I Wrote This After Being up for Twenty-Five Hours. Can You Tell?
How to Love Your Dragon
B_25
I don't like Spike. Okay, maybe that wasn't fair—it's not like I dislike the guy. He's pretty chill for a guy—pretty chill for a dragon as well? I dunno. Is that how that logic works? Eh. Who cares. Not me, that's who.
Anyway, what was I going on about again?
Oh, right, Spike. Yeah, like I said, no hard feelings towards the dude. I mean, not like there were hard feelings to begin with and—ah, hay, I'm just in circles now aren't I. Ah. I really do suck at talking to myself... thinking to myself... writing to myself?
That's another thing I suck at. Writing. Y'know? Putting words on a page that tell some kind of story? Read a few Daring Do books. Thought that book writing must have been easy, then decided to throw my own hoof at the page.
Bad idea. Like, really bad idea. And I don't even mean for me for my story. Well, partly me, I guess. Dang it! There I go again! Look, all of this started because I wanted to tell some stupid story! I didn't mean for Spike to fall in love with me, or for the book to do well, or for me to feel something kinda back for drake... dragon... dude?
Eh. Probably helps if I start from the start.
Wait, was using two starts a bad thing?
I sat alone at the sandwich joint. There's all kind of booths and tables and chairs all around me. I'm not gonna describe them. I suck at describing stuff. The booth I was sitting on was red, and I had my wing curled around a bag.
No, the redness of the booth doesn't mean anything: it's red. The bag's more important, though. It's why I'm here. It's why he's here... why he will shortly be here... why he may not actually end up showing up after all.
“What the hay!” I shook my head, strands of rainbow flicking over my eyes. “Twenty minutes late? Are you serious?! Does this dude have no class or what?!”
I crossed my hooves over my fluffy chest. “Leaving a mare dry like this? Who does he think he is?” I narrowed my eyes and glared at my table. “...better not try to blame the time. Who runs late on a mare who told him... who told... him...”
I blinked. “Wait, what time did I tell him again?”
I then blinked harder. “...and, what date did I give him?”
I was angry. I was angry with Spike. Then I was angry with myself. I didn't like being angry with myself so I started being angry at Spike again. But then that was unfair so I started being angry with myself again. Mares could be so weird. Who was I supposed to be angry with? What time did I tell him? Ah, c'mon!
“Sir, are you quite alright?”
I stopped glaring at the table—letting it off the hook just this once—and glancing toward the entrance. Spike came out from the door, dripping onto the floor, smiling like a dork. He waved his claw nonchalantly. “The clouds outside figured I needed a second shower. Must not have liked my cologne.”
Spike leaned in close to the clerk standing next to the door. “Say, do I smell bad?”
“You smell like rainwater, sir.”
“That a good thing?”
“Depends on the nose, sir.”
Spike winced. “Ouch. Got anything to help?”
“Breath mint?”
“To break and smear over my body?”
“No, sir.” The pony pulled something out from his vest. “For the water that didn't make it inside your mouth.”
Spike blinked in horror as he grabbed the pony by the collar of the vest. “Oh no! It's not bad, is it? Is it?!”
“Sir.” The pony calmly removed Spike's claws, and while still cradling one, left the mint on his palm. “Take my advice: have the mint and turn your head when you talk.”
Spike only hunched forward and sighed. Without even looking, he popped the candy inside his mouth. He then started to stand up, as tall as he could manage, which was barely an inch over the other pony's head.
Sometimes, I don't know how the girls and I put up with him. He was a hassle which Applejack sometimes lassoed. But I liked him, in a strange way. I never told anypony that. Spike's too much of a dork for me to actually like... but he could be adorable sometimes in his dorkish ways.
But watching him look around for me soon became too much to watch. So I started waving my hooves about. Eventually, that got his attention. He smiled and started towards him, walking, not waddling, and thank Celestia for that.
“How's it going, Rainbow?” Spike came up to the booth, quickly sliding in on the other side. “Say, did you know there was going to be a rainstorm today?”
“Nah,” I replied. “Haven't kept up with the weather team this week. Totally sorry you got wet, though.” Total lie. Knew about the forecast for the past week. I just didn't want to remember two separate dates. My bad? “You enjoying that breath mint though?”
His head dropped. “You saw that?”
“Yup.” I grinned. “Pretty awesome to watch.”
Spike's response, of course, was to smash his forehead into the table. He looked silly and stupid at the same time. It always managed to make me giggle like a little filly. Even when I went as far as to cover my mouth for his sake, some giggles still spewed past my lips.
“This town is out to get me,” Spike said with his voice slightly muffled. “Ponies are out to get me.”
“Just a shame mares aren't out to get yeah, hey, Spike?”
“You're not nice.”
“C'mon! You know I didn't mean it.”
