Equestrian Roulette

Being a dragon came with a lot of perks. Sure, dessert could cost as much as an engagement ring, mostly because sometimes they were one and the same, but on the plus side, you were almost never too cold, and certainly never too warm. Ponies, clearly, did not enjoy that particular protection.

“Uh, Scoots, you feeling alright?” Spike asked, hovering hesitantly over her as she lay flopped on her belly. “You don’t look so good.”

“I’m super. Good to go. One hundred percent.” She had her tongue flopped out of her mouth like a dog, her ears and hair plastered flat against her head. “Just slightly melting is all. No big deal. Just need a minute in the shade to cool off.”

Spike glanced up at the thick overgrowth around them. “We’re already in the shade.”

“Really? Somepony should really tell this damn island that,” Scootaloo panted. “It’s like an oven out here. Maybe Luna was onto something with that whole eternal night thing.”

Spike shook his head. “Come on, we’re getting you somewhere cooler.” Without another word, he started to pick up Scootaloo, even as she weakly squirmed in his grip.

“H-hey! Come on, I’m good to go! Just need a minute is all!” She continued to struggle in his grip for a few seconds, before she finally went limp as sweat drenched her fur. “Okay, okay, you win. You do the walking for a while.”

“Just until you don’t look like you’re going to leave a puddle on the floor.” Sprawled across his back, Spike could feel just how hot Scootaloo was running. It didn’t bother him any, but in his experience ponies weren’t supposed to get this warm outside of a fever. “You really should have taken things easier.”

“We’ve got a lot of ground to cover!” Scoots said, wrapping her arms across his chest as she pouted. “I knew I should have brought my scooter.”

“You can’t scooter in the jungle,” Spike pointed out.

“Maybe you can’t.” She stuck out her tongue, before slumping her head beside his. For a moment, it was just the sounds of the rustling undergrowth around them. “Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry,” she muttered. “About the beach, I mean. I was kinda out of line.”

Spike’s cheeks flushed. “It’s no problem, I was just, kinda surprised is all.”

“Oh, so you liked it then?” She briefly grinned as his cheeks colored even deeper, before her eyes widened and she winced. “Sorry, doing it again.”

“Yeah,” Spike coughed, fighting the way his heart wanted to race. “You just… never said anything before, back in Ponyville.”

“Yeah, I…” She sighed. “When I washed up on that beach, I was kinda scared, you know? Not like, super scared, I mean. But… a little. I never really could fly that well, so, I mean, it’s not like I could ride a cloud home or anything.” She fidgeted against his back, averting her eyes. “Being ‘stranded’ isn’t really a thing for most pegasi, but I have to think about where I’m going, how I’m going to get there all the time. Not being able to get home…”

Spike was silent, his only response to hold her just a little tighter.

If Scootaloo noticed, she didn’t say anything, but a tiny smile flitted across her lips. “Anyway, I saw you on that beach, with the palms behind you, and all I could think was how it looked like one of those trashy romance novels, the colt posing in the gleaming sunlight, all wet and glistening…” She snickered as his cheeks colored again. “It was just easier to think about it like that, you know? Then we met Applebloom and Sweetie, and… I just really wanted it to be this dumb, silly thing, instead of…”

“I understand.” Spike nodded, then a wicked idea popped into his head. “We could make out when we get back, if that’d help.”

It was Scootaloo’s turn to flush red as a beet, her spluttering driving Spike to laughter. “N-no fair!”

“Doesn’t everybody say ‘turnabout is fair play?’” He snickered even as she bit one of his spines in retort.

“Not when the other pony’s got her brain boiling out her ears.” She huffed and pouted. “Just find me someplace cool.”

“You got it.” His still had that smirk on his face. “With or without makeout-access?”

“Shuttup.” She bit him again. “What does that even mean anyway?”

“I have no idea,” he chuckled.

“Oh Celestia, this is so cliche it hurts and I don’t even care.” As she spoke, Scootaloo rolled over, letting the small waterfall splash all over her belly and face, flailing her legs playfully into the stream.

Sure enough, the two of them had managed to find what could have been the posterchild for all jungle oasis. A bright, babbling stream flowed through a clearing in the trees, cascading down a small cliff just high enough to qualify as a waterfall. There was even a rainbow glinting in the misty spray. Idly, Scootaloo batted it as she swam by, sending it spinning around its radius.

“Just don’t get eaten by leeches or anything!” Spike called down from atop his tree. Around him, various massive green fruits sat ripe and waiting to be plucked. He plucked a few of them, briefly hoping Applebloom would know more about them than he did. They smelled fine to him, but then the dragon definition of ‘edible’ tended to be a bit broader than most. “You know anything about fruit?”

“Depends, whatcha got?” He tossed her down a fruit, and she caught it. She eyed it for a moment, before promptly biting into it and chewing greedily. “Seems good to me!”

Spike nearly choked on his own tongue. “Don’t do that! What if it’s poisonous!” He briefly considered scrambling down, before realizing how absurd it would be to try and stop her from eating the fruit at this point. “You can’t just do that!”

“I just did.” She smacked her lips. “Mmmm, besides, isn’t it like mushrooms that you’re not supposed to eat or something?”

“Yes, you’re not supposed to eat mushrooms, but you’re not just supposed to eat fruit either!” He nearly flailed at her, before remembering he needed his arms to stay in the tree. “You could die!”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “You know, sometimes I forget you’re Twilight’s brother, and then, for some reason, I remember.” She grinned. “Relax a little. It’ll be fine, I’m sure.”

