Bloom's Belly

Bloom's Belly

A one-shot by SlayerBVC

The past two days had been rather uneventful at Ponyville's Books and Branches Public Library. A certain purple dragon was rather thankful for that. Not that Twilight was too hard on him at times, but any day that didn't involve re-shelving the dozens of books that his sister would take out for all-nighters was okay for Spike.

Though he was rather dismayed to find that Twilight had the foresight to hide his special gem jar away from its usual place atop the fridge. To his credit, he did stop himself from tearing the kitchen apart in an attempt to find it when he decided it wasn't worth the mess he'd have to clean up.

Spike had been spending the last two days minding the library for Twilight while she was visiting her parents in Canterlot. She was rather hesitant to do so at first, but he managed to convince her to go spend some meaningful time with them. Though tearing out the respective four days from her schedule book took far more persuasion. It wasn't too bad given that he'd watched the library plenty of times before, and Twilight's instructions never changed.

-Open at 9, Close at 4.

-Keep the shelves neat.

-Lock the front door after sundown.

-Don't overeat.

He'd managed to stick to these fairly well, save for the last one on occasion. He stole a quick glance at the window from the comic book he was glued to. 'Sundown' he thought as he waddled back into the reference section where the front door was.

A quick series of hard knocks came at the door. 'Wonder who this is?' Spike thought to himself as her reached for the door handle.

"Look I'm sorry, but 4 o'clock means 4 o'clock." Spike said not bothering to look at who was at the door.

"Spike."

"Oh Applejack, sorry. It's just late and...yeah." he apologized to the farmer.

"Don' yah worry 'bout it sugarcube. But have yah seen Apple Bloom around?"

"No, I can't say that I have. You check Carousel Boutique?" Spike asked.

"I asked Rarity, she an' Sweetie Belle ain't seen 'er since this afternoon. An' Rainbow found Scootaloo and she don't know either."

"I'm sorry about that. I really wish I could be of more help AJ."

"I'm sure Twi wouldn't want yah pullin' an all-nighter wit' us. We'll find 'er. See yah Spike."

Spike waved goodbye as Rainbow shouted about seeing something that looked like Apple Bloom, but she and Applejack were already too far away for Spike to hear where she saw her. "Poor Applejack." he said as he locked the door up. "Wonder what The Astounding Spider-colt would do?"

After two hours passed, Spike was tired enough to force himself away from Spider-colt's battles against his rogues and get to bed. Once he got up the stairs though, his eyes caught something on Twilight's bed. "Eyes must be playing tricks on me." he said to himself dismissing the lump as just a messy sheet. "Wait...Twilight doesn't have any yellow sheets." Spike muttered under his breath, as he got closer to the bed.

"Okay, Pee Wee? Owlowyisius? Whichever one of you it is, playtime's over. I need to sleep." he said loosing a yawn in the process as he neared his basket.

"Hi Spike." a southern voice greeted him. A very familiar southern voice.

"Oh hey Apple Bloom." "APPLE BLOOM! W-wh-why are you in here? Why aren't you home?" Spike asked rather anxiously. His eyes then caught a glance of one of her hooves. "Why are you wearing Twilight's socks?!" Spike spoke the truth. All four of the Apple filly's hooves were covered up by a set of pastel pink silk socks. The fact that Spike knew those were Twilight's favorite set didn't help matters.

"Get up here an' ah'll tell yah." she instructed the dragon. Spike reluctantly climbed onto his sister's bed, hoping to at least get some answer out of the filly as to why she was up here and not at Sweet Apple Acres where she was supposed to.

Apple Bloom's appearance was very different from what she usually looked like. Namely that her big pink mane bow was not on her head but was lying next to her on the bed. Her bright red mane itself wasn't looking as plain as it typically did, and was now spread out in the back and covering up her right eye.

Spike thought the farm filly was trying way too hard to pull off a 'Rarity' look, but for the moment, it was irrelevant. "Applejack's worried sick about you. And I told her I had no idea where you were. Whoops, turns out you were closer than I thought. So why are you in here on Twilight's bed, wearing her socks, while your sister is out combing through all of Ponyville  trying to find you?" Spike asked demandingly.

"Ah wanted my belly rubbed." Bloom replied.

"You- wait, what?" the dragon stopped, understandably confused by what he'd just heard.

"Ah want yah to rub my belly." the yellow filly repeated.

"That's what this is all about? That's it? Okay why?"

"Well because yah got those claws of yours, they're much better than a hoof is at rubbing bellies."

"And Twilight's socks? Taking your bow out?"

"Sweetie Belle heard that colts would do anything fer a pretty lookin' filly." she said, flitting her eyelashes at him.

