The first light of morning was pouring in through the windows of the main bedroom of the Golden Oaks Library, and outside could be heard the beautiful songs of the many birds that had woken. Slowly but surely, the eyes of the young dragon, Spike, began to creep open with this new light. In moments, he was roused, groggily lifting his head up from his pillow and letting out a loud yawn. After a brief session where he debated back-and-forth on whether he was going to just stay in bed for another five minutes, he elected to just get out, but not before he looked up and noticed that Twilight's bed was empty. Makes sense, he thought to himself, since she probably pulled another all-nighter last night. He chuckled to himself on thinking that before hopping out of his bed and making it up before starting his walk downstairs. A grumble from his stomach gave him cause to smile, hoping aloud that there was some decent breakfast to be had this morning.
However, as he began to make his way down the stairs, he began to hear something. It sounded like a groaning or a mumbling, but it didn't sound like Twilight making it. Cautiously, he began walking more slowly until he eventually reached the point in the stairs where he could see what was on the ground floor. Peering down, he surveyed the main room of the library, and it was not long before he caught sight of Twilight. But when he saw her, Spike's eyes widened with shock. She was sitting down, with a somewhat nervous look on her face. But that was not what shocked the young dragon. Instead, it was the fact that she was not alone. A strange creature was next to her, like some kind of clothed and hairless ape. Something Spike had never seen before. It was kneeling next to Twilight and, in a move that greatly confused the drake, was embracing her. It's head was leaning against her shoulder and had a look on it's face that Spike could only describe as contentment.
The young dragon moved further down the stairs, but when he did so, he accidentally caused one of them to creak. This sound alerted Twilight to his presence, and her expression changed immediately, her eyes practically begging for him to be down there with her. Not wanting to let her down on this, Spike immediately rushed downstairs, until he was now only a few feet away from Twilight and her visitor. He glanced at the two of them, with Twilight looking somewhat uncomfortable with all this, until finally, he broke the silence.
"Um...Twilight?"
The lavender unicorn let out a sigh.
"Yes, Spike?"
"What...is that thing?" he asked.
Twilight turned to her new "friend", who at his point was completely oblivious to Spike being here, before turning back to her assistant.
"I honestly have no idea. I just came down to breakfast like normal and...there he was. At first I was intrigued as to what he might be, but as soon as I said "hello" he...well...you kind of see what he did."
Spike looked to the creature, who was still holding Twilight close. The look on his face made it clear that he was enjoying this a great deal, to which Spike couldn't help but chuckle.
"I think he likes you, Twilight."
Twilight glared at her assistant after he said that, to which Spike merely let out a nervous laugh in response.
"So...er...have you tried teleporting away?"
But Twilight merely shook her head at that.
"I tried, but he just teleported right along with me."
She turned to her visitor and tried gently pushing his head away from her with her hoof. Unfortunately, this had little effect as he simply resumed his pose soon afterwards, much to Spike's amusement. After frowning at her assistant yet again, Twilight let out a sigh.
"I can't stay like this! We have to find a way of getting him off me!"
Spike opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted when the mysterious creature actually started speaking.
"Hmmm...soft."
Spike stared at him for a few moment before slowly turning his head towards Twilight, raising an eyebrow in confusion as he did so. Twilight shrugged her shoulders as best she could.
"That's pretty much all he says."
The young dragon looked at Twilight's latched-on companion for a few moments before an idea popped into his head. He smiled a little and began running towards the door, which Twilight noticed immediately. Her expression once more became a pleading one, as if begging him not to leave her alone with this thing. But when Spike turned back to look at her, he gave her a reassuring smile before running out of the door. Twilight let out a sigh, hoping deep down that her assistant could help her out of this. Her attention then returned to the creature embracing her, and then noticed that he'd moved on from simply hugging her to actually leaning his head against the fur on her chest, nuzzling it in an affectionate manner Twilight just didn't know how to feel about. Several minutes passed by with the unicorn just sitting there, until finally, Twilight's ears perked up as she heard her front door open again. As expected, it was Spike. But what Twilight hadn't been expecting was for her friend Fluttershy to be accompanying him. The timid pegasus looked around the room briefly before her eyes landed on the visitor, wherein she let out a brief gasp.
"Oh my! I've never seen an animal like that before!"
Twilight was very much tempted to just beg for help at this point, but the moment Fluttershy had spoken, something began to happen. The creature lifted it's head up and looked right at her. It's expression had changed from one of calm contentment to one of excitement. It was a look that caused Fluttershy no end of worry. Before anypony could react however, the creature, to Twilight's relief, finally let go of her. However, this relief was short-lived as it then lunged for Fluttershy, tightly hugging her in exactly the same manner as Twilight had been just a few moments ago.
"Eep!" Fluttershy squeaked.
Now free, Twilight got up from her sitting position and looked over to her very worried friend, who at this moment was nervously watching her new admirer with a mixture of both curiosity and concern. Having now experienced what this looked like from the outside, Twilight afforded herself a brief chuckle, but then got down to business.
"Don't worry, Fluttershy. I'll look for a spell to try and send him home."
Fluttershy nodded at that and got back to looking at the creature that now embraced her, who once again was smiling in a contended manner. Both Twilight and Spike began walking over to one of the library's many bookshelves, and it was here that Twilight glanced down at Spike and spoke to him.
"Thanks for getting me out of that, Spike. But tell me, how did you know that would work?"
Spike shrugged his shoulders at that.
"I suspected this guy just really likes hugging cute ponies, so I figured I'd just find a cuter pony to get him off you."
Twilight considered that for a moment before looking away from him.
"Makes sense, but anyway we need to find a way to..."
Realising something, she stopped and thought over Spike's words for a few moments more before turning to look at him with daggers in her eyes.
"Hold on...what do you mean CUTER?!"
Needless to say, Spike learned that day the meaning of "fear".
