Spike sneaked across his shared bedroom quietly, trying to refrain from waking up his slumbering marefriend. The purple dragon reached the room's doorway, which opened with a slight creak, and made his way down the stairs and into the library's main room. In reality, Spike had a specific goal in his mind, having nothing to do with the books that surrounded him. The drake licked his lips as he approached the library's kitchen, his eyes focused on one of the cupboards that had taunted him ever since Twilight and him moved to Ponyville.

Using his newly gained height increase, Spike opened the wooden cupboard, revealing a purple jar with a green 'S' embedded onto its front. The damned cupboard had been too high for the dragon to be able to reach it before, and it was such a tight space that the safety backup on the teleportation gem wouldn't let him blink into existence next to his target. Now, the aforementioned dragon reached out with his claws open, grasping the jar in them, and proceeded to open its lid with a sparkle in his emerald eyes.

Gems, everywhere within the jar, the porcelain container was filled to the brim with the delectable treats that had motivated Spike to seek it out in the first place. The dragon settled his mind down slightly and chose a nice looking ruby, closing his eyes as he moved the treat towards his mouth, sticking his tongue out in anticipation, and...nothing.

When Spike opened his eyes again, noticing the absence of a delicious gem in his orifice, he caught sight of his lavender love, the missing ruby being held suspended at her side along with the purple jar in a flickering aurora. A sheepish smile grew on the drake's face as he began to rub the back of his neck.

"Hehe, umh, good morning Twilight."

"Spikey, you know that eating too many gems is bad for your health."

"I was only going to eat one!"

Spike's lie was about as transparent as the air he breathed in, prompting a raised eyebrow from the librarian.

"Are you sure you were just going to eat just this ruby? You wouldn't lie to me would you, sweetheart?"

Twilight brought a forth a faux pout to her lips, knowing exactly the effect it would produce on her not-so-little dragonfriend. Her hypothesis was proven correct when Spike began to fumble with his claws nervously.

"O-okay okay, maybe I was going to have more than one gem, I'm sorry Twi." the dragon's shoulders slumped slightly and he settled on a dejected stare on the floor, feeling guilty about his actions, causing the unicorn mare to feel equally guilty about her own teasing as a result. Twilight levitated the red gem over into her companion's claws as she put away the jar, causing him to look up at her again in surprise since he wasn't being scolded. His eyes widened slightly in comfortable surprise when the mare leaned forward and planted a loving kiss on his lips, for some reason it still brought forth a furious blush to his cheeks, even though they had gone through much more than a simple smooch.

"Keep it, it's not everyday that you save somepony's life y'know." the studious mare smiled warmly at the drake, the memory of him rescuing her still fresh in her mind.

"Thanks, but in my defense, the new height was a little more than tempting."

"Obviously, which reminds me, can you search for anything we have on dragons in the library, I'm curious as to how your growth actually happened." Twilight's first thought upon seeing Spike grow was that it was a greed growth, but that idea was shot down once she realized that he wasn't actually being greedy at all last night. She also realized that Spike hadn't really changed that much, height and strength increase aside, other than the slightly 'sharper' look on his spines, as apposed to the slender build he gained from his temporary greed phase.

With her thoughts cut out for herself, Twilight turned towards the kitchen's archway and began to trot towards it, but stopped in order to speak to her dragonfriend again.

"I'm gonna go take a shower, Spike, I'll be out in a couple of minutes."

"Got it Twilight, and I'll look for those books you asked for too."

"Thanks Spike, I've really been putting off my research lately."

The lavender mare walked out of the kitchen and headed upstairs to her room's bathroom, disappearing behind the oak door. Spike looked at his ruby for a few seconds before he began to move it to his hungry mouth again, savoring it in anticipation. Just as his teeth were about to crunch into the gem, a wisp of smoke popped out of his mouth with a burp and condensed into two letters, interrupting the sweet delicacy's consumption.

"Oh come on! Can't I just eat th- huh?"

Spike leaned down to pick up the letters in his free claw, his confusion born from the fact that there were two letters and that only one of them had the royal seal on it, the other being sealed with a wax print that had a 'S' and a 'A' on it.

"Two? Well, I guess Twilight won't mind if I read this one." the dragon began to unroll the parchment without the royal seal and began to silently take in the letter's writing.

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"Uhm...what are you doing, Glamour Shot?"

