showed Spike and Doctor Dowse the bones in the lavender patient's legs, which were in perfect shape.

"Well look at that, nothing seems to be wrong, Miss Sparkle, I think the problem is more concentrated on your legs' muscles. If that is the case, which it most certainly is, rest and some therapeutic massages should be able to clear you of your weakness, the same going for your stomach aches, and the migraine can be taken care of with a few prescription grade pills." the doctor scribbled down a checklist on his notepad and signed it once it was finished, handing it over to the weak mare.

"Thank you doctor, I'll be sure to drop by the pharmacy and pick the medications up." Twilight levitated the note next to her in a barely visible aurora.

"Think nothing of it, this was a short check-up after all." Doctor Douse returned to his desk in order to fill out the paperwork required after a finished diagnostics, letting the mare and the dragon show themselves out.

"That didn't take long at all, heck, we spent most of the day waiting for our turn." Spike had expected some rigorous tests, like blood sampling and ink splotched cards, but he got to see none of that.

"We should be thankful for that, Spike, it's still chilly at night and neither of us brought our jackets." Twilight noticed the sun beginning to set beyond the horizon through the hallway's windows as she walked towards the pharmaceutical area of the hospital.

Aforementioned area was mostly deserted when the couple arrived at it, nopony being there save for an cashier at the gated windows that led to the medical storage, his expression one of pure boredom. After hoofing over the prescription note, Twilight received a stronger dose of pills for her migraine, which she carried in her weakened telekinesis.

The companions walked past the moderately filled lobby and began to make their back towards their home, exhausted of looking at plain white walls all day. The sun had already lowered itself completely and the sky was instead dominated by the waxing crescent rising through it. Twilight noticed her dragonfriend's slight shivering, having cold blood didn't exactly help in the cool of the night, so she allowed him to move under her a little more in hopes of sheltering him from the chill. They were alone in the path home, everypony had already left the streets due to the weather, and the ambiance was a little more than creepy.

The lavender mare's heart caught in her throat when a slightly familiar pony walked around one of the street's intersections and began to trot menacingly towards her. She levitated Spike onto her back and gave him the medications so he could hold them, and she turned around and tried to walk down a different street. Twilight had barely taken ten steps by the time another slightly familiar pony rounded the corner and began to trot towards her, much like the one she had her back to.

The librarian shifted her gaze back and forth between the two intimidating ponies as they approached her in a steady pace, their faces contorted in silent anger while their true colors where hidden by the darkness. They stood a few hooves away from the pair before the lavender mare opted to dash down one of the alleyways in the street, hoping to evade the two threats. The malicious ponies picked up their speed as they gave chase to the mare through the darkened pathways.

Twilight could feel Spike shaking slightly out of fear, much like she was, and she continued to run past the garbage bins that littered the maze-like paths of the alleyways. Her pace was sluggish due to her weakened state of body and mind, but she managed to delay her confrontation for the time being, 'Delay' being the key word. The lavender librarian ran down a dead end covered in graffiti, and as she attempted to run out of that area, she found that her path was already blocked off by the two stallions that had been chasing her, they stood shoulder to shoulder which effectively took up most of the alley's space.

"Heh, look at her, Flash Fire, she actually thought she could get away." the stallion on the right spoke up in a devious tone.

"What did I tell you about names, Frost Bite?" the stallion know as Flash Fire spoke in an annoyed tone.

"Hey! You said my name too. Why does it even matter, she's not leaving this alleyway anyway." Frost spoke in a 'whatever' tone that was like sandpaper being rubbed against your ears.

"Just shut up, Frost. Now you two," Flash pointed a hoof towards the couple, "you are in some deep trouble for what you're doing."

Flash Fire and Frost Bite began to advance towards the couple, whom was busy in a little argument of their own.

"Spike, teleport away from here, the gem should be strong enough to get you onto the rooftops." Twilight was speaking in a hushed voice that was trying to convince the purple dragon.

"No Twilight I'm not leaving you here alone with them." Spike's mind was made up and was as reinforced as steel.

"Please, just go Spike, save yourself." the lavender mare was tearing up as she pleaded her lover to escape.

"Twilight, I am not leaving you with those two, they can hurt you!"

"Your damn right we can, and we will." After his statement, Frost Bite jumped towards the dragon and pinned him to the floor while Flash Fire tackled Twilight and pushed her against the alleyway's wall.

"Twilight!" Spike screamed in terror as his marefriend was bashed against the wall repeatedly, causing her to yelp out in pain each time.

"What are you gonna do kid? Your just a useless little lizard, and your marefriend is gonna die because of how weak you were, how much of a coward you were, and still are." Frost enjoyed toying with the drake's mind, so he moved his head out of the way and allowed him to watch more clearly as Twilight continued to be pushed against the wall.

