The Gentle Giant

"Really, Twilight, was...that really necessary?" Rarity asked once they recovered and started on the way to registering. Fluttershy still couldn't look at him without squeaking and blushing brightly, and Pinkie nearly tripped more then once constantly glancing down to his pants. Though she had to give Spike credit; despite his own lingering blush, and the stares, he was trying his best to act like nothing had happened.

"Oh, come off it, Rarity." Twilight responded, looking satisfied with herself. "I saw the look on your face when I did."

She didn't respond, though her cheeks did redden some, and she had to bite her lip a little.

Twilight's grin just widened.

"Um, Twi? Ah do kinda have one question." Applejack spoke up, trying to fight off her own redness. "How'd this tall mug of cider get, well...so darn tall? Ah know when all that magic got released here, it changed a lotta folk, case in point, but..."

"Puberty." Came Spike's reply.

"Pardon?"

"It hit me when puberty was setting in." He explained. "The change caused the following growth spurt to get stuck in the 'on' position. Was this height by the time I was seventeen."

Rainbow whistled. "Damn..."

"Yeah, that and the cravings I got because of it. Iron, quartz, zinc...heh, scared the heck out of a pawn shop owner when I bought a cast iron pan and ate it right there."

"Wow...and I thought my mom wanting caramel on hot dogs while she was pregnant with me was odd!" Rainbow said.

"Wait, you never said anything about straight up eating minerals!" Twilight looked at him. "I thought you were just having a massive appetite!"

"I did, just regular chow wasn't satisfying it. Even tried to eat a mineral block once, but I puked cause of how salty it was."

"Eww..." Fluttershy spoke up.

"Should've seen the doctor's reaction last time I went in for a check up. His scale wasn't quite rated for people in the half-ton range."

This time Pinkie succeeded in tripping, bringing Rarity and Applejack with her. "Half a half-wha??"

"Apparently dragons are naturally crazy heavy...that and the extra weight I put on eating all that stuff over the years..." He shrugged. "Gotten used to it, though it does kinda limit what I can sleep on without it breaking under me." He patted one of his bags. "Pretty much stick with a sleeping bag."

"While I'm still not fond of you being stuck with that, it does come in handy for a good overnight cuddle." Twilight smirked. "Especially since you-mm!" She was cut up when he quickly put a finger to her lips, his face bright red.

"Ix-nay on the ommando-cay, Bae." He whispered desperately.

"But you're so yummy when you sleep like that."

"Only because they don't make...that in my size! You know that!"

"They do know that we can hear them, right, AJ?" Pinkie whispered, watching them.

"Ah...Ah don't know...Ah got distracted when they said he goes commando..." Applejack managed to squeak out.

"S-same." Rarity gulped.

The small band quickly learned that settling in was going to take longer than they thought; more than a few others had managed to arrive at enrollment ahead of them, so it would be a while before they could get their rooms.

Once they got relaxed in a corner off to the side, things descended mostly into small talk. At least until Spike made himself comfortable (he didn't trust the little chairs there to not give out under him, so he just propped himself up against the wall), next thing he knew, he was hit with a stampede of questions:

"You play any sports?"
"So you really used to live here?"
"Gonna try out for one of the teams?"
"What's your major going to be?"
"You really go commando!?"
"Pinkie!"

"I-I wha...huh??" He sputtered, thoroughly overwhelmed, and a tiny bit panicky, by the barrage.

"Girls! Easy, I think we overdid it!" Sunset spoke up, seeing Spike look like he just had a train fly by his face. "Um..maybe we better let him calm down a little, before any more questions..."

With that, they moved into general chatter while he settled. As the girls talked, he picked up a few things; like Pinkie wanting the culinary classes. She loved throwing parties, so she was hoping to open her own bakery/catering deal. Rainbow had managed to snag a soccer scholarship and aimed to go professional. That and she was a major Daring Do fan. Fluttershy wanted to be a veterinarian, and oddly enough, after seeing him get overwhelmed, she seemed to be a little more relaxed near him now.

Twilight was hoping to become a researcher in the new arcane science fields that were being developed, though he was pretty aware of that. Especially since she begged him to let her examine his new dragon body the first time she saw him after his transformation...which kind of led to their first time with each other, too. Sunset was interested in similar fields, too. Twilight seemed embarrassed about it, but the two of them had gone to the last high school prom together. He pictured them both doing that and thought it was both kind of adorable and sexy. Applejack, when she wasn't blushing after looking his way, seemed interested in agriculture. Seemed she was from a long line of apple farmers and wanted to cook up new ways to improve the quality of her family's orchards.

