Spike My Boy (Ed)

    The day of the Spring Blooming Festival had finally arrived in Ponyville. Twilight
Sparkle awoke from her bed with a start. Another big holiday had come to Equestria, and
this would be her first since moving to her new home. She was very excited to start the
day off right. She went over to the basket where her sleeping dragon assistant was still
snoring.
    “Wake up, sleepyhead,” she told him, nudging him out of bed.
    “One more minute, mommy,” he grumbled, still half asleep. “What? Oh, Twilight. Is it
morning already?”
    “You better believe it is, mister. And we've got a lot to do today. All the teams
are counting on us.”
    They put on their rubber boots and headed down stairs. It had been raining all week
and the flower fields were certain to be muddy. Spike tripped over himself and fell down
the last few stairs, landing face first on the floor.
    “I’d ask you if you had a nice fall, if it wasn’t Spring,” Twilight joked.
    “Ha ha, very funny,” a still grumpy Spike replied. “I’m going to make myself some
breakfast.”
    Spike headed into the library’s small kitchen. It had once been just a backroom for
the library, before they had moved in and turned it into a proper home. Meanwhile,
Twilight continued preparing for her day. Hmm, she thought to herself, spring flowers.
That means pollen. And that means hay fever. I have to deal with the same old allergies
every year. She looked for her book on pony allergy remedies. She couldn’t find it.
Spike would know where it was.
    She pushed open the door to her kitchen, “Hey Spike, have you seen my book on...”
There was a loud thump. Spike had been coming through the other direction when the door
hit him square on the face. Spike was thrown backwards, he spun around twice on one
foot, and then fell into the stove. Eggs, bacon and hot grease fell on his head,
followed by the heavy cast iron pan.
    “OW! OW! OW!” Spike got up and screamed as he ran circles in the kitchen. “Wait a
minute,” he added, “I’m fire proof.” Spike got a kitchen towel and began cleaning
himself up. “What was it you were looking for?”
    “The book on allergy remedies?”
    “Oh, right,” he said. “Your allergies. It’s in the same cabinet with all the other
medicine books.” Spike swung open the wide white door on the old book cabinet. It was
filled with a wide assortment of books, scrolls, and manuscripts in all shapes and
colors. “Here it is,” he said, pulling out the correct one.
    “Thanks, Spike, I don’t know what I’d do without you,” Twilight said, “Now how about
you finish cleaning up your mess and then we’ll head over to Fluttershy’s place? She’s
got a full symphony orchestra of birds she’s conducting at the festival tonight.”
    They found her a few minutes later just outside her country cottage. The whole
landscape was covered by a sea of pastel wildflowers. Twilight said hello, and
Fluttershy immediately jumped into the nearest bush.
    “Oh,” Fluttershy said, peeking her head back out. “Good morning, Twilight. Good
Morning, Spike. I didn’t see you there. Are those bruises?”
    “Pardon?” Twilight asked.
    “Oh,” Fluttershy continued. “Were you here to ask about the birds?”
    “We sure are,” Twilight smiled. “Everything coming along OK?”
    “Oh, it’s going to be better than ever this year,” Fluttershy said cheerfully.
“We’re going to be doing ‘Hoedown’ from the Rodeo Ballet. And there’s going to be
Beethoofen, and Naganini... oh, but I don’t want to give away all the surprises.”
    “That’s OK, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, “sounds like you’ve got everything under
control, we’ll probably head over to Rainbow’ Dash’s to see if she’s ever going to clean
up this rainy weather.”
    They found Dash’s house hanging over the Ponyville Park. It had drifted there some
time in the night. “Hey, Dash!” Twilight shouted up. “How many lazy people am I going to
have to wake up today?!”
    Eventually Dash’s head peaked over the side of the cloud. She grinned, then pitched
herself over the brim and fell. She only flared her wings at the last second, coming to
a perfect four point landing. “Are you kidding me? I’ll have this whole sky clear in no
time!” She began to take off.
    “Wait a second,” Twilight called out. “You’re not supposed to clear it all out.
Leave a few fluffy white clouds. For aesthetics. This is the Spring festival, after all,
not the Summer Solstice Celebration.”
    “Oh yeah,” Dash chuckled to her absent-minded self. She glanced at Spike, “are those
bumps?”
    “What?”
