Twilight Sparkle sat quietly in her home, her eyes were beginning to become bloodshot with sleeplessness. Books were scattered about as was the usual for this particular library, books strewn about, turned to random pages, what appeared to be caused by some unnatural gust of wind. This had become a standard around Twilight’s library. Her studying methods often got out of hoof and created a mess which her assistant always cleaned almost immediately. The only difference was that he wasn’t there to pick up after her this time.
Twilight heaved a sigh as she stared at what little she could see of the floor as she remembered Spike was on an errand to Canterlot. The dragon was sent on a very special errand to pick up a book Twilight had been searching forever to find, an in-depth analysis of Starswirl The Bearded’s studies in the schools of magic. Twilight would have loved to go herself, but she simply had too much studying to do, after all magic never stopped developing.
Twilight was perplexed by what she was learning, in anticipation of her book she intended to read up on Ancient Equestrian magic. Her library had been especially messy lately though, Spike had departed no more than 2 days ago and she had already managed to ravage half the book shelves of their contents and nearly lose them in the sea slowly enveloping her floor.
Twilight began to reshelf her many books when her door spontaneously burst open as she was greeted with confetti and balloons. Now was really not the time for Pinkie’s shenanigans. Twilight simply had too much reshelving to do for this ridiculous behavior. Pinkie burst in soon following the balloons and began to sing as Twilight put a hoof to Pinkie’s mouth.
“What is it Pinkie?” said Twilight in a very drowsy, irritated voice.
“Oh, nothing, just having one of my awesome parties and figured I’d invite my bestest best friends in the whole world so do ya wanna come, do ya do ya do ya?”
She heaved another sigh “Can’t you see? I’ve kind of got my hooves full at the moment, without Spike here I’m the one who has to do the reshelving, and the cooking, and the cleaning, and the...” she sighed again “everything…”.
“Well, if you want to come you know where to go, everypony will be there!”
“Thank you Pinkie, I will try to make it, I’m just so busy without Spike here.”
With that the party pony left in her usual ludicrous hopping fashion.
Twilight decided that her studies were going nowhere with her in this condition, she was barely able to recall even the simplest of spells she had learned recently. She figured she would take a break day to relax and get away from the stress of studying. Before that could happen though, she had to do something about the mess in her library. She slowly began reshelving as she unearthed another layer of books below what appeared to only be the surface in a sea of literature. She decided it was not the time for this. With that thought Twilight was out the door and on her way to get something to eat. She went to Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s shop to pick up something sweet to help her relax. She was used to carrying more bits for when she had Spike with her, but being only her the bits served as nothing more than expensive weights.
After all her errands Twilight returned home as the sun was setting over the plains of Equestria. She began the lengthy task of reshelving for the third time today, she was beginning to grow tired and insane over this trivial task. She wondered how anyone could ever stand to do this without the use of magic.
Twilight slept very little that night. She couldn’t imagine sleeping in such a messy building. She spent a few more hours cleaning before she could rest peacefully.
It was not the time for her to be sleep deprived, Winter wrap-up was coming and if she did not have everything planned out and well organized it would simply be a chaotic reenactment of years past before she came to Ponyville.
The sun rose over Equestria as Twilight slowly ripped apart her eyelids, it nearly hurt to wake up, in reality she had slept much longer than she felt she had. She said to herself it was no time to be a slacker, Ponyville needed her, she had her duties and she knew the consequences if she failed to complete them.
She began checking in with each of the squad leaders, beginning with Rainbow Dash who informed her that the pegasi had already begun migrating the birds. Applejack told her that most of the snow was already beginning to clear and the earth ponies were readying the seeds for planting. Fluttershy simply told Twilight that the animals would be awake when they were supposed to be.
“Maybe they remember how I organized it from last year, that must be it” Twilight said aloud in the library in a distressed tone. “That must be it, they couldn’t have simply done this themselves, could they?” She pondered for a few more moments before deciding that this was actually a great opportunity rather than a lack of usefulness. She would take this time to relax, study, and tidy up the library.
Twilight managed to reshelf all of her books after much procrastination. It was now time to begin studying, she grabbed multiple books. First on her checklist of books was a book on Omniamporphic spells. Something Starswirl himself worked heavily on. These spells could be useful at times as they allowed you to become anything you wished. The second was a book on organization and keeping your checklist neat and complete. The third a cooking book, with Spike gone Twilight was painfully reminded of how terrible her cooking is and how painful it was to stomach even so much as a mouthful. She found 2 and 3 easily, however, no matter how much she scoured her library she could not find the first book on her check list.
She checked her records to make sure she had’nt checked it out to anyone. She hadn’t, infact that book hadn’t been touched ever, no one in Ponyville shared her enthusiasm for spells of such difficulty, or even for those done by Starswirl, no one had really even heard of him. Twilight tried to think where the book could have gone. She thought back to when Pinkie busted into her library unannounced, she figured that was the only solution. It got mixed up in some rabble and Pinkie picked it up by mistake, after all what would Pinkie do with a book.