Press stared at the bald mare, currently only wearing clothes from her waist down as she punched a sandbag that hung from the ceiling with her fore hooves as she reared up on her hind hooves. Her muscles rippled as she mercilessly pounded into the bag with muscles that had been hidden from the stallion's eyes until that moment by her trademarked cloak, a strength even most earth ponies would be envious of being presented by the mare. upon registering Press' presence, Glamour Shot wiped away the sweat from her brow with her hoof and turned to face him.

"A mare has got to stay in shape Press, you should really look into working out sometime soon, I can't have you running around all day if you can't keep up to who you're chasing." the brown stallion took slight offense at the mare's words, but said nothing about it. Instead, he asked another question.

"How did you convince the manager to let you set up a sandbag in here...where the heck did you get a sandbag anyway?"

"Well, that useless stallion running the register has yet to grow a pair to try and stop me from doing what I want, and I crafted the sandbag from some stuff I took from the construction site down the road." Press noted Glamour's unusual tolerance towards his questions, but decided not to linger on the matter any further since that would mean he could risk the pleasantry.

"So, Glamour Shot, what do you want me to do today?" the stallion had learned that the bald mare would lay off on her aggressiveness towards him if he simply followed his orders and asked if he could be of any help.

"No, not today Press. That old hag, Granny Smith, is holding another meeting today and I'm trying to see where it will be taking place."

"Didn't you say that they were just useless rambling a while back, why would you want to go now."

"Last time I went it was the first meeting, so I expect that they will be doing something a little more productive than idle chit-chat, maybe there will be something useful I can get in on from there."

"like?"

"Okay Press, it's time for you to shut up already, I'll find out what they'll be talking about once I'm there."

The mare's statement effectively put the brown stallion back into his submissive mode, not a single sound escaping from his trembling muzzle as the bald mare slipped on the rest of her clothing. The fully concealed mare walked over to the room's closet, which was completely empty save for a black box in the corner that was locked down tightly. Glamour Shot levitated out a key from one of her cloak's pockets and unlocked the padlock on the container, peeked inside with a shrouded grin, and pulled away while locking the box back up. The act performed by the mare left Press basically radiating curiosity at the box's contents, but it was a curiosity he could do nothing of as the aforementioned mare trotted towards the motel room's entrance and opened the door before turning her head back to stare at the brown earth pony.

"Don't leave this room, Press. You can do whatever the hay you want, as long as it doesn't involve leaving or messing with the box in the closet. I, for one, highly suggest that you give that sandbag a couple of punches, you could stand to lose some weight."

Glamour Shot departed immediately after she finished speaking, closing the door behind her and leaving behind a self-conscious stallion staring at his form in the mirror, a frown spreading over time on his muzzle.

'Am I really that fat?'

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"Dear Twiley, I'm sending you this letter to ask you to come to Canterlot if you can, there are things you and I need to talk about. These things have been going on for a while without me noticing, but now it's time to sit down and face them. Come see me at my lodge near the Canterlot Castle when you decide to come. Signed, your BBBFF."

Twilight read the uncharacteristic letter aloud in her living room so that Spike could hear it again, even though he had already read it before her. To the mare, the parchment sent by her brother lacked any of his usual affectionate tone, the only hints of it being written by her sibling being that he used her pet name and his title.

"What do you think he wants to see us for Twilight, and do you have any idea why the Princess wants us to go to Canterlot too?" Spike had an idea of why Shining Armor wanted them to travel to Canterlot, but was dumbfounded by Princess Celestia's request for their appearance. If Celestia was inviting them then it had to be important, maybe another national crisis that needed to be solved.

"Well, Shining Armor probably wants to talk to me about our relationship, he must have learned about us through the newspaper like our friends. I'm not sure if he's happy about it or not, we'll just have to wait until we can meet with him. As for the Princess, It could be anything, but if it involved something major like Discord escaping from his prison, she would call all of the Elements of Harmony. We'll have to go ask one of our friends if they received a letter too later during the day."

"I don't think we should go outside Twilight, what happened yesterday may have been only the first of attacks."

"Maybe, but we have to make sure that we aren't needed as soon as possible. I don't want to rush over to Canterlot without preparing only to find out that she wanted us over for tea."

"Okay Twilight, I trust in your judgment. I'm actually a little surprised you're not rushing over to the Princess right now like you used to though."

"I've learned over the years, Spikey. it took me that long to learn that not everything has to get blown out of proportion, and I still overreact sometimes."