He kept his face against the table. For a second there, I was totally worried about him becoming one with the wood. “Alright, I'll cut it out. Lift your head.”
“I don't wanna.”
“I'll make it worth your whiiiiiiiiile!”
Spike's head shot up. He gazed at me like a boy seeing a girl for the very first time. It was sweet in a slightly weird way, but I didn't mind too much. “W-What... do you mean by that?”
“Open your mouth.”
He blinked.
I smiled.
“C'mon,” I began, “what's the worst I can do?”
Spike nodded his head slowly, like he was still considering while he was accepting, and his indecision was a tad cute. Swallowing, he opened his mouth, not too wide, but enough to expose some fangs.
“Looks like someone brushes their teeth,” I joked, leaning over the table. “Must be a pain to maintain.”
“Have to use a new toothbrush every other day,” he replied. “We've already bankrupt the royal treasury.”
I giggled. “Explains why I'm getting taxed harder.” I fell back into my seat. “You can close your mouth now.”
“Uh, okay?” Spike closed his mouth. “The heck was that for anyway?”
“Checking your breath,” I replied. “You're in the clear. That pony was just looking for a big tip after this.”
Spike turned in his seat, and looking over his shoulder, glared at the clerk by the door.
I couldn't stop myself from laughing.
There was some death staring, order ordering, coffee drinking, and other boring stuff. Not really boring, I guess. Spike and I were just shooting the hay on everything in general. What the girls were up to. What he was up to. But really, we mostly talked about what I was up to.
And I hadn't even shown him the papers yet.
“I hope you don't mind my asking,” Spike said during our talks, pointing down at my wing, “but do you got something by your hooves? It looks like you're holding something.”
“Huh?” I looked down at my wing, feeling it uncurl out of reflex, revealing the satchel leaning against my flank. “Oh yeah! I totally forgot about that.” I picked the bag up with my teeth, tossing it onto the table. “To be honest with ya, this thing here is the whole reason why I asked you out.”
“What, really?” Spike held his cup of coffee by his lips, gazing inside the rim. “And here I thought this was a date because ya liked me.”
“You wish, loverboy.” I nudged the bag forward with my snout, looking up at him with one eye. “But seriously, can you read this for me?” I sat back in my seat. “Like, not aloud though. I'll kill you if you do that.”
Spike's eyebrows raised immediately. Putting his cup of coffee down, he picked my bag up, undoing the strap and opening it up. His claw slid a claw inside, pulling out the stack of papers I'd spent I'd spent a month working on.
“You wrote something?” he said, holding the clipped stack in his claw, flicking to the first page. “Is it any good?”
“I was kinda hoping you could tell me that.”
“Of course I can, R-Rainbow,” he replied, though before he could read a line, he put the page down. “But, I don't know. Why me?” He gazed over at me, almost looking helpless. “Why not take this to one of the other girls? Twilight would totallybe more helpful than I ever could.”
“Eek. You reek of insecurity.” I narrowed eyes on him, crossing my forelegs over my chest. “Haven't you learn anything from me over the years? Sit tall, speak clearly, and act like you're better than everyone else.”
“But... I'm not better than everyone else.”
“Yeah, I know, they know,” I smirked. “That's why I used the word act. If you don't even try to play it confidently, then nothing is ever going to go your way.” I sighed and my shoulders dropped. “That, and there's no way I could trust any of them with that.”
He tilted his head. “That bad?”
“What? No!” I shook head, point a hoof at him. “It might be, I dunno! It's not the reason why I can't show them, that's for sure.” I dropped my hoof on the table, and I quickly looked away from him. “It's because of the subject matter and other stuff like that.”
“Subject matter?” Spike repeated, and from the corner of my eye, I saw him pick the pages back up. “What exactly did you write?” The dude went silent, his eyes gliding across the paper, and my heart shrunk in response.
It didn't make any sense. I thought ponies reading my works would be a new level of awesomeness because, you know, I didn't even have to be in the same room to share all that awesome. But I hated it. I hated watching him read my work without any kind of expression.
Was he even alive? Was that how ponies and dragons read? Just looking dead and reading words? It wasn't just my work, was it? Biting my bottom lip, I didn't like how any of this was going at all. This was supposed to be awesome. Everything just kinda sucked at the moment.
Then he flipped to the next page faster than he should have and I wanted to scream his ear off. I glared at him from beneath the sheet of the papers. He was too busy reading to see me. I tucked my bottom lip in further and bit harder. It killed me! Was he enjoying it so much he couldn't put it down, or was it like a train wreck he couldn't fly off from?
Because, you know, dude didn't have wings and all that.
“I, uh, s-see why you didn't want the girls to see this.”
I slammed the table. “And what's that supposed to mean?”
Spike held the stack over his face. “Nothing bad, honest!”
