*SLAM!*

Twilight Sparkle nearly jumped out of her chair when she heard the library door. Whirling around, she looked to see the cause and frowned when she saw it.

There stood a large and somewhat heavily built purple dragon with a serrated-looking green crest running down the back of his head; dressed in jeans, and a hoodie covered in green flames, open to show the pale red t-shirt underneath.

"Spike!" She started, "What's the big..!" The scolding died on her lips when she saw the look on the dragon's face. Sorrow, despondency, and a bit of anger ; an expression that was rather alien for him. "Spike?' She said, her voice softening considerably as she hurried over to him, "What happened??" His size forcing her to reach up to cradle his face, "Come on, bro." She half-whispered. "What's wrong?'

Spike simply looked at her. His eyes had a slight dullness to him, "I'm tired, Twilight.." He replied halfheartedly, the slightly baritone voice carrying the same emotions as his face, "I'm tired of running myself ragged for somepony who barely even looks my way. I'm tired of trying to impress a unicorn only to have her look right through me." His voice was starting to rise at this point as he walked over to the couch and slumped down in it, "Most of all, I'm sick and tired of trying to prove myself to a mare who goes all ga-ga over some high society pretty-stallion but won't even see what's in front of her clear enough to give me a bucking chance!"

"Spike.." She sat beside him, arms wrapping around her unofficial little brother's shoulders as best she could. Though, technically the term 'little' stopped applying to him a long time ago. She had originally put it down to a mix of diet, all the work he'd been doing around town over the years; especially at Sweet Apple Acres after Granny Smith had talked him into working part time, and just dragon nature in general, but now Applejack's brother, Big Macintosh, was the only one in town-male or pony-to come close to him in sheer size.

Even Fluttershy, who was pretty much the tallest of the six at a respectable Eleven and Two-Thirds hooves, was forced to reach up to touch the top of his head.

She was broken from her thoughts by the next thing he said.

"I'm done."

"Huh? With what?"

"Twilight, how long have we been living in Ponyville?"

"I was about fifteen and you were eleven; so around seven years, give or take. Why?"

"Yeah, seven years, Twi. Seven years of trying to get the attention of a mare I honestly felt I was love with. Seven years doing whatever I could to accomplish it and the closest time I ever came was during my..incident." He briefly looked away in embarrassment. "But since then I've been dropped right back to square one. Today, though..." He rubbed the base of his snout. It wasn't hard to for Twilight to see he was fighting back a tear, "Remember what I said I was going to do?"

Twilight rifled through her memories of the day and came upon what he was referring to, "That you'd finally tell--" She trailed off when it hit her; something went very wrong for him. "Oh no.."

He nodded solemnly, "I marched straight to The Carousel Boutique and flat out told her we needed to talk. It took me a second to start then I..well, I just let everything out. I told her everything, how I felt about her, that I prayed almost day and night that there could be something between us, and that all I asked was a chance. Then I finally started to say the three magic words."

"That's good, isn't it? You finally told her how.."

"Don't even think she hear half of it." He cut her off, shaking his head. "Was so damn nervous, the only way I could keep from losing my composure was to walk around a little as I talked." He smiled ruefully, "By the time I was done and tried to look her in the eye to finish, she had already walked away."

"She didn't.." Twilight felt like her stomach had turned to lead on his behalf.

"Spotted her halfway across the room with some Pegasus, and they were frikin' FLIRTING!" Spike felt her arms tighten a little around him. He appreciated the gesture, though it didn't really alleviate matters, "When they were done with their little 'conversation', He asked if she'd like to go out tomorrow." His voice started to crack, "You can guess her answer. " He was silent for a moment then turned to look at her, "You know what really hurts? While she skipped back into her workshop...she went right past me without a a second glance; she'd forgotten I was even there."

"Oh, Spike.." She whispered, resting her head on his shoulder, "I am so sorry. I never thought Rarity would do that."

"Like I said, I'm done. All that time...for love." He scoffed, "Love's not worth that kind of pain."

She blinked. He was giving up? "You don't really mean that, do you?"

"A guy-dragon, pony, or whatever- can handle being burned only so many times, Sis." He replied, slowly getting to his feet, "And Rarity exceeded that limit."

The lilac unicorn stared, "He's serious." She thought. Standing up alongside him, Twilight immediately began thinking of some way to try and help. "Rarity, you dumb pony! You have no idea what you've just lost."

Author's Note

So starts my very first FiM fic. Hopefully it meets up with approval.

It'll get more lighthearted soon, don't worry.

Also, or those wondering, the 'hoof' is just a measurement I made up for the story since I doubt the term 'foot' would even be used. 1 hoof = 6 inches so If my math is right, that puts Fluttershy at 5'10' and shows Spike's gonna be a fairly big-sized guy.