"It's a little cute when you do, you know that?"

"No it isn't, I look like a total nut job when I slip into a panic tantrum."

"Yeah, but when you realize that you did overreact, the look on your face is priceless."

"Says the dragon who biologically isn't supposed to be able to blush."

"Hey!"

Spike, much to his chagrin, gained a blush of embarrassment from his marefriend's comment. Upon feeling the burning sensation on his cheeks, the dragon crossed his arms and huffed in resignation as a smile grew on his snout as a result from the affectionate teasing he and Twilight shared. The couple went on to compose a letter for their princess that let her know that they would visit soon and told her to pass on the news to Shining Armor. The letter lacked any indication of the recent troubles they had gone through so that it wouldn't cause the princess to worry, but the couple planned to give her a full report in person.

A breakfast crafted from oats and some toast was served on the dining table by the mare and the dragon, disappearing in a short amount of time as the companions dug into it with a hunger that screamed to be sated. After breakfast, Twilight took a pill from her prescribed medication that quelled her slight headache, and proceeded to make a list of the stuff she would need to pack later that evening.

"So we're going to take the afternoon train tomorrow?" Spike hadn't really grasped the mare's plan of action due to his concentration on the buttered toast in front of him.

"Yup, I've got some thinking to do before I go to see my brother and a good night's rest would do wonders for me. Besides, the train is probably out of tickets, ponies have been really anxious to be able to travel again since it has been shut down for a couple of days already. We'll have to catch the next one tomorrow in the afternoon."

"Who are we going to go see today Twilight, you said we needed to visit one of our friends, but who?"

"Hmm, well Applejack and Rarity are out of the picture for right now," the mare's face took on a frown at the memory of her two friend's situations, "so that leaves Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash."

"Well, Fluttershy lives a little too far away from here to visit her to check if she got a letter, right?"

"Yes, your right, and Rainbow Dash is almost always out of her house, so Pinkie would be the closest one we can visit. Are you ready to go?"

"Pfft, I should be asking you that, remember I was the one that carried you home yesterday."

"Oh don't act like you didn't like holding me like that."

Spike just gave a nervous chuckle and turned his head away to hide his reddening face, Twilight was right in every sense of her words. "Uhm."

"Come on, Spikey, the more we walk the faster I'll tire out, and the sooner you'll get to carry me again."

The dragon jumped to his feet at the suggestion, walking out of the kitchen next to his lavender marefriend and headed towards the library's oaken entrance.

The late morning sun greeted the odd pair as they stepped out of their tree house, temporarily blinding them from the outside world. As the mare and the dragon regained their eyesight, they noticed that many of the morning ponies were missing again, and the few that were there simply stared slack jawed at Spike's new form. Twilight and Spike gained a sense of relief as they saw that only one or two few of the onlookers held any anger in their eyes, and those few were instantly put to shame by the purple dragon's much more intimidating glare.

The confection-like building of Sugarcube Corner came into view as the library dwellers trekked down the road, both of them braced in anticipation for Pinkie to randomly pop out of nowhere and tackle them to the ground. Their fears were put to rest as they reached the door to the pink mare's residence and walked in with a little bell announcing their entrance.

The cotton-candy maned mare running the register grinned widely upon the couple's entrance, leaping over the confection display case and bounding over to the new arrivals.

"Hiya guys! How have you been? I haven't seen you since your 'Welcome Home From Canterlot Party', what have you two been up to, huh, and why is Spike all big and tough looking?"

The drake was stunned by Pinkie's quick speech, but Twilight recovered much quicker due to the fact that she hung around her pink friend much more than Spike.

"We've been...okay I guess, Spike and I have just had a little bit of a rough patch with some of the ponies here in Ponyville. It turns out that not everyone is exactly happy about our relationship, though they mostly keep it to themselves."

"Whoa whoa whoa, what do you mean by 'Rough patch', have they been calling you names or something? I mean, I do it sometimes too, but nothing really bad, just playful teasing." The librarian mare and the newly expanded dragon turned towards one of the booths to find Rainbow Dash munching away at a sprinkled doughnut.

"Oh, hey Rainbow Dash, I didn't really see you there when I came in. In regards to your question, no, it's just that two stallions chased Spike and I into a alleyway and they started to beat me up a bit." Twilight raised a hoof to stop the angry outburst from the cyan mare before continuing, "Thankfully, Spike here grew in his size and strength when he saw that they intended to...kill, us. He beat the stallions until they passed out and then hauled the crooks over to the police station, the 'little' sweetheart even carried me home."

