The "mane" course...yeah, I suck, shaddap ;-;
'Twas another grandiose day in Ponyville, Equestria. It was sunny with a chance of Spike now feeling like he should nut up and ask out the pony that has made him feel as though it was worth staying in Ponyville. True, Twilight kept telling him that it wouldn't exactly work out between him and Rarity, but Spike would still try proving her wrong.
Spike arose from his bed and stretched his dragon limbs, then he stumbled on downstairs with pride to make breakfast. He was now of a larger stature (even though it was about an inch less than Big Mac's height) and had little stubs where his wings would be when he got older.
Twilight smelled the breakfast and got out of bed, roaming down to see that Spike was prepping a delicious breakfast for him and his guardian friend.
Twilight yawned. "Good morning, Spike."
"Morning, Twi."
"I see you're making breakfast."
"Eeyup," Spike said, imitating Big Mac as one would likely assume. "I'm also going to come clean with Rarity now."
"Spike, didn't she already show that she didn't exactly want you when Trenderhoof came by?" Twilight asked.
"Maybe so, but I won't let such a thing halt a dragon like me," Spike said bravely.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Alright. But don't say I didn't warn you a while back."
After breakfast was finished, Spike set off to the Carousel Boutique, eager to admit to Rarity how he felt, and still feels, about the Element of Generosity.
Meanwhile, Sweetie was hanging out with her fellow former Crusaders. In time, they each managed to find their special talents. Apple Bloom found her talent in the realms of art. Even as a teenage mare, she still wore a bow in her mane. Sweetie Belle managed to find a talent in singing, adding her to the small list of those in Ponyville with a musical talent. Sweetie managed to grow up as lovely as her sister, only without makeup being involved, but that was okay since she didn't feel like being prettier than her dear sister. Her hair was still curly, and her eyes shone a lovely grayish-emerald. Scootaloo's talent was in scooter-related tricks. Like her fellow former Crusaders, she remained the same, just older. She's still getting around to the whole flying thing, even with her larger wings. They were having a casual little female conversation with one another.
"Remember when we went zip-lining to see if that was our special talent?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Yeah," Scootaloo said. "It was worth it to know how the older ponies got their cutie marks."
"Especially Rainbow Dash's, right?" Sweetie asked.
"Pfft. Of course," Scootaloo said.
Spike walked past the former Crusaders and gave them a quick hello. Sweetie Belle had turned pink when he walked by. In earlier years, Spike and the Crusaders managed to become close friends whenever Spike was down that Rarity was too busy to have anyone bother her, besides the gem collecting, which was Spike's part of the job. He would sometimes join them when they were trying out various activities as a means of seeing what their specialties were. He managed to get an idea of how each filly had a certain specialty and managed to see them find out for themselves. And since he felt twitterpatted around Rarity, Sweetie Belle managed to take note of how he was such a gentledragon and somehow developed a little crush on the dragon. She only told the other girls about it, and she managed to make sure she hid it. Although it got harder ever since the two danced together at the Royal Carterlot Wedding of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. She just couldn't seem to get her mind off that moment. Rarity certainly didn't know about Sweetie's little crush, and yet managed to give her a plush dragon that looked just like Spike, which rubbed the salt in.
Sweetie then shook her head and trotted to Spike's side. "Where are you going?" she chimed.
"I'm going to finally come clean with Rarity," Spike answered.
Sweetie knew that Spike had a crush on Rarity. She figured it out by the hearts in his eyes when he were to see Rarity to help out day after day after day. She accepted it, but just couldn't get that little crush out of her head, and nowadays, she was sobbing mentally, despite her replying with, "Well, I wish you the best of luck with her if she says yes."
"Thanks, Sweets."
And now Sweetie was likely to lose it. She remembered when Spike first started calling her "Sweets" as a friendly little nickname. Although that didn't stop her from blushing more, which would be visible by her snow white coat. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo knew this would be a bit troublesome, so they decided to get her out of there.
"So d' we, Spike!" Apple Bloom quickly said.
"Yeah, we better go!" Scootaloo added. "Don't want to try and get involved with things like love poison and all that jazz!"
And with that, they quickly sped off, hoping Spike didn't notice.
And notice he didn't. "Meh."
Spike reached his destination at last and knocked on the front door of the boutique, obviously to be greeted by Rarity.
"Why, hello there, Spike," Rarity politely greeted. "What ever brings you here at this fine morning?"