    “Oh nothing, don’t worry about the sky. I’ll have it cleared in less than ten
seconds flat.” Dash launched herself into the sky with a great buffet of air.
    “Well, that’s done,” Twilight said to Spike. Now let’s head over to Rarity’s
boutique,” Spike jumped, then turned a beet red. “Yeah, yeah. Calm yourself, Casanova.”
   A few minutes later they entered the boutique. Huge arrangements of colorful flowers
filled the lobby from floor to ceiling.
    “Oh, hello, darling,” Rarity called out from behind a vase of tulips. “As you can
see we’re all ready with the floral displays. Oh, and hello to you too, Spike,” she said
looking down at him. “Oh dear, you’re not going to the Spring Blooming Festival without
a new outfit, are you? Why don’t you come back to the fitting room. I’ve got just the
thing for you!” she said with a wink.
    Spike blushed again and suddenly changed his mind about things, “I don’t think I
want to go back there, Twilight.” Rarity practically had to drag him across the floor.
He came out again ten minutes later, looking flushed and very uncomfortable. He was
dressed head to toe in a small sailor’s outfit. “OK, very funny,” he said, “now let’s
get out of here.”
    On their way to Pinkie Pie’s sweetshop, they ran into Applejack and Big Macintosh
heading the opposite direction.
    “Well hey there sugar cube,” Applejack said to Twilight. “Mind if I bend yer ear for
a moment?”
    Big Macintosh bent down to talk to Spike before Twilight could answer. “Hey there,
big guy,” he said. “Would you like an apple?”
    “Sure!” Spike said excitedly, he didn’t get a chance to talk to many grown men like
Big Macintosh.
    “Here you go, pardner,” Big Mac handed him an enormous shiny apple from his
saddlebag. “Why don’t you come with me now, so these here fillies can talk?”
    “Now listen here, sugar cube,” Applejack said. “There’s a bit of a crisis over at
town hall. Mayor Mare needs your help. Ya gotta come right away.”
    “What about Spike?”
    “Don’t you worry about him. Missy,” Applejack said, “when he’s with Big Macintosh
he’s in good hands.”
    When they got to the town hall, Mayor Mare was sitting in front of her lectern.
There was a large crowd of ponies watching Twilight come in. For some reason, she
started feeling nervous. Twilight sat down at the table on the right, next to Applejack.
Another pony started to talk from the table on the left. It was Trixie. What was SHE
doing back in town? Up to more of shenanigans? Twilight had no idea what she was talking
about, except she kept mentioning Spike, for some reason.
    “What do you have to say. Counsellor?” Mayor Mare spoke to Applejack.
    “Now listen here, your Honor,” Ms. Appelbaum said, “This silly filly’s been in a
heap of mess lately. What with coordinating all the festivities for the holidays and
fighting dragons and what not. Is it any wonder she’s all discombobulated? She don’t
mean no harm or nothing. She’s just a bit touched in the head.”
    Mayor Mare turned to Twilight. “Is this true, Miss Sparks? Do you understand why
you’re here in court before me today? Do you understand why your son has been taken into
custody? Are you capable of realizing what it is you’ve done?”
    Tracy Sparks looked down at her feet. She didn’t know what to say.

    Dear Dr. Celestia,
    I’ve been feeling much better lately. The group meetings with the other ponies are
really starting to help me out.
    I’ve also been taking all my pills. For two whole weeks now! My attorney, Ms.
Oppelbaum, says that if I can show I’m doing better I can get out of the hospital. She
says I won’t get Spike back, but I think if I show I’m really doing better I can change
that. I realize now that what I did was wrong. I know that the reason they gave me that
second chance in the Ponyville halfway house is because I thought I could look after him
there, but I messed that up. I think I deserve a third chance. I realize that I didn’t
take good care of him. I realize I shouldn't have let him play with the stove or with
the medicine cabinet. He’s just so clumsy and always falling down the stairs. I also
shouldn’t have allowed Mrs. Raritowski to do what she did with him. I’m really sorry
about that, but you know how Spike gets.
    Anyway, I hope you can believe me and I hope I can see Spike again and I hope I can
get out of here soon.
    The summer solstice celebration is coming up and who knows what Nightmare Moon is
going to do this time?
    Your Faithful Student,
    Twilight Sparkle