"That's not really nice at all! They were just a pair of no-good meanie-pants." Pinkie sat on her haunches and crossed her fore hooves as her face took on a scrunched up angry expression.

"No kidding, what in their right minds were those featherheads thinking." Rainbow Dash noticed that she was starting to step out of line with her insults, so she quickly tried to rectify her image, "Uhm, hehe, sorry I kinda just got really mad there for a second."

"It's okay Dash, they got what they deserved, but I'm still going to have to go over to Canterlot to tell Princess Celestia about this. Those two stallions, like Spike told me earlier, could easily be the first of many, we've been getting a couple of glares down the road every time we go outside."

"Well at least you've got this big dude to protect you, right? By the way Spike, you've gotten buff!" Rainbow accented her statement by delivering a few soft punches to the dragon's underbelly, any damage that would have been inflicted was absorbed by the flexible scales.

"Yeah Spike! Maybe when Gummy grows up you two can have a wrestling match!" Pinkie's slight anger towards the past events was forgotten and was instead replaced by excitement at her new idea, which she would have to wait various years to gain the opportunity to enact.

"Thanks girls, but I'm just glad I can actually do something to guard Twilight, I felt kinda useless before my change."

"Don't say that Spikey, you know that I love you as much now as I loved you before." the lavender mare was cooing into her dragonfriend's ear while Pinkie just grinned and Rainbow Dash made a gagging gesture with her hoof.

"Okay, enough mushy stuff for one day, when do you to plan on going to Canterlot, and why?"

"Well, while I was in the shower, Spike got two letters..."

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Later that evening at the Sweet Apple Acres property...

Glamour Shot stood at the back of the barn where the previous meeting took place, most of the ponies who had attended last time were present as well. She watched intently at anything going on in the wooden building, looking for anything she could use to as a boost to the speed in her plan's completion. The bald mare had to suppress a groan of annoyance at the sight of the elderly Apple mare as she walked up to the microphone to address her followers.

"Now settle down, mah fellow Mareians, it's time to get down to business." much like the last meeting, the lime mare's voice silenced all others that were present and drew their attention to the podium she was using.

"Ah have to say that ah am very disappointed with Flash Fire's and Frost Bite's actions last night. We can't go around breakin' the law like that, or our operation can get shut down."

"Then what do we do, Elder Smith, what other way can we solve this problem if a direct approach is out of our hooves?" a random pony in the crowd spoke her mind to the farm mare.

"Listen, as much as ah would want those two to just disappear from the face of Equestria, it's not possible. We're going to have to run them out of the town."

"That still doesn't answer my question, I'm asking what we should do."

"You want to know what ah think we should do? Ah think we all should rally together and scare her out of her little tree house as soon as we finish our meeting." Granny Smith held her cold gaze towards the questioning pony mare.

"How do you know she will leave, Elder Smith, how are you sure that she won't just stay locked inside." another pony, a stallion this time, questioned the elderly mare.

"Everypony has a breaking point, Miss Sparkle is no exception, and neither is her little dragon. Once they undergo enough pressure, they'll willingly leave this town for good and never come back."

Nopony objected to their leader's judgment, and a air of finality filled the area within the barn, quickly being replaced by the chattering of the Mareians present. Plans on non-lethal ways to intimidate the couple out of their residence were exchanged within the group, and they settled on forming a small mob and protesting outside of the Golden Oaks Library until Twilight Sparkle and Spike the dragon would leave the quaint town.

So distracted were the ponies of Maria that they didn't notice a cloaked mare slipping out of the barn silently, a malevolent grin that was reaching heights that it had never reached before on her face. Glamour Shot ran with a speed fueled by ambition and the strong muscles in her legs. Her extreme speed let her reach the motel she was staying at in a much shorter time than usual. The bald mare burst into the room, promptly snapping a brown earth pony stallion from his slumber.

"Press, get the black box, we've got work to do."

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"Oh no!"

Applejack watched her grandmother lead a small mob of ponies out of the family barn and lead them towards Ponyville, and she could only think of one reason of why she would be doing all of that, they were heading to Twilight's library. The orange farm mare stared on as Granny Smith and her religious partners followed her out of Sweet Apple Acres and onto the dirt road that would take them to the town.

