This is one of my first attempts not to write a romance fic, and a friendship fic instead. I know the two I chose was odd, but I think they would get along well. Plus Rainbow did risk her life in Dragon Quest to help him. There is only a romance tag because there are mild hints, ignore it.
Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It belongs to The Hub, Hasbro, Studio B, and Lauren Faust. I do not own any of these characters in any way or how, nor do I claim ownership to the pony franchise. These characters are simply my toys.
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"We aren't so different after all!"
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Common Interests
"Oh my stars, darling, how can you not have heard of it!" Rarity let her voice ring out around the room. "It is only the most prestigious fashion catalog in all of Equestria; they have articles on the latest trends in fashion written by Hoity Toity and even Fancy Pants themselves!" She squealed in delight.
"Oh, I think I've heard of that!" Twilight said, sitting up "They made a gown look like a nighttime sky didn't they? And it was all accurate, and looked amazing as well?"
"Precisely dear, anypony who is anypony in fashion just dreams of getting into there someday!" Rarity said "I can't wait to tell you all about it!" She extended her hoof before gently flicking it to dramatize her statement.
Rainbow Dash found herself groaning quietly to herself as she chewed on a strand of green in her mane, becoming more and more bored as time slowly ticked on by. She still wasn't sure why she had agreed to come to Twilight's slumber party. Maybe it had been that Applejack said the first one was pretty fun after everypony put their differences aside, or maybe it was because she didn't want to spend an entire night home alone once more, and decided this would be better than boredom.
She had been wrong. Dead Wrong.
The pegasus had never been so bored in her entire life. At the start it didn't seem like the night would go so bad, they had smores, played a few fun games planned by Pinkie Pie herself, and she herself had played a few harmless pranks on her friends during it. But, as one would predict, the night went on, and everypony grew tired, and when they became too tired to play, they began to talk.
And talk.
And talk.
For the love of Celestia, these ponies loved to talk. And it wasn't even about anything cool, or interesting, that was the worst part about it! It was mostly gossip, silly things like fashion, colts, or the things others in Ponyville were up to that caused them to have dirty little secrets, which by the way wasn't nearly as interesting or enthralling as the Gabby Gums columns had been. At least then the gossip paper had things juicy in it... now it was a little pathetic, with reasons why the mayor dyed her hair, or stupid theories as to why the Cakes had given birth to both unicorn and pegasi.
She glanced around the circle they were all sitting in. They simply sat in the library alone, right smack in the center right outside Twilight's bedroom.
"So Fluttershy, what kinds 'er colts are ya' inta!" Applejack said.
Fluttershy's cheeks began to glow the same color as her mane. She looked around at everypony and covered her mouth with her hoof "O-Oh my goodness..." She mumbled "I... I..."
Rainbow Dash found herself quietly mumbling something about how she wished she had a Daring Doo novel right now. Even though they were in the library, she had personally checked out all of the copies herself to re-read. Her gaze drifted to Applejack. She couldn't believe just how interested her orange friend was in all of this. Though Applejack was one to enjoy being around her friends no matter what, that in itself might explain it.
Rainbow spit the end of her mane out of her mouth and rolled her tongue across her teeth. She was going to snap, sitting still for so long without flying sometimes did that to her. She found herself finally getting to her hooves and turning away. "Where ya goin' Sugarcube?" Applejack quietly called after her, quietly so not to disturb her other friends
The cyan pony rolled her eyes "Bathroom." She mumbled, fluttering her wings as she slowly glided away. She made a gagging face as she walked away, putting a hoof over her mouth.
When she found the bathroom, all she did was stare at herself in the mirror in silence for several, long minutes. Her eyes looked dead, as if they were decaying from boredom. She blinked once before mashing both hooves into her cheeks "Bleeah!" She said before pulling on her cheeks, making the same strange sounds.
No... That didn't help her boredom in the slightest...
She reached her hooves in the water and splashed some of her face, not exactly knowing why, only that it caused her to not be in dead boredom for a moment.
Rainbow found herself sighing as she flicked her tail in frustration. Nopony was willing nor interested in talking to her about anything she enjoyed, like sports or the Wonderbolts or anything cool like that. It was all... frou frou things.
Rainbow Dash found herself groaning and slamming her head down against the mirror. She was going to die tonight... was it possible to die from pure lack of interest?
A sound suddenly hit her ears, underneath the sounds of her friends gossiping. The cyan pony found herself blinking several times as her ears erected on their own. "A little more to the left..." The voice was filled with masculinity, or at least compared to the girls in the other room, it was most certain a male.
Rainbow, being on the verge of killing herself just to end this night found herself more curious than she would normally be. She flapped her wings and turned left instead of right, toward the sound of the noise. The door to Twilight's room was cracked open slightly, as if somepony had been careless when he or she had walked in. The room was pitch black, the only light coming from Luna's own moon. She opened the door with a hoof as she glided inside, taking a sweeping glance around the room. When she looked up, she found Twilight's bed. She saw something move on it, a small purple body with green spines.
