After the second half of their awkward walk towards the mountain, Rarity and Spike finally reached an area where the unicorn could sense a large deposit of gems whilst Spike's stomach rumbled as his draconic instinct sensed the gems nearby. The dragon unhooked himself from the cart and started a stretching regimen in preparation for the hard work, although his . Rarity lit her horn and searched for the largest cache of gems, marking the ground with a stick.

As Spike began digging down where marked, Rarity continued to trot around casting her spell, trying to locate the position of the types of gems she needed. Out of the corner of the eye, she noticed the sharpness of Spikes claws again as he tore through the dirt and rock, the sight of the tough ground being ripped to pieces harping back to the original thoughts she had in the morning.

Rarity physically shuddered Don’t be silly, Spike would never hurt anypony! Even as a grown dragon he only defended himself as passively as possible. Don’t flatter yourself too much that one argument from you would be enough to turn him into a snarling beast!

Would it?

She continued to trot around and noticed that she was keeping a bit more distance between herself and her helper, and instantly felt a little bit guilty for doing so. Having marked a fair few places to dug, she sat herself down under a tree, laying back against the bark. Having stopped she suddenly felt tiredness of the walk and sleeplessness of the night start to take its toil and her eyes started feeling rather heavy...

The next thing Rarity knew she was woken up by a loud cough right next to her ear. She jumped at the surprise as Spike crouched next to her, making the dragon quickly back off.

"Woah there Rarity, didn't mean to scare you. I've finished the areas you marked and just needed you to find some more"

The first thing Rarity noticed was that Spike's tone was a little softer than earlier in the day. She then looked around at the piles of dirt and the gems lying next to the cart ready for sorting. "What time is it?"

"I don't know" Spike mumbled "I've been the one busy working whilst you slept!" and with that he's tone had returned. A pang of guilt flushed through Rarity as that hit home. Everytime that they had gone gem hunting, she had always just cast her spell and then sat back whilst Spike did all the work. At least at Carousel Boutique they worked together, giving the dragon what he wanted which - some time together. But out here...she just used him as cheap physical labour.

"So, where shall I did next?" the dragon asked, picking a piece of dirt out of a claw nonchalantly. Rarity saw that whilst Spike had already dug up a fair amount of gems, unfortunately as of yet they hadn’t found any sapphires that she needed. She got up and started moving around again, trying to focus on their unique signature. She marked a couple of places and Spike started digging.

Rarity then looked up at the sky and noticed that it had gone midday, and as if in response the pony's stomach started to rumble. When Spike had finished with the first hole, she called over to him “I bought some lunch for us, if you would like?”

The dragon walked over to where Rarity had set up a picnic blanket. Spike’s stomach rumbled in response, and the dragon seemed annoyed that his biology had given away that he was. “Sure, one of us needs to keep our energy up to do all the hard work round here!”

Rarity decided not to raise to the bait, but instead unpacked the lunch, splitting it in two. She sat herself down and to her surprise Spike sat nearby - not close enough to be friendly but it was a start. The unicorn decided against tempting fate by speaking and just enjoyed the sandwich she had made for herself. The silence did not last as long as Spike asked something Rarity would never have expected “So, how was your date last night?”

Rarity gulped. She wasn’t sure whether to actually respond on not, given everything that had happened in every conversation that day, but knew it would be even more awkward and rude not to answer at all. “He...he cancelled on me…” Rarity sighed, wondering what barb her companion would shoot back hearing that.

Spike thought for a second before snorting out a puff of smoke and replying “What an idiot...I’m sorry to hear that”

Rarity analysed the response and decided it was clean of sarcasm. She was about to respond when Spike continued "I mean, I know the nobles say Pegasi are supposed to be stupid..."

"Don't say that!" Rarity admonished the dragon as an automatic response.

"Hey, I'm not agreeing with them, I never did whilst even living in Canterlot. But if Crescent Moon stood you up for a date then clearly he is, you were way out of his league!" Spike finished with a hint of warmth in his voice. However, he seemed to catch himself being nice and quickly took a bite of his lunch.