She went straight to Pinkie’s home. She knocked on the door as loud as she could so that Pinkie could hear it over the ridiculously loud music that was playing.
“Twilight! I’m so glad you made it!”
“No, Pinkie, actually I’m just here to pick up a book, did you grab one on your way out from the library?”
Pinkie pondered for a second and said “Nope, nothing here, no books here, just cake, lots of cake, you should come in and help eat all the cake.”
After a groan Twilight said “I’ll have to pass for now, this book is extremely important, one that I currently need to continue my studies.”
Pinkie looked sad “aw, okey dokey lokey then” she said as she waved to Twilight walking back to the library with her head hanging.
After returning to the library Twilight began mumbling to herself “Oh this is not good, this is actually very not good, this is very bad, if that book got into the wrong hooves it could mean the end of Ponyville. That book contains spells that not even Starswirl knew were safe, it was created at the pinnacle of his magical brilliance, something unmatched by even Celestia herself.”
Twilight decided it would be best to find Spike, but she wouldn’t be able to cover all of Canterlot herself, she would need help. None other than her closest friends would do. She traveled to each of her friends to ask for help. They each agreed happily, and so the ponies were on their way to Canterlot. Twilight spared no expenses, they must make the trip immediately. They took Pegasus drawn chariots to make the trip as quick as possible.
Twilight spoke to her party all at once “Friends, thank you for coming, I know I have asked you to help me on very short notice, and I appreciate that you all are so willing to help”
“Well no problem Twi but can you tell what in the hay yer so worked up about” said Applejack with a slight bit of concern.
“ya Twi, you interrupted my awesome after after party for this!?” Said Pinkie without the slightest hint of actual irritation.
Twilight remained silent, wanting to keep her friends from worrying.
“Come now deary, you cannot simply drag us from our own fun activities for an emergency trip to Canterlot without at least telling us why we’re going. Even if the city is simply divine.” Said Rarity
Fluttershy tapped twilight on the back “um.. Twilight, if you wouldn’t mind um… telling us why we’re going to Canterlot?”
“We’re going to find Spike.” Responded Twilight
Fluttershy broke into hysterics “oh my gosh is he lost! Oh poor thing! We need to find him! Twilight we need to find him!”
“Calm down Fluttershy, Spike isn’t lost he was running an errand I just need him back sooner than expected.” Twilight responded again with slight agitation in her voice. Her loss of sleep was catching up to her again and the force of the air on her face was beginning to hurt her eyes.
“I see Canterlot, its right over there!” Yelled an enthusiastic Pinkie, garnering Rarity’s attention as her eyes began to open and she daydreamed of wonderful times had in Canterlot.
Twilight slammed her hoof “Come on guys, now is not the time to be messing around, I NEED to find Spike.”
The other ponies just looked at her in shock, they had not seen Twilight this agitated in a long time. “Twi, are you sure there’s not something yer not telling us” asked Applejack.
“Nothing, we’re just going to find Spike, I miss him!” Even if that was a lie, Twilight knew it would have to suffice for the time being. She justified herself by thinking that she did truly miss Spike, not enough for her to cut him off in the middle of an errand, but nonetheless after having to do every chore herself at home she realized how important he actually was.
The pony party landed in Canterlot, immediately Rarity questioned “Well, where are we staying?”
“We’re not” immediately responded Twilight.
“What? We come all this way to simply leave the same day?” Rarity said frantically.
“Uh… I suppose Rarity is right, I’ll arrange something with the Princess, for now you all begin looking for Spike.”
The ponies all split directions from that point on. Each wandered around Canterlot calling out for Spike, he could hear no one over his munching of a ruby, not even Rarity.
Twilight went immediately to Princess Celestia’s castle.
The guards stopped her with a swift “State your business!”
“I am Twilight Sparkle, the princess’ most faithful student.” She stated with authority as if to brag.
The guards looked puzzled at each other as Celestia herself burst through the door joyously and said “Twilight, it is great to see you, come in.”
Twilight walked in giving the guards a stare of disapproval, they shirked it off.
“Twilight, what brings you to Canterlot at this time?” asked Celestia.
“Well Princess, I came here to find Spike who is on an errand but my friends are not so confident we can find him in one day, I had no plans to st….”
Celestia cut her off mid sentence “Say no more my little pony, you and your friends are welcome to stay in one of the castle’s towers.” Celestia gave Twilight a warm maternal smile and dismissed her.
Twilight returned the smile and walked off to find her friends. She figured Rarity would be in the fashion district, Fluttershy would be in a garden somewhere, Rainbow Dash would be lazing around on a cloud, Applejack would be wandering lost around the city, Pinkie Pie was, of course at a sweet shop.