"I wanted to tell you something that I've kept within me ever since Twilight and I moved into Ponyville," Spike said.
"Oh, certainly, Spike, although I do have a few orders to take care of," Rarity replied.
"I could help you with them if you'd like," Spike offered.
"It would be my pleasure."
After getting the dresses done, Rarity set her sewing glasses on her work desk and walked up to Spike. "Now that that's all taken care of, what is it you wanted to tell me?"
Spike got down on one knee to be at Rarity's height as he spoke.
"Rarity, ever since I moved into Ponyville, I found you to be the most beautiful mare in all of Equestria."
"Oh, how sweet of you to say," Rarity giggled.
"And, in short..." Spike gulped, now sweating, "...I love you."
Rarity blinked in surprise at what he told her.
"Well, Spike, I find it lovely that you have a crush on me," Rarity said, hoping this wouldn't end in heartbreak, "but unfortunately, I don't share the same feelings with you. You and I would be of different ages, and even past that, I only manage to look upon you as more of a friend."
"Oh," Spike said in a tone of utter disappointment. "I understand."
"Now Spike, I know you're sad that I don't find us being in a loving relationship, but you needn't shed any tears over it," Rarity said. "I'm sure you'll be able to find your special somepony/dragon someday."
"Thanks for the bulletin, Rarity," Spike said, still in that tone of disappointment. "I'll see you later, in that case."
Spike walked out the door as Sweetie Belle caught sight of his head down while walking home after a day of enjoyment with her fellow post-Crusaders. "I'm guessing it didn't go well?"
"Correct," Spike sighed.
Sweetie Belle felt bad for him. She hated seeing someone so down like that. While it did better her chances with him, that wasn't an excuse to walk up to him and say that she loves him. She doesn't want to make sure that he'd use her as a backup plan to get closer to Rarity.
"Why, hello, Sweetie Belle," Rarity told her. "How was your day?"
"Same as the old days," Sweetie Belle said, "even if it ended up with us getting hurt." She somehow didn't bother saying a word about Spike and walked up her room for some rest.
However, seeing her love interest disappointed didn't help at all with the rest.
*1 month later, just to make it seem a bit less like a quick thing*
Sweetie was so miserable without Spike to see. Sure, she had fun with her friends and enjoyed it, but her heart couldn't take the disturbing lack of Spike. She managed to get a song stuck in her head about how much she seemed to miss him and that they should just pretend to be strangers.
And she wasn't the only one who was disturbed by Spike's absence.
"Spike, come on, you've been doing this for a month," Twilight said. "I'm tired of having to hand you your food now. There are more fish in the sea."
"None could replace Rarity, though," Spike said in misery, earning him a moan of frustration and annoyance from his guardian friend. She was having enough of this and decided to get his friends to help her with this little Spike trouble. With that, she walked over to their clubhouse and told them that they were to come to Spike's room over in Twilight's castle.
"Didn't ya say we were t' give Spike a bit o' privacy before?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Yes," Twilight reassured, "but now that it's been over a month, I need at least one of you to help me help Spike out. It's not healthy to be stuck in one's room all day without any social interaction all because of something that I already knew would happen ever since Spike told me and Pinkie Pie ever since I went to the spa with the girls."
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo huddled up and went over a little plan which you're about to find out about right now.
Scootaloo checked the alignment of the sun. "Sweet Celestia, would you look at the time, I better go tend to my flight practice with Rainbow Dash."
And with that, Scootaloo zipped off on her scooter.
"Tarnation, Scoots is right! I better go an' help Granny Smith make sure th' waterin' cans get their ABCs 'fore Zap-Apple Season goes on by! See you tomorrow, Sweetie Belle! An' hopefully Spike!" Apple Bloom said in "panic", and went off as well.
Sweetie Belle understood Apple Bloom and Scootaloo being busy at first, but then switches were clicking in her head and she managed to realize that her besties did this on purpose for her, which lit her panic fuse.
"I guess you can help, Sweetie Belle," Twilight said with hope. "Let's get a move-on."
And now the fuse was burning faster. She would try and pull away herself, but she was dealing with a princess here. And princess magic is known to be more powerful than regular unicorn magic.
'Oh, I don't know if I should feel overjoyed or really, really nervous right now!' Sweetie Belle thought. 'One thing's for sure: I'm leaning towards the latter!'