“Oh, no you don't!” I put my forehooves up on the table, leaning myself over it, placing my muzzle over the stack. Spike's eyes shrink to pinpricks as I stare him down. “What did you mean by that? You think it sucks, don't ya! Well, I'll show you how much you face is going to suck when I—“
“It's got n-nothing to do with that!” Spike exclaimed, trying to scoot backward and failing. “Just wasn't expecting a mare like you to write s-something like f-fan fiction is all!”
“Fan fiction?” I tilted my head, glaring at him. “What in the hay does that even mean?!”
“You alright?”
I bit my sandwich.
“You still mad?”
I chewed my sandwich.
“You still going to kill me?”
I swallowed my sandwich.
“I didn't mean to say fan fiction.”
I grumbled. “It's my own original story.”
“Of course it is.”
I grumbled.
“That so happens to have a character called Daring Did.”
“I never said anything about it not being inspired by Daring Do.” I looked away and crossed my hooves. “I even wrote it was heavily inspired by it on the front page!”
Spike glanced down at the page. “You sure you weren't going for the work plagiarizedon it?”
“You sure you don't want to live?”
“I stand corrected.”
My threats didn't do anything against the fact he was right. I knew that he was right and hated him for it. The stupid dragon. I only let out a groaned as I slammed my muzzle against the table, and just like him, tried to become one with the wood. “It's hopeless.”
“Now who's overreacting?”
“Don't you call me that.” I sighed. “You were supposed to be different. You weren't supposed to make fun of me.”
“Call it the revenge of the petty,” I heard him say. He went silent for a second before speaking again, and this time, his voice was softer. “But seriously Rainbow, if you don't want me to rag on it anymore, I won't. I promise.”
I rolled my head back only so I could look into his eyes. “But you still think it sucks, don't ya?”
“Well, I mean, uh...” Spike sat back and sighed. “What do you want me to say? That it's awesome? I can do that if you like, but that won't help this get any, well, better.” After a second, he started to smile. “But I promise I won't harp on you for the bad stuff. Does that sound like a deal?”
I groaned. “Fiiiiiine. You win.”
“Thatta girl.” Spike reached a claw over the table, letting one of his talons rest on my chin. With a slight push, he raised it. My heart fluttered in my chest, and without a second thought, I sat tall in my seat. “Just gotta use that confidence stuff you were talking about.”
“Oh, be quiet.” I was tempted to flick a wing at him, but there was too much space between us. “So, do you think it's workable then? Like, it can somehow be good someday?”
“It depends.” Spike used the same claw to lift his cup, which I was pretty sure was empty. “What's the plan for it anyway?”
“I... dunno!” I hunched forward. It didn't make sense! Why was I getting so shy over something that didn't really matter? “Try to make it good enough to show off to all the girls and that. Knew I'd be the laughing block if Rarity or Twilight got a hold of it first.”
“Nah,” Spike lifted the cup to his lips, causing his eyes to widen ever so slightly. I absolutely knew that cup was empty. The idiot kept pretending to drink from it. “They'd just get giddy you're into romance as well.”
“I am so not into romance!”
“Then that part about—“
“I like romantic subplots.” I smirked. “Those two are totally different things.”
Spike put the cup back down, and with a heavy breath, smashed his forehead against the table.
“Hey!” I cried. “You agreed to never do that again!”
He was late again.
Spike I mean. Wasn't even my fault this time. I gave him the right date at the right time. Made me wonder if he was just the late the first time—I'd been wondering about him a lot. Ever since I got the idea to write a sick Daring Do knockoff novel, I knew the girls would totally laugh me up for it.
They'd all have their own reasons too. The girls could be mean like that.
But Spike? He was the only dude I could trust. It was only him I could boss around if he got too snappy about certain things. He was smart, too. Probably not as much as Twilight, but he seemed to know his stuff, I think?
He was also a bit weird. Not the kind of Pinkie Pie weird. He was his own kind of weird. A kind of I care but don't care kind of weird. I liked his kind of weird. Does that make me weird? Aw, heck, I'm thinking again.
I rolled off my bed and trotted out of my room with a sigh. After we had our dinner, Spike had agreed to read the whole work over when he got home. Swore to me Twilight never see it. I wasn't sure how he was going to hide it, but then he let slip he was going to put it with all the other stuff he was hiding from Twilight, and I kinda let him drop it from there—for both of us.
I stopped walking in the hallways. Caught my reflection in a mirror on the wall. Looking up and down the hall because, really, despite living alone, I was still an idiot, I started to approach the glass. I grinned at my reflection, putting myself at an angle.
One of my favorite past times was checking myself out. Who could blame me? You don't work hard enough to get into the Wonderbolts and not check yourself out. Getting this attractive was a chore. I had the right to savor myself every now and again.
And I was hot. Hotter than hot. Maybe not as hot as Rarity, but still, pretty hot. My mane was short but long enough to sometimes drape over my eyes. The rest of my body was slender. Like always, my eyes were drawn to my rump, and I couldn't help but giggle.
