A knock on the door to his room woke him from his nap. Looking out of the window the Riolu saw that it had gotten dark fast, this was due to the weather Pegasi accidentally skipping a scheduled sprinkle of rain last week, so in order to make up for the mistake, they planned a big storm for tonight. He could already see the large dark rain clouds covering the whole of Canterlot and even Ponyvile off in the far distance. Another loud knock was hit on his room door.

"Alright! I'm coming, I'm coming! No need to bash my door down."

Hoping off his bed and opening the door he expected it to be a guard or one of the castles assistants but it was the one dragon he didn't expect to see. Spike the dragon standing in the hallway holding his suitcase and backpack with a large grin on his face. Quickly getting over his shock, Riolu pulled Spike into his room, slammed the door and pulled his friend into a hug.

"Spike? What are you doing here? I thought you're still living in Ponyville with Twilight."

Spike chuckled and kept his cheeky grin. "I'm here on royal business."

"Meaning?"

"To see you! Princess Celestia sent me a letter asking me if I wanted to come and stay for a night. She even teleported me here so I'd get here faster." Spike explained as they broke their hug and put down his bags. "She told me how you're feeling, I missed you too. It's not the same without my best bro being so far away."

Riolu reminded himself to think Celestia when he got the chance, but for now, his attention was on his friend who was waving a card deck box in his claws. "Celestia said that dinner won't be for an hour so wanna have a match? Unless you're scared to lose to the master!"

"You're on!"

"Give up, Riolu. You know you can't win."

"You know I never give up, Spike."

This might be the toughest battle of Riolu's life. Spike was winning the card game with more cards on his side of the field and with a much higher life points. Riolu looked over to his cards that he held onto, trying to find any kind of move that might win him the game. Spike just sat opposite him tapping his claws as he waited.

"Come on, Riolu. It will be morning by the time you finish your turn." Spike taunted.

"I'm thinking!"

"You could just give up. No harm knowing you've lost."

"I said no, Spike. I can pull this off." Riolu thought of a plan and prayed that it would work. "I place a card face down and another in defense mode. Your move, Spike."

"That card in defense can't save you, Riolu. I attack the card."

Riolu lifted a paw to stop him. "Not so fast, Spike. I activate my cards effect, whenever its attack the attacker's cards are pulled out of play until your next turn and my defense card goes into attack mode."

Spike mood changes from looking smug to annoyed. "Fine, it's not like that's gonna save you. I still have more health so even if you attack me you won't win. I end my turn."

"You think?" Riolu flipped over his card that was facing down and read out the effect. "Fip and add 1000 attack points to a monster card for one turn, and I choose the only monster I have on my side and attack you."

Spike looked stunned. "But, but that means."

"I win."

Spike couldn't believe it. "That's so cheap! I was so gonna win that."

"Not this time. Sorry."

"What an OP card." complained Spike.

"It's not OP." argued Riolu.

"It is!"

"Is not!"

"It is!"

"Is not!"

"It is!"

"Is not!"

Their little argument quickly came to a halt as a large bang echoed in the clouds followed by a flash of lighting outside. In a panic, the two boys dropped their cards and let out a startled yelp of fear. Looking out the window they could see that the storm had really started to pick up, rain poured down harder, winds blowing all around in the air with great force and every now and again thunder combined with lighting would crack.

"The weather team isn't messing around this time." comment Riolu as he got up to shut the curtains.

"No kidding. It was a rush in Ponyville before I got here. Ponies everywhere were pruning a bunch of trees to avoid damaging the town. I hope Twilight's going okay be herself."

"Doesn't she live in a tree?" Riolu asked in a nervous tone.

"Yeah, but it's fine. The library has a magical lightning rod to protect it in cases like this."

"Speaking of Ponyville. Do you like it there?" Riolu asked as they both cleaned up the mess of cards that got thrown around in the room.

Spike nodded. "It's nice. Ponies are friendly and its a nice change from the castle. Twilight has adjusted fine and is always hanging out with her new friends. The past few days have been something that's for sure."

"What do you mean?" Riolu asked.

Spike sighed as the memories came back to him. "Well everypony went crazy trying to get Twilight's second ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala, Applejack was super stubborn and wanted to buck all of the apples on the farm all by herself, then a griffon called Gilda was making trouble, not long after a pony called "The Great and Powerful Trixie" arrives in Ponyville, claiming to be the greatest pony in all of Equestria. Guess what? She's not. Oh and a sleeping dragon making a lot of smoke over Ponyville."

Riolu stopped to give him a look of disbelief. "All that within a couple of days?"

"I know crazy right? But really it is a nice town. Maybe you should come and stay over for a few days? We have enough room in the library for you to stay overnight."

Riolu thought about and shrugged, what's the worst that could happen? "That sounds fine to me."

Spike already finished picking up his cards, put them back into his bag. From the corner of his eye, Riolu noticed that Spike had a framed photo of Rarity.

"Whos that, Spike?"

Spike quickly took out the photo looked at Riolu with an open jaw. "How can you forget Rarity?! She's the Element of Generosity!"

"Sorry. I've only met her once at the Summer Sun Celebration. Doesn't explain why you have her picture."

Spike looked down at the photo as he thought of what to say. From the looks of it, Spike's purple scaled cheeks look a little red. "Okay, I'll tell you. But first! You must promise not to tell anypony."

"I promise." repeated Riolu.

"Okay." he gestured for Riolu to move closer with claws. Once Riolu was next to him he whispered out his secret. "I have a crush on Rarity."

"Is that it?."

"What do you mean "Is that it"?!" questioned Spike.

"Why so secret about that?"

"I guess it because I'm a dragon and she's a pony, that and I'm younger than her. But I'm not gonna let that stop me! I know we're meant to be together." proclaimed Spike.

Riolu smiled and gave the dragon a friendly pat on the back. "Well don't worry. I'll keep your secret and I hope everything goes well for you."

Spike smiled back. "Thank bro, that means a lot coming from you. But hey, since I've told who I have a crush on, next time you have to me yours when you've found the one."

"Fine."

Dinner passed by and soon everypony got ready for bed. Due to "reasons," Princess Celestia said that the guest rooms are out of order and since Spike didn't have his bed basket with him, he was forced to sleep with Riolu. Riolu wasn't sure what Celestia's game was. He didn't hear anything wrong about the other rooms before and now they just so happen to be "out of order". Well, it didn't matter to the both of them, it's just for one night after all and Riolu had a large bed. So with Riolu on the left side of the bed and Spike on the right, they both said good night and fell into the dream world.

Author's Note

Now, this was a fun chapter to write. I guess that's why it came out so quickly. A bit of Riolu and Spike friendship, and so far the few that posted in the comments said they wouldn't mind seeing the both of them as a shipping. So I guess Riolu x Spike is gonna be the main pairing in the story. This should be fun. :D

Oh, and if it wasn't obvious enough I based the card game on Yu-Gi-Oh!