Spike sighed in defeat. “Well, it’s done now. Kind of wish we had Applebloom with us.”

“Oh really now?” Scootaloo’s grin grew even wider. “I’m sure she’d love to hear that.”

Spike flushed. “I thought you said you were laying off.”

“Oh, off me, sure.” She paddled over to the edge of the river and pulled herself out, the water glittering in the air as she shook herself off. “You know she’s into you, right?”

Spike was silent a moment.

“Oh ho ho! You do know, don’t you?” Scootaloo’s grin nearly split her face in two. “And here we thought you were just blind as a bat!”

“H-hey!” Spike scowled down at her. “I just… it’s complicated, you know?”

“Oh? Got your eyes on somepony else?” She made a show of stretching, lean muscles flexing beneath her glossy fur, eyes fixed on Spike like a hungry cat. “Now I know why that teasing got you riled up so fast.”

“I-- just-- ugh!” He clambered down the tree, his tail flicking in irritation. “Could you just be serious for a minute?”

Her grin faded a bit, but she held up her hooves in defeat. “Alright, alright, serious time. What’s up there?”

“I just…” Spike sighed and flopped down at the base of the tree, Scootaloo sitting down just a touch too close beside him. “I don’t know. We’ve known each other so long, and...  I mean, there was something there, but…” He glanced guiltily at Scootaloo, and in that moment her grin disappeared completely.

“...you were never alone,” she finished for him, receiving a soft frown in reply. “Yeah, I should have seen that coming. It’s… kinda been a problem for all of us.” When Spike’s eyebrows rose, she sighed, dropping her head into his lap. “Don’t get me wrong, having such close friends is great, but… it makes private time kind of a problem, you know?”

“You’re really together that… often?” Spike found himself squirming, and not entirely from Scootaloo’s face being where it was.

Scootaloo snorted, her breath brushing against Spike’s belly. “We’ve got a set of matching cutie marks, what do you think?” Her eyes flicked away, off into the middle distance. “Most times I don’t know what I’d do without those two… but…” She bit her lip, her voice dropping to a whisper. “...Sometimes I do...”

For an instant, their eyes met, and Spike’s heart felt like it would leap out of his chest. Right now, they were alone, with nothing between them but Applebloom’s shadow. Of course he felt for Applebloom too, but like he’d said, it was complicated. As she stared into his eyes, he was suddenly reminded of the first time he’d seen her at a grand prix.

She’s been standing there in her racing suit, tight fabric clinging to her every toned curve. But it was her eyes that had caught him. Hungry, bold, and fierce. The eyes of a girl who took what she wanted. The kind of girl who won just because she loved doing it.

Right now, he could see that same fire burning just out of reach. A single breath, a single touch, and he knew it would reach out and consume him. And oh how he wanted to be consumed. And then she blinked, and it was gone.

“R-right, we should be getting back.” She was out of his lap so fast he could have sworn she teleported, leaving nothing but an awkward mix of yearning and guilt in her place. “I’m sure Applebloom’s starting to worry. You know how she is.”

“Yeah, I do.” He took a deep breath, and clenched his claws, willing away the nervous shaking that had entered them. “We should get back.”

For a moment, their eyes met again.

Then they both looked away.

The trip back was made in almost total silence, the speech between them kept to the most cursory observations. That looked like an abandoned village. Stop, I thought I heard something. Wasn’t our beach to the south?

When they finally stepped back onto the white sand of the shoreline, it was a welcome return indeed.

“There you two are.” Applebloom let out a breath, that she’d probably been half-holding the entire time. “You were gone a mighty long time.”

“Got lost,” Scootaloo threw out before Spike could respond. “Didn’t really see anything interesting. A few collapsed huts. We did find a river though, so we’ve got water at least.”

“Well that’s one thing off our plates, I figure.” Applebloom managed a smile. “Speaking of plates, you two find anything good?”

“Just these.” Spike pulled out a cluster of the fruit he’d found, having conveniently stored them in a little palm-leaf bandolier.

“Huh.” Applebloom stared at them a moment. “Well they ain’t no apples, I can tell you that.”

Spike and Scootaloo groaned.

“Hey, just because I know apples, don’t mean I’m the end-all of fruit knowledge.” She huffed and passed it back to Spike.

“Oh! Jackfruit!” The fruit found itself yanked from Applebloom’s grasp by a minty field of magic. Sweetie Belle all but squealed as she got the fruit, quickly wrestling off the skin to get at the flesh within. “I love these!”

“You all know what these are?” Applebloom raised an eyebrow as Sweetie nodded.

“Mmmhmm! Jackfruit! Very popular in tropical curries! But you can totally eat them raw.” She proceeded to prove that fact by digging right on into the fruit.

“Encyclopedia Sweetie strikes again,” Scootaloo snickered.

Sweetie paused just to glare at her. “We’re seriously doing this again. Seriously?”

“Old times sake?” Scootaloo grinned.

Sweetie continued to glare, until she promptly broke into giggles. A moment later the other two had joined her, and Spike found a tension lingering in his shoulders beginning to drift away as he joined in as well. In this one moment, laughing on the beach, he felt like they were all going to be fine. A moment later, he found a hoof on his shoulder, and as he turned to face Applebloom, that okay feeling fell away.

“Hey, uh, Spike?” She glanced at the other two. “You got a minute? We need to talk.”