Spike reached the front door of Fluttershy's cottage before Twilight could catch up. He rapped slowly on it before wiping his eyes clear again.

"Coming!"

Spike heard a familiar soft voice coming from inside the cottage. A series of angered meows followed her sing song voice. Opal must be getting on with her least favorite part of the grooming experience: her bath.

Fluttershy opened the front door with a greeting smile. "Hey Spike!" She patted Spike on the head.

Spike just stood there arms crossed and looking sad. Fluttershy was aware of Spike's recent problem. She hoped he wasn't down or feeling upset because of a little accident. She knew just how emotionally painful and mentally upsetting a problem like bed wetting can cause on fillies and colts. She read all about it in her books.

The teasing and name calling can be relentless! Oh the poor dear...

"Spike? Is anything the matter?" But before Spike could even answer, Twilight galloped up from behind them. So Fluttershy turned her attention to Twilight instead for the moment.

"Oh hey Twilight!" Fluttershy wondered what the rush was for. "You look like you're in a hurry." The shy yellow pegasus took notice of Owlicious clenched to Twilight's back. "Why hello there Owlicious! My, you're such a pretty bird!" Owlicious blushed at the compliment.

"Hey, Fluttershy," Twilight was panting from the exhaustion. Ever since receiving her wings she hasn't needed to gallop nearly as much. She wasn't out of shape by any means. It was just that her stamina was untested on the ground. Twilight allowed some time for her lungs to recover.

Fluttershy turned her attention back to Spike. "Spike are you sure you're alright?" Just then Fluttershy noticed the tear marks on his cheeks. "Oh my! Have you been crying?"

Spike tried looking away quickly. But it was too late.

Fluttershy had a keen eye for emotional distress given that she was the living embodiment of kindness and empathy. Wherever there was a pony in need of consolation she could sense it and was always quick to provide a shoulder to lean on. Spike had balled his eyes out just moments prior when Rarity found out his secret. Needless to say it wasn't exactly easy for him to disguise the fact that his face was flush with sadness and his tear ducts were glistening with liquid emotion.

"Well," Twilight awkwardly began seeing as how Spike wasn't in the mood to engage in conversation with anypony. "We were on our way to drop Owlicious off for his monthly preening..."

"Oh my," Fluttershy pretended like she was overwhelmed. "That's today?"

"Yes, and while we were on our way here we bumped into Rarity." Twilight took notice of the soaked cat taking malicious swipes at Angel Bunny behind Fluttershy. "Literally I bumped into her causing everything I was carrying to fall."

"HOO." Owlicious objected.

"Sorry. Everything and everyowl to almost fall."

"Hoo."

"Including these." Twilight floated the books onto Fluttershy's back. Fluttershy had a raised eyebrow and craned to read the titles to herself.

She remembered now! Twilight borrowed these books some amount of moons ago so that she could more appropriately diagnose Spike's bed wetting. The timid pegasus was starting to put two and two together.

She gasped. "Oh my!" She put a hoof up to her mouth. "Rarity saw these?" Fluttershy looked back at Spike who just stood there feeling mortified for a second time this morning. Fluttershy knew how upsetting that must be for Spike. It was no secret to her or her friends that Spike had a juvenile crush on the unicorn. She couldn't imagine how embarrassed he must feel.

"I don't care." Spike spoke for the first time during their conversation. Albeit a lie. But he spoke nonetheless.

Twilight reached into her saddle bags and pulled out the Owl treats. She set them on the ground to Fluttershy's left. "Owlicious are you ready? Fluttershy is going to give you her very special owl spa treatment."

"HOO! HOO!" The owl gleefully flew over and perched himself between Fluttershy's ears which had sympathetically fallen over at the mention of Spike's plight.

"I'll have him over to you before the end of the day," Fluttershy promised.

"Thanks Fluttershy. We know we can count on you," Twilight closed her bags back up. "Spike what do you say?"

"Thanks for grooming our pet owl, Fluttershy." Spike's eyes regarded the earth. He then muttered just loud enough for Twilight to hear "And thanks for not lying to me and going behind my back to embarrass me."

Twilight let Spike take the jab at her. She had it coming she supposed.

Twilight felt terrible. Yes, she did deliberately go against Spike's wishes. But her heart was in the right place. What's a pony to do?

Fluttershy didn't know what to say. She thought and thought about it. She wanted to offer Spike some bit of comfort any way she knew how.

"You know Spike," Fluttershy began with an owl perched on top of her head. "Twilight told me to never tell a soul about your problem. I even Pinkie promised never to tell." Spike listened in closely to what Fluttershy was about to say. "Twilight was so worried about your feelings that she asked me over and over not to tell anypony. I swore not to. We both, Twilight and I, and Rarity for that matter too I'm sure, we all care about you. We don't think you have any reason to feel embarrassed around us. We all know how hard this is for you and we want to support and help you through it. Twilight was going to read those books in secrecy while she looked for answers to your problem. I'm sure she didn't mean for Rarity to find out." Spike knew she had a point there. "And I'm sure Rarity knows to keep your secret to herself as well."

Spike thought about it for a minute.

Really the only ponies who know about my bedwetting are Twilight of course, Owlicious, Fluttershy, and now Rarity. Maybe that wasn't so bad?

Rarity did tend to gossip but only about things that didn't matter. When it came to her friends' emotions and trust she was as loyal as Rainbow Dash in that regard.

Now it was Twilight's turn to speak. "Spike please don't worry anymore about it. Fluttershy's right. You have no reason to be embarrassed around us. We're your friends and we want to help you."

Spike was far from feeling good, but at least now his emotions seemed under better control.

"Yeah, yeah," Spike was starting to wise up to the situation. He still had doubts about it all. But he wasn't going to hold a grudge against Twilight anymore. "You're right, Twilight."

Spike perked up. Fluttershy's ears did too. "Thank you for your kindness Fluttershy." Spike reached up to hug the yellow pegasus' neck.

"Awww, Spike. Don't mention it." Fluttershy loved to see her friends happy. Her and Pinkie Pie shared that commonality.

"Will you be alright, Fluttershy?" Twilight, now satisfied, started to turn back towards town.

"Who? Me?" The pegasus was uncharacteristically confident. "I got this."

Fluttershy turned away with a determined look on her face. She grabbed the owl treats and started on back for Opal who had Angel cornered at the far side of the living space. Fluttershy was only over confident when it came to animals. And rightfully so. They were her super special talent after all. She could definitely handle two extra critters today. No problem.

Twilight wondered how such a timid pony could be so proficient with creatures of all types, shapes, and sizes. She recalled seeing Fluttershy back rub a grizzly bear and even tame a manticore!

Some ponies are just naturally gifted, she supposed.

"So Spike," Twilight felt her and her companion were back on speaking terms now. "What's next?"

Spike, scroll in hand, read aloud: "Buy some tea from Zecora's".

Twilight flew her baby dragon assistant onto her back with her magic.

"Whoa, what are you doing? Don't you want to walk?"

"How about a ride there?" The purple alicorn looked to see if Spike was alright. She wanted to do something nice for him seeing as how he's had such a rough morning insofar.

"Yeah ok but no tricks," Spike reprimanded. "I almost hurled the last time you tried the corkscrew with me."

Twilight remembered and giggled to herself. "Deal. Hold on tight." Twilight took off from Fluttershy's path towards the Everfree Forest.

Author's Note

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all related characters, ideas, logos are trademarked and copyrighted by HASBRO.