As they arrived at Twilight's royal palace, she was brought upstairs to Spike's room, where he was still sighing in misery. All those years of his hoping she would accept his offer. All the dreams he had of her. Both being wasted. As soon as Twilight opened and closed the door to allow for privacy, Sweetie's panic fuse finally blew and she was anything but pleased that she had an opportunity to see if Spike really did like her or not now.
"Uh..." Sweetie said awkwardly, her face so red that you'd swear somebody had somethered it in tomato paste, although Spike couldn't see it with the lack of light in his room. Even with crystal walls, only so much light was provided to him. "H-hi, Spike."
"Hey, Sweetie," Spike said. "Long time no see."
"You can say that again," Sweetie replied, her heart beating like a drum solo to a classic rock and roll song.
"Long time no see," Spike said in an unchanged tone.
Sweetie managed to carefully close in on him without getting an itch for kissing him at all.
"S-so...are you okay?"
"I guess so, otherwise I wouldn't be alive now," Spike said somewhat morbidly.
"Well, it's nice to know that you are," Sweetie said, trying to make sure she didn't do something stupid. "The girls and I really missed you, and Rarity kind of missed seeing you this last month. By the way, Spike..." And now it comes. "...are you thinking of using anyone as a backup plan?"
Spike managed to look back at her like she just insulted Twilight now. "Sweetie, I'm not that type of dragon. Us dragons are known for having greed become one of our dominant emotions, but that doesn't mean I'd consider a plan B. I'm a dragon, sure, but I've grown to the age where I've managed to control my greed so that less Spikezilla occurs."
Sweetie Belle had a slight smile across her face. "I'm glad you do..."
For the first time ever, Spike managed to notice that Sweetie Belle's face was red.
"Sweets, what's with the red face of yours?" Spike asked. "Did you eat something spicy?"
"N-no," Sweetie answered. "Anyway, why is it you managed to seclude yourself to over a month?"
"Well," Spike started, "ever since that one crush I had on Rarity, I kept having these fantasies play before my very eyes of us being together. I even drew some myself when I was a baby dragon. I guess that even when you grow up, you can't stop getting any sort of dreams out of your mind. And mine included Rarity to the point where it's as if she would seem an irreplacable part of my life." Suddenly, Spike was cut off by Sweetie's thoughts being put into uncontrollable actions. She rode the same boat with Spike in this situation, and her panic somehow managed to take over her brain as she pinned Spike to the wall and told Spike these simple four words that her mad side had burned into her psyche, even if she said it in a calm whisper:
"Just...pretend I'm her."
And with that, she closed her eyes slowly, tilted her head to the right, and kissed Spike on the lips. In reality, Sweetie wouldn't be the kind of mare that would go around kissing random people, especially not crushes out of the blue. But after all she's gone through with him, as well as people teasing her that she likes-likes that Button Mash kid when they're really just good friends, she lost control of herself and wanted to do what Spike did in the first place, which was why he was secluded for a whole month.
Speaking of Spike, he was stunned that Sweetie would do this. She actually decided to give Spike out of all people a kiss. On the lips, nonetheless. As you can read, Sweetie Belle was in the general "seems-so-wrong-feels-so-right" situation some people get into. She knew a kiss on the lips out of nowhere would seem a bit risky for her crush, but now that she put that thought into action, she enjoyed taking the heat of his lips as it was added to hers while Spike was thinking 'Well, I give her credit for making me feel better, but...why does this have more heat on me than from what I felt when Rarity kissed me on the cheek? Or is that just because she kissed me on the cheek and Sweetie Belle's trying to do better than her? Either way, I kind of like this...but why?'
Twilight heard the silence and wanted to check on the two, which left her in shock. She then shut the door slowly...again. And as the wood made contact with the crystal, Sweetie opened her eyes and was snapped back to her thoughts, thus pulling away from Spike as she started to grow miserable herself.
"Dammit, I messed it all up! I knew you'd hate me for doing that!" Sweetie said, blinded by her guilt, albeit not as overly dramatic as Rarity got when she was miserable.
"Sweetie--" Spike started before getting cut off by Sweetie's anxious babbling.
"And I don't blame you, Spike! You have every right to hate me for what I just did!"
"Sweetie--"
"But I couldn't help it! It was a month since I last saw you, and I just kept having this song run through my mind about us missing each other and needing each other, even though we both think of each other as strangers!"
"Sweetie--"
"And I suppose that as a result, it made MY fantasies with YOU take over and be put into action!"
