Archive of Our Own

"Come on, Spike. Let's run through our scheduled tasks and perform a final global check, and that will be all for today." Twilight said.

It was their fourth last time. Or maybe their fifth, Spike had stopped keeping track.

Twilight had a thing for “let’s go over the checklist” moments. Princess of Checklists was a solid contender to become her next unofficial middle name. Soon, they would need to make a schedule just to organize and optimize the time spent on checklists.

Twilight had the metabolism to process checklists faster than Pinkie Pie processed fourth wall breaks. In a single day, she could add more things to get done and they would surpass the number of times Princess Celestia had raised the sun in her life, without taking a break.

Her Number One Assistant had started running low on patience two last times ago, his head still aching from the many times he had been accidentally hit by the extra-extra-extra ink supplies flying over him.

Spike hid a grunt of weariness behind a forced smile.

"Can you promise me that will be it, this time?" He sighed. "Please?"

From the look of mild surprise that showed up on Twilight's face, the little dragon guessed his big, loving sister was in the middle of realizing something. Hopefully, that her dear assistant was being overworked and needed rest and hot chocolate and marshmallows and the rest of the day off, he dared to wish.

However, something was off and it could be felt in the air between them. When was the last time Twilight had looked at him that mischievously, almost as a means to wink with her mouth, while wearing a grin that said a lot about how cute Spike looked to her when he was getting upset?

"Okay Spike, one last last time." She said sincerely, albeit with a 'secret agenda' kind of touch in her words. "Pinkie Promise."

Now, that meant something. Spike brightened up, grabbing the scroll with the list of tasks in one hand, the other reaching for and then holding an inked quill.

"I'm ready, Twi."

Twilight wore a brighter smile mirroring Spike's, then cleared her throat:

"Sorting out all of Starswirl's Guides to looking and sounding wiser with a beard in your name, volumes one to seventeen?" She began.

Spike barely held back a chuckle, ticking a box. "Check."

Twilight chuckled knowingly. "Writing chapter two, three and four of my Essay on how mares can also look wiser but with a real beard, as my eighteenth answer to Starswirl's statement?"

Spike laughed more mockingly at the thought of Twilight having to shave, then yawned as he remembered how they had actually managed to write FIVE chapters. In one hour. "Check!"

Twilight snickered back, magically popping a mustache onto Spike's face, only to realize it'd make him twice as stylish and deadly cuter. She sent it back into oblivion with another flash from her horn, much to Spike's disappointment.

"Purchasing scrolls in sufficient quantities to cover up for my next two hundred forty-five checklists this week, according to my estimations?"

Spike shivered. They now had enough supplies for a month's worth of Friendship Letters from every Ponyville citizen. Per day.

"Check." He ticked another box.

"Dusting all the books in the library?"

Spike coughed. No confirmation needed.

The dragon ticked more boxes, sometimes more than one per second. He struggled to keep his concentration. A battle raged in his mind between his eyes and a need to blink from heaviness.

Twilight paced back and forth for a few seconds, roughly the time she needed to mentally (re)count the number of tasks she clearly remembered writing down for the day.

Spike did the same with his fingers, giving up just as quickly when he ran out them, then realizing it was pointless since he already had the answer. Spike knew there was no possibility of any margin of error existing at this point, and soon, they faced each other with mutually agreeing smiles of satisfaction.

"Well, guess what Spike? I think we're finally done!" Twilight grinned, a little too obviously to avoid suspicion that she was up to something.

Spike still nodded approvingly. "I can confirm that!"

His eyes were glued to the fully scribbled roll of parchment, which now displayed a near-endless column of fully ticked boxes. There was no way he could have gotten anything wro-

"Hey!" Spike protested when Twilight levitated the scroll away from his hands to take a look at it herself.

"Or... are we, really?" She challenged her Assistant's statement. "I could bet a full bag of gems that we actually forgot something..."

Spike stared at her wearily from across the library room, but a sneaky smile appeared once again when realization hit him: he recalled the exact number of boxes he had checked perfectly well, and none had been left empty.

Now, not only would the Princess of Workaholics finally release him from a long day of restless labor, but she'd also be treating him to a selection of the finest gems of Equestria for losing such a stupid bet.

The unsuspecting dragon closed his eyes in premature victory and stood in a confident upward position, an explicit vibe of I-wouldn't-make-that-bet-if-I-were-you radiating from him. Lost in his presumptuous ways, Spike didn't notice Twilight’s horn had come to life and the scribbling quill being furtively dipped in an inkwell (the last one that hadn’t been run dry at this point), then set in motion again.

When he finally did, before he could call Twilight out for cheating with magic, the scroll had been levitated back into his hands with an extra, unticked box right next to a brand-new, definitely-not-magically-added sentence.

Spike grumbled heavily, eyes rolling and mouth flatlining into a deadpan expression of exasperation, while Twilight looked on with an innocent, yet expectant smile.

Resigned, Spike actually took the time to read through this unwanted additional task in a never-ending workday. His reeling mind would be quick to use whatever this extra chore was about to prepare whatever snarkiness it might inspire and come up with a scathing retort.

But just as the words flashed by, his eyes... opened up and wide, registering something intense, and so did his gaping mouth as a hiccup of emotion made its way out of it.

While processing the emotional attack he had just suffered, these same eyes welled up abundantly. His trembling lips struggled to pronounce the words as he read the task that was yet to be completed.

"G-give... my beloved b-baby d-dragon... a big h-hug... to t-thank him for... everything..."

The scroll slipped from his shaky hands like a bar of soap as wet as his eyes, falling off to the ground with some random, salty droplets freshly splattered on it. Spike glanced at Twilight's blurry silhouette in the distance, making out a pair of hooves stretched toward him.

And he ran as fast as he could, blindly throwing himself straight into the embrace offered to him.

Nose buried deep into the soft, furry coat of his big sister's chest, he sobbed lightly with happiness. A hoof held him with a firm grip like he was to be maintained against her at all costs, while another patted his back tenderly to better push his heart toward hers until they fused.

"There, there, Spike!" Twilight choked out through her own tears. "I'm here."

She kept hugging him until his soft crying began to subside, threatening to make Twilight's own tears dangerously audible. "I swear, Spike... you really had it coming!" She joked very, very seriously, magically wiping the dampness away.

Spike smiled against his better judgment, twisting his weeping expression into a hilariously hideous, yet endearing tangle of contrasting emotions.

"G-guilty... as charged..." he laughed tearfully.

The rest and hot chocolate and marshmallows never stood a chance against a crushing hug of this magnitude on the Sisterly Love Scale.

At a reasonably enjoyable pace, the infant dragon calmed down. Twilight took it slow, not that she would mind holding him for the rest of the afternoon. The cuddle was off to a good start, and it was here to stay.

In the meantime, Twilight mentally prepared to write another list - they had enough scrolls. A list of nice and cute things that she'd offer to do with Spike, after he woke up from the nap he was about to take in her hooves.

Things such as, but not limited to, rest and marshmallows and hot chocolate. And gems too, on the house (she made a nice house).

But first, she’d invoke her magical abilities to bring the tear-stained scroll into view again. Sparks flickered across her horn, a lavender glow drenching them both in a warm, magical light. The quill floated up and danced on the parchment, ticking the bonus - and most important box.

"Checklist completed." She whispered contentedly.