So let's fast forward a bit.

As we all know, Spike ended up trying to get Twilight to stop being a party-pooper (didn't work well) and ended up giving in until the citizens of Ponyville all gathered just before sunrise at town hall.

If my good little Bronies have learned their history right, they'll know that Nightmare Moon had appeared instead of the Princess. Obviously this had come to quite a shock to everypony except Twilight, whose extreme paranoia finally payed off.

And of course Spike, being only a baby dragon, didn't handle the combination of shock and exhaustion well. Our brave hero was left to rest in his basket in the library, his sidekick Twilight and her friends (most notably the lovely miss Fluttershy) picking up the slack and scrubbing the Night Princess clean of the darkness she had slept in for a thousand years.....

"Come on Spike! I don't know what to do here! I mean I could just give up my ticket, but that would still leave three disappointed ponies!" Twilight dropped her head down to rest on the table, a sad groan escaping her lips as she did so.

"Are you still going on about that?" Spike looked over his menu at the mare, careful to hide his disapproving look behind the soup section. Once Twilight stepped onto her crazy train there was no getting off.

"You're not even listening..." Twilight ran a hoof down her face, feeling tired, hungry, and defeated.

"Why not just give me the tickets? We can pretend it was a present for me all along and I can run out and pick somepony to bring along," Spike patted himself on the back for such a good idea. It was the perfect excuse to hang out with miss Fluttershy!

"Too late for that Spike, they'd never buy it. Thanks for trying though," Twilight sat back upright, spying the waiter carrying her sandwich and Spike's hay fries.

'So much for that,' Spike thought as he accepted his hay fries from the waiter. Life never turned out that easy for the little dragon. Still, putting in a good word on Fluttershy's behalf wouldn't have gone amiss....

Spike had just opened his mouth to speak on the timid mare's behalf when he was cut off by a shout from above.

"Oh hey Twilight! Caught ya just in time, couldn't have you getting rained on and all," Rainbow Dash put on her best smile as she stared down at the unicorn.

"W-what ra-" Over the past few days of staying in Ponyville, Twilight had gotten used to unexpected run-ins with her friends. It was the circumstances that they arrived in that troubled her though, and the oh-so-sudden onset of rainclouds directly above Spike and herself was more than a bit troubling.

"Rainbow Dash! Do I even want to know what you're doing?" Twilight flung the sandwich back down to the plate, where the impact rolled the dishware around on it's rims noisily.

"Oh I was just in the neighborhood, and I remembered there was this surprise storm scheduled and stuff. Couldn't let my best bud get rained on right?" Rainbow flashed a smile again, sunshine beaming from behind her while everyplace else had adopted the gloom of the storm clouds.

"Oh. Really?" Twilight gave a look of mock surprise as she spoke. She held a gaze at Rainbow, as if she was expecting the pegasus to tell her some long-winded story about her race against the thunderclouds.

Rainbow broke the gaze after a few seconds and scratched at one of her ears, an action that was all Twilight needed to break the tension.

"Rainbow I don't feel comfortable accepting favors I didn't ask for when I know you're doing it for that ticket. So I'd appreciate it if you'd close up that raincloud right now." Twilight dropped her mocking tone like a brick, speaking now as if addressing a rebellious child.

Rainbow scoffed and rolled her eyes. With a flick of her hoof she sealed the raincloud shut, blocking out the sunlight from behind.

"Well that was sad," Twilight shook her head as she levitated her sandwich to her mouth. Now perhaps Twilight was a bit too hungry to think about the "storm schedule" that day , or she simply might have been too hungry to remind Rainbow Dash that she had left her rainclouds behind. But what it all came down to was the rainclouds needed to do their job, unscheduled or not.

Twilight had barely taken a bite from her sandwich when she felt the heavy torrent pour down on her from above, ruining not only her mane but the once tasty daffodil sandwich as well.

"Let's just go home Spike..." Twilight muttered darkly, trying to ignore the giggling dragon. She shoved the plate forward, knocking the obligatory flower vase askew with a clang, and stood to leave.

"Aw come on Twilight, let's just go inside and order more food. You'll feel better after you've eaten," Spike pushed his now soaked hay fries away despite his more feral instincts telling him to eat anyway.

"We can't spend anymore bits this week Spike, we were cutting it close here anyway," Twilight begrudgingly stood from the chair. The alluring scent of cooking hay fries from inside brought an immediate disagreement from her stomach. The peanut butter and jelly back home paled in comparison to the smoky taste of toasted flower sandwiches....

"Twilight. It's raining," came a voice from beyond the haze of the pouring rain, the figure resembling a pony in a miniature carousel.

"No, really?" Twilight asked back, the sarcastic tone lost among the noise of rain hitting the pavement.

"You'll catch a cold Twilight!" A hoof jutted out of the thick rain and snatched Twilight's, yanking her under a large crimson umbrella. Bedazzled with a large assortment of precious stones of course. One simply cannot shirk a fashionable accessory, even in the face of spontaneous thunderstorms dear reader.

"You too Spike, come along before you both catch death!"

Spike watched the tube twirl around between his claws, wondering what shade of color lay inside. Looking behind him he noted that Rarity was busy crushing Twilight's ribcage with a corset, so perhaps...

Nah. He had already played with Rarity' s makeup once and had his kicks. Besides, lipstick tasted awfully funny to the little dragon.

"Ugh Rarity, that's too tight!" Twilight yelped in a humorously strained voice.

"Nothing is too tight for a single mare Twilight," Rarity responded quickly. "Now suck in, you can do it!"

Spike watched with his head rested on his claw, allowing the lonely lipstick tube to roll away and fall from the vanity table.