At that moment, Spike's world froze. Something deep inside of him burst open, and his spines began to glow with a green light that put a stop to Flash's merciless attack.

"GET AWAY FROM HER YOU MINDLESS BRUTES!"

The dragon tore his arm out of Frost's grip and socked him straight in the face, sending him flying into the alley's wall. With the oppressing weight gone, Spike jumped to a standing position and began to snort out green smoke through his nostrils as he set his draconic eyes on the, now revealed to be scarlet, earth pony that had been bashing Twilight. His bones began to ache as his spines grew brighter and all of the ponies present gained wide eyes at what was happening to the purple dragon. He began to grow taller, his arms, legs, head, and tail all grew in proportion with his body. His spines grew a bit as well, gaining a slightly sharper look. The end result was a dragon that was at eye level with the average pony, and he looked as if he was ready to charge at any moment.

"NOW, YOU, STEP BACK FROM HER!"

Spike's voice had grown very slightly deeper, but his rage turned his voice to a roaring volume. Flash did step away from Twilight, but lunged himself immediately afterwards at the dragon, which was a big mistake. Spike crouched and let the scarlet stallion jump over him, but delivered a punch to his soft underbelly, knocking all of the air out of him before he crashed against a dumpster. Frost had recovered from the sucker punch he had received and ran towards Spike from behind, only to be smacked away with a flick of the dragon's tail, knocking him out. Flash caught the dragon by surprise and punched him in the ribs, earning a pained grunt, but the glory from his strike was short lived because Spike slashed him on the side with his claws, leaving behind three cuts in his torso. The purple drake walked over to the hurt Flash and punched him square on the nose, effectively sending him into a deep, painful, sleep. With the offenders downed, Spike ran to Twilight's side and pulled her into a hug as warm tears flowed down his cheeks, said mare still astonished by the drake's sudden transformation.

"T-Twilight, how bad did he hurt you, are you bleeding?" Spike was still the same baby dragon on the inside, except he was now about twice his original size.

"No, I'm just a little sore on my left side," Twilight buried her face into her dragonfriend's neck as she too began to cry tears of joy, "thank you, thank you, thank you, Spikey."

"I thought that they were going to...k-kill you." the word was hard to force out of the dragon's mouth since he saw visions of what could have happened the moment he said it.

"We need to get home, and drop these two off at the police station." the mare was reluctant to leave the feeling of safety that was given to her in her lover's embrace, but in the end they both parted and Spike helped lift Twilight up onto her feet.

Twilight went about looking for medications they had lost and Spike tied up the two attackers with some old rope he found lying in a cardboard box.

"Are you sure you can walk, Twilight?"

"Yes, I'll just need to lean on you a little, but I'll be okay."

The slightly hurt couple made their way out of the horrific alleyway, with Twilight pressed against a now taller Spike as he dragged the two crooks behind him with the rope he bound them with, intentionally moving them in the way of thorns and spiked pebbles. The mare and the dragon kept their eyes peeled for any other attackers that might jump them along the way, but none appeared by the time they reached the stone building that housed the few criminals in Ponyville, the Ponyville Police Center.

After dropping Flash Fire and Frost Bite off with the officers in the station, Twilight and Spike continued their path towards home, but the mare's legs buckled under her and she was caught in the nick of time in the dragon's arms.

"Here Twilight, let me carry you." Spike wrapped his arms around his marefriend's side.

"Don't be silly Spike, you wooouulddAH!" Twilight's rejection of the offer was interrupted as the dragon lifted her up, holding one claw at her waist and the other near her neck as she faced up towards the sky.

"You were saying?" Spike flashed the lavender mare a smug grin, causing her to roll her eyes as she smiled back, and his tail wagged in excitement at his new strength.

He carried her in his arms all the way home, finding little difficulty doing so. Twilight used her weakened magic to open the door to the library, still in her lover's arms, and Spike closed the door with a push from his wagging tail. The dragon continued up the stairway and headed into their bedroom, tripping at the last second and causing Twilight and him to flop onto the bed, giggling at his clumsiness. As the giggles died down, the lavender mare snuggled up to Spike's chest enjoying the feeling as the drake wrapped his arms fully around her and pulled her closer as he nuzzled her head.

"Twilight?"

"Hmm?"

"What happened to me today?"

"Well, we'll have to find out tomorrow since I'm not fully sure myself, but today you saved my life again, Spikey."

"What's that, like three times already, haha?"

"Oh be quiet you, I've saved your tail more times than you can count."

"That you have Twilight, that you have."

"Hey, don't get all zoned out right now, we're having a moment."