The pegasus flapped her wings several times as she glided higher, realizing the body was in fact Spike, Twilight's assistant. Spike was... Spike was alright. Rainbow Dash honestly didn't know much about him, and never tried talking to him or anything simply because there was never any need too. Although she would call herself his friend simply because he was so close to Twilight, she didn't interact much with him. She saw no reason to, the two of them got along without each other just fine.
He was sitting there on the bed, glancing out with Twilight's telescope out the window into the nighttime sky, staring at Luna's moon along with a shattering sea of stars. Some ponies thought that the stars were simply pieces shattered from another moon, and older moon, although nopony was certain. The pegasus blinked several times, watching Spike gently fiddle around with the telescope, being careful with his claws.
"Hey Spike!" She said suddenly. She watched the scene unfold as Spike jumped in a panic and ended up tumbling off of the bed, ripping the blanket off with him. Rainbow knew it was sort of mean, but she couldn't suppress a tiny chuckle as she put a hoof over her mouth to keep it silent.
"Who, wha, huh?" Spike cried out, standing up, covered in the blanket before ripping it off his head and seeing the cyan pegasus flying in front of him. He gave an irritated look "Jeez, do you have to sneak up on me like that?" He grumbled out, slight annoyance in his voice.
"Hehe, sorry." Rainbow said, not truthfully meaning it. She paused a moment "Wait, why are you back here while everypony else is in there?" She asked, pointing with her hoof behind her at the crack of light in the doorway.
"Couldn't I ask you the same thing?" Spike inquired, not trying to be rude about it, simply asking.
Rainbow shrugged, floating down and landing on the bed, reaching out a hoof to help him back up. He gladly accepted it as his claws wrapped around her upper leg. "Well," He grunted as he got back onto the bed. "I'm not exactly a mare; it isn't like I'm going to be interested in colts, or fashion or whatever."
"Ugh, I know!" Rainbow Dash grumbled, making a slight pout "I don't know just how many ways you can say a colt is hot, but I think those ponies are looking for the world record; even Fluttershy has said a few things!"
"And you don't like to talk about colts?" Spike inquired, cocking up his brow as he looked at the pegasus sitting next to him. "Is it because you're a..."
"Don't say it..." Rainbow Dash grumbled, rolling her eyes "The jokes getting old." She saw Spike freeze up at her tone of voice, and she took it as a small victory to make him speechless for a moment. "So, I get why you don't want to be out there, but shouldn't you be admiring your goddess or something?"
"Who, Rarity?" Spike found himself asking. He paused for a moment before shrugging "Dunno, she gets old after a while with nothing but fashion talk. She's a total knockout, don't get me wrong, but she can talk!"
"Sometimes I think I'll have to shove my hoof in her mouth just to get her to stop talking for hours on end about fashion or something." Rainbow Dash admitted. Both of them chuckled lightly. "So, watchya doing?" She asked, pointing with her head toward the telescope.
Spike glanced at the telescope "Well... I was cleaning it, and trying to readjust it so it had a clearer image for Twilight to stargaze with." He said, reaching out a claw and gently turning the scope before putting up one of his large, green eyes to it "Think I might have made it worse though..." He mumbled.
"Well, isn't your life riveting." Rainbow Dash lightly teased, sticking out her tongue. She noticed the light blush appear on the dragon's cheeks. He looked embarrassed, and Rainbow had to admit it seemed a bit cute.
"W-Well, what about you?" He asked, cocking up a brow "Why did you come here tonight? You don't look like you're having a good time." He didn't mean it to sound as a comeback, just an honest question. He turned away, trying to hide his light blush. He became glad for the darkness surrounding him and the room.
"Well I..." Rainbow began, trying to form it into words. She ruffled her own mane with her hoof as she tried to think "I guess that because these ponies are my only friends, I just go with whatever their doing." She said "I never really had many friends before the whole Nightmare Moon thing, kept to myself mostly."
"Me neither!" Spike said, turning to the other "Everypony in Canterlot was such a stuck up snob, they really didn't like a dragon being in such a high class society either...Twilight was really my only friend back then." He mumbled, pausing a brief moment before turning to Rainbow Dash "How 'bout you, why didn't you have many friends?"
Rainbow just smirked "That's easy!" She said, puffing out her chest and whipping her mane "They just couldn't handle my awesomeness!" She couldn't hold back her light giggling after that, and neither could Spike. In reality, both of them likely knew it was because everypony was annoyed by her big ego. Although Spike was kind enough not to point this out to her.
"Y-Yeah." Spike said, calming down his giggling "When I came here, the others just kind of drifted to me and Twilight naturally without even trying, and I suddenly got five friends."