"But I'm not a colt, in case you didn't notice. But more to the point. What happens if I say no and tell Applejack that you did all this?" Spike asked.

"Then ah show Twilight all those 'grown-up' drawings yah have of Rarity." Apple Bloom said teasingly. The filly had come prepared, and if she didn't get her wish, he'd go down with her anyway. He really had no choice.

"Okay fine.... I'll do it." he said begrudgingly. An ecstatic Apple Bloom wrapped her covered forelegs around Spike in a hug before lying down on her back. Spike knew he'd need to take care not to accidentally scratch her too hard, but he also needed to take even greater care to not damage his sister's favorite hoofwear. He moved up alongside the Apple pony and put a scaly hand to her fur, and got quite a nice surprise. Apple Bloom's coat was a lot softer than Spike had expected for a farmpony, heck it was even softer than Rarity's usually was. He could feel how warm it was too, as he started tracing around her rib cage with his digits.

Ten minutes had passed, and while her treatment was going on, the filly was sighing contentedly as the dragon lightly stroked and petted her sides. There were several instances where she appeared to have surrendered herself to sleep, only to prove otherwise seconds later. Spike meanwhile, was gradually understanding why she had asked this of him, feeling slightly insulted that Rarity had never asked it of him.

"Spike." Apple Bloom drawled getting his attention. "Can ah lay back in your lap." she asked.

"Um.... sure." he said sitting down as Bloom laid the back of her head against his chest. Spike took quite a few minutes after she sat down just brushing, and trying to get the filly's candy apple red mane back in line. But before long she'd had enough of his stalling and pulled her head away.

"That belly ain't gonna rub itself Spike." Apple Bloom said tiredly through a yawn, setting her noggin back on his scaly body.

"As you wish Miss Bloom." he said wrapping one of his arms around her body. With his free claw Spike began petting the filly's stomach area, sending pleasant shivers up her spine almost immediately. He didn't really stick to anything in particular, in all honesty he was just trying to avoid accidentally touching her private area.

While this was going on, he could feel Apple Bloom's forehooves quietly pulling his other arm closer to her body as her head fell into his elbow, not wanting him to let go. Spike thought that she looked so peaceful, as if for that moment she embodied everything good in Equestria.

After several more minutes of his gentle stroking, he felt her stop reacting to his touch, and her hold on his arm loosen. She'd finally gone to sleep. Spike was surprised at how this unwanted guest had affected him so emotionally in little more than an hour. It was a familiar feeling that he'd only ever experienced with one other pony. Minutes later he found himself cuddling with the warm, sock-clad filly sharing his blanket as he nodded off in turn.

"FOUND HER AJ!"

And with all the subtlety of a train wreck, came the unmistakable voice of Rainbow Dash. Spike grumpily forced himself out of the clutches of his pleasant dream, not looking forward to what was coming. Suddenly the number of occupants in the room increased from two to four, as Rainbow set Applejack down on the balcony with her.

"Spike ah taught yah said yah didn't know where mah sister was. So why is she on Twilight's bed with yah while yer doin' Celestia knows what ta her!" Applejack yelled, fuming mad at the dragon.

"Applejack I know what this looks like, but you have to believe me. Whatever you're thinking that happened, didn't happen. I would never do something like that to a filly." Spike pleaded with the earth mare. "You see the thing is I-"

"Ah'm responsible Applejack." Apple Bloom spoke up.

"What was 'at young lady?"

"Ah snuck up here after we finished crusading for the day, because ah wanted Spike ta rub my belly."

The two mares cast a confused glance at eachother, the sheer simplicity of the filly catching them off guard. "Well I've definitely heard worse reasons for breaking and entering." Rainbow said.

Applejack was about to open her mouth in response to the pegasus. Only to stop when she saw her sister gently nuzzling Spike's cheek, while he'd started putting her bow back into her mane. Love. She could see it just from this little display. Nothing more than what her little sister had told her, had happened.

"Okay yah two, ah believe yah. But Apple Bloom, yah still need t' come home, Big MacIntosh was about ready t' storm the Everfree Forest t' find yah." Applejack told the filly.

"Alright sis." Apple Bloom said as Spike pulled off the last of the socks. "You know Spike, we're having a sleepover at the clubhouse Saturday. D' yah wanna come?"

"That sounds great Apple Bloom. I'll have to ask Twilight when she gets back. Until next time." Spike grabbed the yellow filly into a hug, which she eagerly returned before going out of the library.

"Oh Spike! Between the headboard and the wall." Apple Bloom shouted up to him. Spike quickly checked the location and found where his gem jar had been hidden.

"Love that girl!" Spike said triumphantly as he bit into a large garnet.

The End