On occasion, he caught a few questions thrown Twilight's way about him. Unfortunately, his size and weight made some career options impossible, so he was contemplating maybe starting up a Big'n'Tall store. Made sense since he had to have most of his clothes custom done. He didn't mind cooking, provided others didn't mind that he liked spicy stuff or meat a little on the overdone side. Watching sports was ok, unfortunately he'd tried out for school football...and was told he was 'just too damn much of a UNIT' after a few players hurt themselves trying to tackle him, and ran screaming when he tried.

It wasn't too bad...until he overheard Rainbow whisper - or at least she thought she was whispering. "Hey, Twilight! Can ya tell us how big he is?"

"You can see for yourself Rainbow." Came the reply.

"You know what I mean! His thing! His mancannon! The pleasure pillar he's packing down there!"

*snort/giggle*

"His what??" Twilight tried hard not to laugh

"Come off it, Twilight." Sunset joined in. "You got a handful of him right in front of us, so we all saw that python!"

"Ladies, while your comments are a little flattering, could you please NOT discuss the size of my penis while I'm around?" He spoke up, blushing brightly, and startling them all. "It's kind of awkward." He waiting until they all started to apologize before adding. "And for the record, I'm ten inches with a seven inch circumference." It was his turn to smirk a little. "Twilight couldn't resist measuring one time."

"I was curious!" The bookworm squeaked in protest, trying to ignore how the others were looking at her.

"Well, I was gonna ask what sorta benefits you were talking about earlier..." Pinkie started. "Buuuut, I think that kinda spells it out."

The next question, out of all of them, was from Fluttershy. "How are you still walking straight??"

Twilight just blushed. "Practice."

Unfortunately, their time spent waiting ended up being a good deal longer then expected. A glitch in the mainframe, coupled with a few students enrolling having messed up some of their paper work, caused multiple delays, a couple lasting hours. Thankfully, the office workers made up for it by ordering pizza and letting them watch a few movies in the lounge, calling them in when it was their turn.

By the time Twilight, Spike, and the others finally got registered and access to dorms, it was already well into the night, and they were ready to get some sleep. They were all given a set of dorm rooms on the ground floor at the end of one the halls and luckily - depending on who you asked - they were co-ed, so Spike and Twilight shared a room.

"Spike?" She asked as she started unpacking. "I'm sorry."

He glanced up from his own bag "For what?"

"For making you uncomfortable earlier..." She sighed. "I didn't mean to embarrass you like that. It's just...well, I was aware that a some of the others didn't really believe you existed. Guess I can't blame them; I never showed them any pictures or recordings, and...and I just wanted to brag about you a little." She turned her attention back to her bags, looking a little ashamed of herself. She was about to resume unpacking when she was abruptly picked up.

"Ah, Twi, you didn't embarrass me." Spike replied, holding her close. "Granted, it was a little awkward, but I know it's not in your nature to do something like that intentionally. Truth be told, you weren't the only one. My 'parents' and some of their friends didn't exactly believe you were real either. Didn't really help that I wouldn't show them any photos, considering that I promised you I'd keep those private."

"Thanks, Babe." She kissed him before glancing at the still full bags. "What do you say we finish this tomorrow?" I kinda feel like we could both use a little cuddle time."

"First one to get changed picks where?" He suggested, setting her back down.

"Deal!" She chirped, starting to undress already. Since they'd already been intimate with each other, neither was really all that worried about seeing each other naked. "And you're in luck, Spike. These beds have solid foundations for frames. Might squish the mattress, but that's it!"

"Heh, I'm not complaining-hey..." He protested slightly when the t-shirt he'd just pulled off was wrapped in a purple glow that shot it into Twilight's waiting hand, a similar glow fading from her eyes as she caught it. "Well, someone's got a hang on their levitation." He commented, licking his lips a bit at the sight of her naked body just before the shirt covered her.

"Not THAT good. I'm still working on getting past the hundred pound mark. And before you say anything, you were wearing it, that's why." This time it was her turn to watch, biting her lip and letting out a cute little 'unf' as she watched him strip down and change to a pair of sweat pants. "Heh, looks like I win." She smirked and crawled onto the bed seductively.

*KNOCK KNOCK*

"You gotta be kidding." They groaned in unison, Twilight getting up and joining Spike, to answer it,both expecting a damn good reason for knocking at this time of night.

"What is it...?" He asked pulling the door open, only to be greeted with a dark-skinned girl who looked just slightly older than Twilight, wearing denim shorts and a tank-top, with rose-colored hair done up in a mohawk, and a scar over her right eye.

"Hey, sorry, but I was wondering if you could tell me where dorm one-oh...nine...is..." Her voice trailed off at the sight of pair, her cheeks turning a bright pink when she looked at Spike.

"Tempest Shadow!?" Twilight suddenly blurted out.