"No no no!" Her screams of rejection went unheard, save for a small yellow filly locked in her own room across the hallway, and she desperately hoped that her elder would just turn down her stupid idea and come back. It never happened.

"Tarnation! Why do ah have to fear my own grandmother for Celestia's sake."

'She'll disown you if you ever go against her, you know that right, Sugarcube?' the fear manifested itself into a nagging voice in the young farm mare's subconscious, stopping her from acting.

"Yes, but ah have to go!"

'Really now? Would you be willing to give up your lifestyle to help out a friend.'

"A-ah have to do this!"

'No, no you don't. Nopony is forcing you to do anything, just sit down and wait until Granny Smith gets home, like a good mare.'

"Ah'm not obligated to do this, but that doesn't mean ah don't want to go! If not for myself, if not for Twilight and Spike, then for mah mother and father. Ah'd rather give up mah lifestyle if it means that ah'll just end up being manipulated by mah Grandmother forever, she took my father, and in a way she took mah mother, now it's MY turn to make a decision in MY life!"

Applejack rushed towards the door and bucked it off of it's hinges with two good kicks, she then bolted down the stairs and out the front door in a desperate attempt to make up for the time she wasted with her internal conflict.

"Just you wait Sugarcube, I won't let you down."

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Rarity stood in front of one of her full body mirrors, fixing her freshly washed mane with a array of brushes and combs. She found it harder than usual due to all the knots she had gathered over the past days, and a shudder ran through her as she remembered that she had gone without showering for quite some time during her mindset's problems.

The designer mare dubbed herself ready once again when she could smell the expensive shampoo in her curled mane, and her coat had its usual luster back.

"Now, you are going to go over to Twilight's library and apologize for being such a bigot about her love affairs. Hopefully she and Spike will find it in their hearts to forgive me, I was becoming the very thing I was trying to avoid taking me over, a arrogant snob. Those two reminded me that life has its usual everyday stuff, like a drab clothing store, but then there are those who shine brighter than the rest. Those who shine like diamonds in the sky due to their originality, their courage, and their will to overcome the obstacles in their life."

Rarity found that as she repeated her mindset to herself in the mirror it became clearer that she was on the right path now, and all she needed to do was repair the errors of the past over a cup of wine and some small chocolates. The white unicorn mare put on a pair of saddlebags that blended in with her coat's color, they even bore the three diamonds that represent her cutie mark on them, and she headed towards her house's doorway to step outside.

"What in the world?"

The designer mare found herself staring at a large mass of ponies in the distance, all of them heading straight to where she planned to go. Things only got more confusing when she saw Applejack run past her without as much as a 'Howdy' to notify her that the farm mare knew she was even there.
"Oh dear, maybe something happened to the library, I'll just have to find out for myself."

In a moment of uncharacteristic action, Rarity took of with a speed that was no match for Applejack's, but it wasn't exactly something to turn your nose up on.

"Really, things have been interesting here lately."

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

Fluttershy took notice of the mob of ponies trotting down the road as she flew towards her cottage, the sight instantly put a stop to her flight and made her crane her neck to see where they were going to.

"Oh my, maybe Ponyville is having another parade, or it could just be another one of Pinkie's late parties."

Her curiosity began to overpower her natural shyness and caused her to set herself on a flight path heading towards the moving crowd of ponies, abandoning all thoughts of heading home for the night. Her wings were slightly tired from all the hovering she had been doing while she checked up on the ecosystem in the Ponyville Park, which was still as pristine as always.

The butterscotch mare lowered her altitude until she was only a few inches off of the ground, making her feel safer for some reason, but it was a bad choice due to the fact that she was lost in thought at the moment and that five other mares four other were headed towards the same street intercept as she was.

With a chorus of 'OOFS!', Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy herself collided into one another, resulting in a chromatic heap of ponies.

"Hey! Watch where your goin' you varm-," Applejack stopped her berating once she noticed who exactly it was she crashed into, "Sorry about that Fluttershy, ah wasn't really paying attention to mah surroundings."

"It's okay Applejack, neither was I, I was just trying to see where all those ponies were going." the shy mare lifted a hoof and pointed at the slightly distant mass of residents, whom still kept their pace towards their target.

"Me too!" rang out in unison the rest of the mares, causing Fluttershy to hide behind hr mane a little.

"We saw them pass by Sugarcube Corner, so we decided to follow them to wherever they went." Rainbow Dash fluttered her wings a little, getting rid of the slight pain caused by the crash.