'Twilight wouldn't be single if she wasn't such a buzz kill half the time,' he thought. However this mental statement hadn't altogether been true, as Twilight had seemed to poke her head out of her shell more often these days. Heck, if they stayed here then she would probably find a husband. Or something. Whatever girls were into he supposed.

Spike sighed again as he watched Twilight crawl away from Rarity, her knees constantly buckling from the glass slippers the fashionista had shoved onto her hooves. Her mane now had looping curls where her bangs used to be, albeit pushed to the sides of her face. She also wore light shades of pink eye shadow and just a bit of blush.

All in all not a bad look, Spike thought.

"And this is where the guilty conscience starts again," Twilight said as she sat down hard on her haunches and leaned until her back rested on the vanity table.

"She trying to get you a coltfriend?" Spike asked, not bothering to look down at Twilight as he let his eyes unfocus into a blank, bored stare into the vanity mirror.

"I guess. She's already talking about the Princess's nephew again, and how his friends would just love me," Twilight said the last half of the sentence in a mocking tone. "As if I didn't know they were a bunch of snobs to begin with."

"Who Blueblood? Aww really?" Spike perked up at the mention of the annoying stallion. The dragon had never met a pony so infuriatingly prissy in his young life. No tug-of-war, no mudfights, not even the occasional hoof-wrestle from time to time.

He wouldn't be surprised if the stallion had actually been born a mare.

"Oh goodness there's that magical name! Prince Blueblood, come now Twilight say you'll take me to meet him!" Rarity had whirled around like a dancer on her back hooves towards them. She had obviously only been listening for a few certain syllables.

"Oh and Spike will be going too right? I mean surely they will allow your personal assistant to go to the Gala under your ticket?" The unicorn didn't wait for an answer before she began sizing Spike with her eyes.

"Huh. I actually don't know," Twilight's brow wrinkled a little as she thought. She hadn't thought about what Spike would do at a Gala in the first place. It wasn't exactly a playground after all, and gems probably wouldn't be served in respect of one single guest.

"I'm okay, you girls have fun. I'm not all into that girly gala froo-froo junk," Spike jumped from the chair he had been plopped in and walked quickly to the door.

"I think I'm gonna head back home and see if there is anything in the fridge," Spike called over his shoulder, the lie actually being halfway true as he thought bitterly of his ruined hay fries. The truth was that the dragon had no intention of attending a royal dinner unless a certain mare was his date, and even then the mare had already a similar mindset to his own.

His dear miss Fluttershy didn't want to sell treats. She didn't want to show off for a bunch of overpaid celebrity pegasi. And she certainly didn't want to flirt with royalty due to their entitlement as Prince, a disgusting prospect that Spike couldn't fully wrap his young mind around.

No, as a matter of fact miss Fluttershy didn't even mention an interest in attending the festivities at all. She wanted to see the Royal Garden, to let herself roam amongst the myriad of flowers and meet the timid creatures that lived among them. Had Spike a way of securing a ticket of his own as well as one for Miss Fluttershy the situation would have been perfect.

Him. Her. Alone in one of the most beautiful places in Canterlot. It would be the perfect place to tell her he thought she was pretty. That he wanted to give her jewels and gold for reasons he did not quite understand at his age yet.

'Oh Spike, it smells so nice here.' She would say dreamily, her wings shivering lightly in the cool night air.

'Wanna take one as a souvenir?" He would ask as he takes his tuxedo jacket off and covers her back with it.

'You didn't have to do that, and I-I wouldn't want you to get in trouble if somepony could see you when you picked it,'

'I wanted to and I wouldn't care,' Spike keeps his gaze locked on hers as he stoops down boldly, smoothly picking a healthy feeling flower and holding it behind his back.

Fluttershy purses her lips in an attempt to smother a shy smile, but it breaks free anyway as Spike steps forward to hold the flower out to her.

'Spike...' she whispers with a smile, reaching out for the flower but not breaking the gaze that is giving her the most pleasant chills.

'Do you think I could buy you a root beer float or something sometime? It's not a tasty as the sapphires I tried to get but-'

He is cut off as he feels her hooves on his chest, the mane hiding half of her blushing face as she leans forward. She is so close that if Spike wanted he could brush the mane away and count each eyelash, but he is content with simply staring into the one visible turquoise eye. It is looking back at him nervously, but he feels her press just a bit closer to him.

Spikes takes the beautiful offer. He wraps his claws around her back to hold her at eye level (having conveniently hit a growth spurt and adding a rather dashing 2 feet to his height) and lets her lean her mouth towards his....

"Twilight, does Spike usually practice kissing in the middle of the street?" Rarity let the measuring tape float lazily beside her, suddenly unsure of what she was doing with it in the first place.

"I don't know. Guess he's starting to get interested in mares. Which is also up for debate of normality." Twilight rubbed her chin and sat back on her haunches, watching the strange little reptile in the street get to first base with an imaginary marefriend .

"Oh how romantic," Rarity said with a smile. Of course the little dragon would be practicing kissing. Twilight and herself were only talking about one of the most important royal balls in Equestria. Spike was probably fantasizing about taking a mare in his little arms and having her lean down for a bold, magical kiss in the middle of a spotlight in the ballroom dancefloor.....

She sighed dreamily.

Author's Note

Super big apologies to Swashbucklist who offered to proofread this story for me!

I figured I hadn't updated in so long that I needed to get this chapter out as soon as possible.
As always, like-comment-subscribe-flame. All corrections are welcome as you find them (if anything looks odd or out of place let me know, I write on iOS devices during work now)