After collecting all of her friends she informed them of the situation.
“Okay, so we are allowed to stay in the tower of Princess Celestia’s Royal Castle tonight, did any of you have any luck?”
Each pony twiddled their hooves and just looked embarrassingly at Twilight
Twilight slapped her hoof to her face “Okay, we’ll continue the search for now, get some rest soon then continue tomorrow, come on we’re running out of daylight”
The ponies searched high and low, everywhere they could think of, but they could find no baby dragon.
Twilight let loose a sigh of defeat and said “Alright, I think we’ve searched enough for today, lets rest our hooves and start fresh tomorrow.”
Celestia rose the sun in the morning sky, Twilight struggled to open her eyes, she just wanted to sleep. Rainbow continually prodded Twilight with her hoof until she awoke.
“Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?” Said Twilight drowsily.
“Waking you up, duh.” She responded in her standard cocky tone.
“Of course you are” said Twilight as she pushed Rainbow Dash away.
“Okay, wake up everyone, time to look for Spike” said Twilight
The other ponies awoke slowly to Twilights wake up call and rubbed their eyes drowsily “So early?” responded Fluttershy.
“Yes” Twilight quickly responded “This is an important matter, we must not waste time.”
“What is this all about Twilight?” asked Rainbow Dash impatiently.
“It’s about finding Spike, what else would it be about?” Twilight responded in an agitated tone.
“I don’t know, you’re the one dragging us around Canterlot, you could at least give us a reas..” Rainbow Dash cut off midsentence as Applejack nudged her with her hoof to point out that Twilight was deep in thought.
“I know, we must check the gem stores” she said quickly remembering Spike’s favorite thing, food.
The ponies went to each major gem shop in town but could not find Spike.
“I don’t have time for this! I give up!” Shouted Twilight as she began her journey to the castle to give her farewell to the Princess.
“You’re just giving up like that?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“What else is there to do, we don’t have the time to be wasting like this, I’m sorry I brought you all along.”
“Twilight, we didn’t find Spike, so that’s obviously not why we’re here if you’re giving up so easily, what’s the real reason?” Rainbow Dash spat out while pushing Applejack away.
“The real reason is that I really miss Spike and that I really need him at the library, is that so hard to believe?”
“ye…” Rarity put the hoof to Rainbow Dash’s snout and whispered in her ear “she will tell us when she is ready, if she isn’t then don’t make her angry.”
Twilight sighed and walked to give the princess her farewell. After the formalities the Princess arranged chariots for the ponies and they were on their way back to Ponyville. All of Twilights friends followed her to the library in case she needed something along the way.
“Thank you all for trying to help me, I’m sorry that it was a total waste of time” Twilight said in a very disappointed tone.
“It’s nothin’ sugar cube” responded Applejack in a very soothing voice. “We’ll always do what we can to help a friend.”
“Thanks” Twilight said as she walked inside the library. The ponies had only begun to part ways to their respective homes when they heard a monstrous shriek arise from the library. Her friends busted through the door only to find Twilight holding a piece of parchment with writing on it. Attached to the piece of parchment Fluttershy was able to make out a picture of Spike.
“What’s that say Twilight?” asked Rarity.
Twilight read the letter aloud.
Hello Twilight
I hope you enjoy the picture, it’s the only nice one I could take of such an ugly thing. I found it snooping around Canterlot and I know it to be yours. Why would you ever let such a hideous creature loose? I can’t believe you find anything to value in it. Nonetheless, I hope you have at least enough love for it so that you could come and be its hero. If you ever want to see this hideous thing again you will meet me in the Everfree Forest with all of your books on Starswirl The Bearded and any advanced magics, after all I already possess two of them.
“The letter isn’t signed” Said Twilight as if expecting the dragonnapper to simply reveal themselves. Twilight was beginning to choke at the thought of what anyone might do to Spike. Especially someone who she had no clue who they were. She feared for his life. Even if she let him run off alone into Canterlot, she trusted him to get home safely.
“This was all over a stupid book!?” Rainbow Dash blurted out.
“Rainbow! You know that Twilight would never get this worked up over just a book, right?” Applejack interjected.
Twilight looked at Rainbow with tears coming out of her eyes and choked out “Yes… this was all over a stupid book, and now look where its gotten Spike, and me at the same time” Twilight sobbed.
“Now listen Twi, none of this is your fault, there’s no way you knew any of this could happen” Applejack put a hoof around Twilight.
“There’s always something I could have done” Twilight sobbed. “You guys can tell no one of this, I’ll go into the Everfree Forest and deal with this myself.”
“No way Twilight, we ain’t gonna letcha go this alone.” Applejack chimed in.
Every pony nodded in agreement and Twilight knew there was no arguing with them, even the most timid Fluttershy would insist on helping the poor baby dragon.