"They're all going to Twilight's library, mah granny is leading them there to try and scare her and Spike out of Ponyville." Applejack put herself back into a running stance.

"That's really mean, not as mean as trying to kill them, but still very mean." everypony who hadn't heard of the murder attempt gasped, but the orange farm mare snapped herself and the others out of the stupor with a loud command.

"Come on! We have to catch up to Granny Smith and stop her!"

The five Elements of Harmony bolted down the street, staying together as a group to make the confrontation against the religious party easier, they only hoped they would be able to get there in time.

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

"Spike have you seen Owlowiscious anywhere? I can't seem to find him."

Spike looked up from his comic strip to answer his marefriend's question, "Yeah, he left a little while ago and flew away to the Everfree Forest, he's probably just hunting for mice."

"Oh, good, that reminds me, have you fed Peewee yet?"

"Of course I did, look." the drake pointed his claw towards the a nesting phoenix that was happily chomping away at his seed bowl.

"You're really taking care of everything you know that? Wait, did you pack for tomorrow yet?"

"Uhm, no, but I'll do it tomorrow in the morning, I swear."

"Fine, but in the morning we're packing quickly, until then why don't we ju-"

Twilight's suggestion was cut short as a rather large pebble hit her window and left a spiderweb-shaped crack on it. The sight of her property being damaged like that annoyed and slightly angered the lavender librarian, but those two emotions were washed away by the shock of what she saw outside of her window.

"S-Spikey, come and look at this."

The purple dragon got off of the couch he was reading on and walked over to the window his marefriend was staring slack jawed out of.

"What, did Pinkie show...up...whoa."

About half of Ponyville was standing right in front of the Golden Oaks Library, some of the ponies in the crowd held signs that said 'OUT', or a portrait of Discord in Twilight's color scheme, the sight rekindled the anger and annoyance that the lavender mare had lost a few moments ago. Those two emotions only heightened once she took in who was leading the strike against Spike and her.

"Twilight Sparkle, ah, Granny Smith, along with these fellow citizens, demand that you leave your residence and this town at once!" the elderly mare wasn't holding any of her anger back, she simply stated what she wanted.

"No! You have no right to come to my house and try to kick me out, even if you don't like it you have to deal with it!" Twilight scram back with an equal amount of force and indignation.

"Ah vary much plan to 'deal with it' Miss Sparkle, you go against everything we stand for, you and that dragon of yours are the highest of transgressions we have ever known!"

"Why must you make this so difficult, Granny Smith, where in Celestia's holy book did you get the idea that what we are doing is wrong!?"

"Celestia? Ha, we don't follow the religion Celestia has set up, it is too loose, weak, it allows too much corruption into our daily lives! You two are a perfect example of that weakness!" a cacophony of agreement rang out from the mass of ponies gathered together.

"Don't you see the pain you are causing for us, just go away! We haven't done anything wrong to you, and we don't plan to, so you have no reason to come here and order me to leave this town!"

"Mother Mareia demands her laws to be put into effect, you taint the sanctity of our community by not listening to her demands!"

"You mean YOUR demands, there is no voice commanding you to do ANY of this!"

"Quiet, you fool, ah am an enforcer to her will, ah was sent here the moment they began constructing this town by the high priest of Mother Mareia, whom left me with the task of keeping this place pure!"

"They're old traditions, Granny," Twilight basically spat out the old mare's name as she glared at her with teary eyes, "you don't have to follow them anymore! Think of all the times I've helped you, all of you, to stay safe."

"Those times mean nothing!"

"Don't they!? Didn't it matter when my friends and I saved your farm?! Didn't it matter when we saved the world twice?!"

"It just goes to show how badly you've fallen, Miss Sparkle, and if you can fall at your own tainted hooves, what is to stop you from influencing ALL of us!?"

"ENOUGH!" Spike made himself visible for the first time at the window, sticking his head out through it to roar at the intruders, shooting a small fireball at a spot near the group, causing them to step back cautiously. The dragon's piercing eyes and show of strength caused quite a few of the protesting ponies to lose the will to continue with their verbal assault.

"YOU ARE ALL BLINDED BY THE VERY LIGHT YOU TRY TO PROTECT, YOU SEE US AS A TRANSGRESSION, BUT ONLY THAT! YOU DON'T SEE THE YOUNG MARE, OR THE BABY DRAGON! YOU DON'T SEE THE SUFFERING YOU INFLICT ON HER WITH YOUR ACTIONS, AND YOU OVERLOOK ALL THE TIMES SHE HAS SAVED YOUR LIVES! HOW IS THAT FAIR, HUH? TELL ME!"