"Yeah, a party animal, a fashion diva, an antisocial pony, and a country pony, aren't you so lucky?" Rainbow Dash chuckled. The mood she had gotten from the part seemed to be lifting.
"How’s it felt to be an egotistical airhead?" Spike lightly teased, earning a playful punch to his shoulder.
"Gee, thanks!" Rainbow said.
Spike smiled softly for a few moments as he turned to lightly adjust the telescope a few more times he stuck out his tongue as he attempted his work, glancing into the glass lens several times to see if he had done what he planned to correctly.
"Know what?" Rainbow Dash asked "This is slightly more entertaining than hanging out back there with the others." The pegasus lay on the bed on her back next to the dragon "Least in here it's a lot quieter."
"How do you figure?" Spike asked "About it being better, I mean."
Rainbow Dash had to think a moment more "Well..." She began "The others are all fine, don't get me wrong. But they aren't cool like me, they don't want to talk about sports, or anything else... it gets boring just listening without anything to say."
"Sports?" Spike asked "Like... the Wonderbolts?"
"Yeah, the pegasus team, you wouldn't know much about them so..." Rainbow began, rolling onto her back to stare at the dragon's back upside down. "Their awesome, you're missing out."
"I know about them." Spike cut her off, turning his head around with a puzzled look plastered on his face. "I mean... I'm a fan of them after all."
A long silence filled the room, and it seemed for a while that it wasn't about to break. "You serious?" Rainbow mumbled, breaking the silence, only to receive a nod in return. Her eyes suddenly flared. "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" She cried as she flipped over her body in a pouncing position "Really? I mean, you really REALLY are a Wonderbolt's fan?" She cried, getting an inch from Spike's face.
The dragon jumped as Rainbow Dash got so close "Y-Yeah!" He quickly said "I thought you knew, I just really don't talk about them that much, but I like them, a lot!" He said. Rainbow Dash's face suddenly split into a wide smile as she tackled the dragon in a hug, taking his tiny body off of the bed for a good five seconds before they came crashing back onto the mattress.
"Who's your favorite Wonderbolt?" She asked.
"Soarin." Spike answered without hesitation in his voice, his voice was clear.
"What's his record wing speed?"
"Thirty, but he says he would have gotten faster if he didn't get distracted by some Apple Pie nearby." Spike said. He felt himself be hugged once more, and his cheeks lightly flushed red. Rainbow's lower legs kicked in excitement and joy at the news of Spike's fanboy attitude toward her idols. She let out a squeal, and completely lost her cool.
"This is so cool, I can finally talk to somepony about them!" She squeaked, finally letting him go and sitting up, looking down on him. "We gotta talk about this, alright?" She asked, trying to contain herself. She suddenly stopped and blinked several times, chuckling awkwardly "I mean... if that's cool."
"Alright!" Spike said, sitting up and giving a warm smile "Sounds cool." He reassured.
Rainbow let herself give out a small squeak of delight as she lied down next to the baby dragon, eyes focused intently on his purple body, beginning to swap information on everything they knew about the Wonderbolt's.
"Rainbow, you've been in here a long time!" Twilight called gently, opening the door to her bedroom with a dark purple magic emerging from her horn. She felt a bit of worry for her friend, but knew deep down she was likely only sick of so many mushy-gushy talks about everything girly and frou frou.
The lavender Unicorn found herself pausing as she heard laughter. She suddenly quieted herself down as she began to listen more intently.
"A-And then..." Spike's voice came, trying to contain his laughter "Celestia almost didn't get a chance to raise the sun there were so many animals lying around after Twilight did that spell!"
"No way!" Rainbow cried. Twilight glanced up, realizing the cyan pony was cuddling the dragon close to her as she lay with her head propped op, Spike sitting with her arms wrapped around him. "I didn't even know you could really make it rain cats and dogs!"
"The best part was, neither did she!" Spike cried out before the two suddenly burst out laughing once more. Twilight felt her cheeks burn, that was quite an embarrassing tale about her, she remembered it quite fondly.
"C-C'mon, now tell me about how you saw Big Macintosh cuddling with Smarty Pants when he got scared, you promised!" Spike said, still trying to recover from his giggling.
"A-Alright..." Rainbow said, wiping the tears from her laughter away with the edge of her wing. "I-I was helping AJ buck some apples..."
Twilight was silent for a long time, debating on what to do or not. It finally set itself in stone in her mind to simply leave the two of them alone, and to scold Spike later about keeping those kinds of stories personal. The lavender Unicorn sighed as she walked out of the room to tell her friends Rainbow was fine, she just fell asleep early. At least that lie would let the two be undisturbed for a while.
It was during that night, where Rainbow stayed up until she passed out from sheer exhaustion telling stories back and forth, that she decided this was a much better time than talking about fashion for colts.
And that Spike was officially one of her friends.