Rarity was unsure what to say, but wanted to take this opportunity to start a dialogue “Spike, I never meant…” Rarity began in her soft tones, only to be interrupted again.

“Look, I’m sorry I asked, lets just get on with the gem hunting, okay?” the dragon huffed, swallowing his sandwich in a single gulp. “You've marked a few places and I can dig them out whilst you eat.”

A few more hours of gem hunting later and the cart was mostly filled. Luckily they had discovered a few caches of sapphires that Rarity needed. Clouds had formed in the sky and the sun was starting its downward arc to the horizon. Once the final marked area had been excavated, Rarity said that they were due to go. The dragon studded the sky and agreed that it would be going dark soon and a storm might be on the way later.

Spike looked over the pile of jewels in the cart and licked his lips “I’m hungry - which gem are you going to give me? I could do with something to snack on for the journey home.”

Rarity had kept the sapphires separate and placed these into her saddlebags which were empty having eaten lunch. A small smile formed on her face as she turned to her companion “I’m not going to give you a gem. Apart from these few sapphires I need -" she said, patting her bag " - all the rest are yours!

“What?” Spike replied oddly coldly.

“Well, I don’t need them except for these I’ve put aside, so I think it’s only fair you get a decent haul for once”

Spike voice remained cold “Thats not how it work. You get the gems, I get a few snacks”

Rarity was unsure why Spike was resisting - she was the element of generosity and nopony ever turned her down in the past “At best we should have been splitting the gems more equally for all our trips, so this is payment for those trips!”

“No. No, you don’t get to do that!” Spike snapped at her, his temper rising “You took advantage of my feelings for you for years to get me to do what you wanted, and you don’t get to undo that now.”

“But Spikey…” Rairty tried to speak, physically started to back away from Spike.

“No! You get all but a few of the gems, as you always did. And each time you see them on a client or in a fashion magazine, I want you to remember how you took advantage of my feelings for you to get them!”

“Spike, I -”

“Shut up!” Spike yelled.

Rarity was aghast “You’ve never -”

“Quiet!” Spike snapped, his body tensing up in a way Rarity had never seen before. The unicorn stopped speaking and held her breath. Her ears picked up on some noises in the background, the sound of something that didn’t sound too friendly. Out of the treeline a pack of timberwolves started walking towards them, at least four large adults and a couple of smaller ones.

The timberwolves had never been seen in the mountains before, usually only in the everfree forest, so had always been a safe place to dig. Sure, there were the diamond dogs, but after the first run in with them they had left Rarity alone. Besides, the Diamond Dogs weren't going to kill anypony...but the same could not be said for the wolves.

Spike moved himself in front of Rarity, and growled “Run”.

Rarity looked as the timberwolves eyed up the dragon in front of them, and knew there was no way for the baby dragon to win. She readied herself to fight alongside her friend.

“Run!” he repeated with a level of volume and aggression that shocked the unicorn so much that her instincts kicked in and she galloped off without a second thought.

Moments later, when her brain reengaged, she heard a roar of flame and glanced back to see a bright light coming from her friend. This wasn't a yellow fire he normally blew, or the green magical fire he used to send scrolls. This was an intense blue flame that turned the leading timberwolf that had lunged for him into dust.

The adrenaline kicked in and she ran even faster through the forest until a ear-shattering howl rang out. She looked back as the sounds of fire and rage echoed round the forest, the noise of the fight feeding her flight instinct. Without paying full attention to where she was running, the unicorn tripped over an exposed root, landing awkwardly on her side. She tried to stand but her right front leg gave way under the pressure. She quickly realised that it was broken, or at least badly sprained, meaning her ability to move was drastically compromised.

Knowing it wouldn't be wise to lie out in the open, she saw a large bush off the to side and hobbled her way under it, finding a large gap in the middle. She lay under the bush in pain, and wept as the sounds of the battle echoed out around her...wondering what was to become of her dragon friend, and then to herself should the timberwolves find her.

Author's Note

Sorry for the slightly too-convenient plot device!