Most of the ponies in the crowd lowered their signs and their voices lost some of their strength as they realized the truth behind the dragon's words, some even began to back away a little further from the group, but nopony ever really left.

"You see?! This is what I'm talkin' about, a dragon trying to burn us alive, and you try to protect him?! You no good var-"

Granny Smith's verbal assault was put to an end as Spike slammed the window shut, cracking it further slightly, and pulled Twilight into a hug as they let the heat of the moment die down in light sobs. The couple had endured mental bashing to an extent that would have broken any other regular pony's sanity, yet they simply sat down on the couch and waited. They waited for the anger and sadness in them to drain away before they separated from one another and conversed silently through their eye contact,

"You want to eat some dinner?" Spike asked the question delicately, as if there wasn't a mob of protesting ponies outside of his shared residence.

"That'd be nice Spike, go ahead and grab another gem, I feel like you deserve it today." With a smile, the dragon walked out of the living room and into the kitchen to prepare a light dinner as he bit down on a sapphire.

Twilight simply stared at her cracked window for some reason she didn't understand, but it felt like if something was about to happen, and her horn tingled as a vaguely familiar sensation entered her magic's reach. It was distant and already under control, but it held power in it, leaving the mare wondering what it was for the next fifteen minutes.

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"Give me the box, Press, and be careful not to drop it."

Glamour Shot and Press were currently on top of the rooftop of the building across the street from the library. The mare was about to put in the final piece in her grand plan, a piece that was being carried clumsily over to her in the mouth of her 'Assistant'.

"Here it is," Press put down the iron box with a dull 'Clink' as it hit the stone roof, "what is in it anyway?"

"This is my ace, Press, this is my way of ending the little game I've been playing for most of my life," the cloaked mare levitated a key from one of her pockets and unlocked the padlock on the box, grinning malevolently as she saw what was within, "this is my way of saying goodbye to my good old friends."

The brown stallion's eyes widened at the object that was levitated out of the iron container, a shiver of fear at the mare's intent running wild throughout his pudgy body.

"H-how did you get that."

"I've got my methods, and I do like to plan ahead on any situation, so now is the time for my efforts to bear fruit."

"But, why now, why not start out with this in the first place?"

"Because now I have a group of religiously driven idiots to place the blame on. If they ever conduct a crime scene investigation, they'll be immediately drawn to a mob of angry ponies who were there on the night of the event."

Glamour Shot levitated her 'Ace' above her head, took in a deep breath that shuddered in twisted excitement, and hurled the object towards the library with practiced aim, a shot that made it look like the object was thrown from within the crowd.

"Yeah, a glamour shot, muhahaha!"

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Twilight's horn began to pulse slightly as the feeling she had moments ago became impossible to ignore, causing her to clutch her horn as her headache doubled on itself. It was only made worse when she heard one of her windows shatter open by a unknown object.

Spike was drawn out of the kitchen by the sound and was greeted by the sight of Twilight staring in shock at the thing that crashed through their window.

The fire ruby on the floor glowed with the rune placed on it and then blinked once, and then again four seconds later, and then again three seconds later.

"SPIKE, RUN AWAY!"

The lavender mare ran from the crystal blocking the doorway and headed towards Spike, a look of crippling fear on her face.

"TWILIGHT WHAT'S GOING O-"

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Applejack and the other four Elements of Harmony approached Twilight's library, only to find Granny Smith already protesting there.

The orange farm mare was preparing herself to face down her grandmother, but was snapped out of her concentration by screams inside the library.

"SPIKE, RUN AWAY!" Twilight's voice was full of dread that made Applejack shudder, but what happened next was far worse.

"TWILIGHT WHAT'S GOING O-" Spike never finished his question because the library exploded with flames from the inside out, jets of the hazardous element spewing out from the newly shattered windows and holes in the tree house. The explosion's force caused most of Granny Smith's group to lose their balance and topple to the floor, all of them shocked as they witnessed the ancient tree turned into a giant bonfire.

The Elements simply stared on with tears pouring from their faces as they witnessed the destruction of their best friends, all at the hooves of the deranged grandmother, or so they thought. Applejack removed her hat and broke down herself, saying one last coherent thing before she became a huddling mass of tears and sobs.