"Sweetie--"
"And in some of my fantasies I told you to just pretend that I was Rarity because I got the hint that you had a crush on her!"
"Wait, Sweetie--"
"And at first I was tolerant over it, but as time went on it just became harder and harder for me to accept in my mind because of what we've been through when we were--"
"SWEETIE OPHELIA BELLE!" Spike shouted after he grabbed her forehooves, shaking her to calm down. "What do you mean fantasies with me?"
"You sure you want to know?" Sweetie said, her voice starting to break.
"It'll only escalate if I don't," Spike said, managing to sound like himself again. "Just tell me what's bugging you."
"Well, Spike..." Sweetie gulped. "I said that I wished for you to pretend I was Rarity because, as of now...I love you."
"Wait... You kissed me out of the blue because...you loved me?"
Sweetie nodded. "And I kind of predicted that Rarity would not share her feelings with you on my own because you mainly went through a crush just like me."
"When did you first start this crush on me?"
"Well, it happened when I saw you working on dresses with Rarity, and you were being such a gentledragon that...I guess it made me admire you in some way. I passed it off as a crush when I noticed that you liked Rarity. Although, I couldn't get my crush out of my mind, and it came back when we first shuffled together at Princess Cadence's royal wedding, and Rarity gave me a plush dragon that looked like you, which was expected since you're Ponyville's resident dragon after all. But that didn't stop my crush from escalating. And I still have the plushy to remind me of it because I just couldn't let it go."
Spike started to see what Sweetie said. The most it was in the past was really a crush. And the only pony that was really for him was, ironically, her younger sister. He started to see her in a new light. Her gorgeous lavender and pink curly hair, her emerald green eyes, her snow white coat...she just looked beautiful to him now, simple as that.
"Sweetie Belle..." Spike said in newfound awe, "...I don't want to pretend that you're Rarity."
"Well, I'm glad you don't," Sweetie said, still in a state of anxiety and sort of sounding like she might start sobbing, "but what if I'm not enough?"
Spike laughed at what Sweetie was saying about herself. "How in the name of Celestia would I think you're not enough? You're sweet, adorable, and not to mention one heck of a singer." He then placed one hand on her cheek. "And that's certainly nothing that would make me classify you as just a plan B for me."
"H-how can I be so certain?" Sweetie asked.
Spike pondered for a bit. Then he got an idea and dug into his chest of leftover gems that Rarity gave him when he helped her dig for gems. Luckily, he found the perfect one. A lavender gem that was about as big as the ruby heart Spike gave Rarity on his birthday, which earned him a little kiss on the cheek. He then presented it to Sweetie, causing her eyes to enlarge in awe at the gem that matched her hair (at least one part of her hair).
"Have I convinced you yet?" Spike asked.
Sweetie grabbed the gem slowly, set it down next to her, and gave Spike another kiss on the lips. Not as lengthy, but still a bit more satisfactory since he joined in on the kiss. Spike pulled away after a bit to make sure that the two caught their breath.
Spike then replied with, "I'll take that as a yes." And so, he and Sweetie Belle walked out of Spike's room with the lavender gem, hand in hand (er, claw in forehoof), with Twilight glad about two things: A. Spike would finally manage to see the sun again, and B. he managed to find someone he'd actually love while she loved back.
And when they got outside, they went by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who were relieved that Spike was alive.
"Woo-hoo! Spike's back!" Scootaloo shouted.
"We missed ya bein' out and about," Apple Bloom said. "Where were ya?"
"He was isolated in his room," Sweetie said.
"And Sweetie and I managed to become a couple as a result," Spike added.
"Although you could tell by his claw and my forehoof as well as my new lavender gemstone."
"Post-Cutie Mark Crusader predictors, yay!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo cheered. Spike gave a look that said "Yeah, should've expected that."
"The girls had that planned for when we got together somehow," Sweetie told him as if she were psychic. That or she was able to tell what a face said.
"Well, I guess they might also expect the rest of our future together, in that case," Spike said in response.
"I love you, Spikey-Wikey," Sweetie said.
"And I love you, too, Sweets," Spike said before they met for yet another kiss as they would be ready to face whatever would dare to come their way in the long run. It would likely be rough in some cases, but they knew one thing: they would never let go from one another (pass the crackers).
FIN
Author's Note
The song Sweetie Belle had on her mind was Strangers by Scratch21, BTW