“Still as awesome as I remember.” I struck my hip out in a hop, watching my flank jiggle a little. “Kaaa-pooow! Hit with sexy awesomeness.” I hopped back then struck out my flank again, enjoying my reflection. “Another time! Another time! The stallions, mares, griffins and everyone else go wild!”
I closed my eyes and listened with my ears. If I was quiet and still for juuuuust long enough, I could hear the distant cheering. I could see the stands of crowds circling around me. My name was being chanted. I was being loved. Life was pretty great.
Then my eyes opened to the empty, silent hallway. I must have looked down and between my hooves for a while. Did my best not to think for a little while. Looked back up at my reflection, at my perfectly sexy body, and saw that I was no longer grinning.
“Geeze,” I said. “Aren't you an ugly mare.” I shook my head, closing my eyes. I did everything to stop myself from talking, but the words came out anyway. “Did you actually think a dumbo like you could ever become a writer?” I laughed at myself, turning my head away. “You were right to think Twilight would laugh you out of the room. Spike nearly did, and he's not even—“
My eyes widened and my mouth stopped. “No, don't you dare get him involved in this. He's a good dragon and way nicer than you.” I chuckled. “He's taking the time out of his day to read your awful... thing! You have no right to be mad for him being late! You should be glad he even comes at all after reading your work.”
I tucked my lips inward and bit down on them. The pressure was unbearable. I thought I was going to bite through the skin. In a second, that seemed like a better idea than talking more. So I closed my eyes and bit harder and—
“Rainbow!” a voice called from the distance, snapping me away from myself. “Yo, Rainbow Dash! You there? Your buzzer doesn't work!” My eyes blinked opened, and in a second, I was already turning away from the mirror. “Don't make me wait out here all night! You have a minute to answer before I start throwing rocks.”
“You better not!” I yelled back, trotting down the hallway. “Any rocks you throw, I'm throwing back!”
I quickly left my reflection behind.
“What took you so long?”
“Dude, you only gave me a day to edit an entire manuscript!” Spike stood below me with his arms crossed and his foot tapping against the ground. “You're lucky I gave up my comic book reading time just to help you out, Rainbow Dash.”
“Yeah yeah, my bad.” I hovered down toward him. “Just hate being left in suspense and all that. You sure Twilight didn't see?”
“Nah,” Spike said as he uncrossed his arms. I noticed he was holding something in his claw. “She's working on some new fancy theory will make ponies love her a whole lot more. I'm just glad she didn't need my help on it.”
“I'm glad too,” I said, stopping just above his head. “Because you belong to me for the rest of the night.”
Spike looked at me in a daze for a second. I glanced at his cheeks for a second to see them coloring pink. He quickly turned his head, coughing into his shoulder.
“Oh, c'mon dude!” I held my forehooves out toward him. “You know I didn't mean it like that! Have you seriously not gotten this close with a mare before?”
“About that.” Spike scratched the back of his neck. “If I'm going to be late to the castle after this, Twilight says she's going to need a letter seen by you.” I could only press a hoof between my eyes. “Or we can just do this back at the castle.”
“That ain't happening,” I said, lowering myself so that I hovered at his chest. “This is between you and me only. Now c'mon! We've wasted enough time as is.”
“Alright then.”
I held my forelegs open.
Spike kept staring at me, not saying or doing anything, just frickin' standing there! I stared down at him for a few seconds. He squinted an eye in response. “What?”
“What do you mean, what?” I said, shaking my head. “I'm waiting for you to hold me?”
“Why am I going to hold you?”
“Do you have another plan of getting up into my own?”
“I... guess you got a point.”
“You guess right. Now hold on.”
Spike eventually did step forward and wrap his claws around my chest. I trusted him to not try anything as I wrapped my forelegs around his neck, holding him tightly against myself, and with a powerful flap of my wings, we shot off into the sky.
Spike screamed at first at the air whipping past us. It wasn't a scream of fear but excitement. He'd flown with Twilight before when he was younger, but I doubt he ever had a flight like this, much less with me.
“You having fun little dude?”
“Little dude?” I felt his snout rub against the fur of my chest. “I'm the same height as you.”
“Yeah, whatever.” I glanced down at him, seeing his body clinging to my chest and stomach, doing my best not to giggle at the sight. He was staring down at the world like the first time I took flight, and I couldn't help but be a little bit happy about that. “I know we've got tons of work to do, but how do you say about a flight to burn off a little excessive energy?”
“That sounds... kinda awesome, actually.”
“Thought you'd see thing my way.” I smiled as I looked up, flapping my wings harder and faster, watching as my home blur along with the rest of the sky. Every climb pulled me harder down, especially with company attaches, but I was sold on showing Spike a good time. “Hope you like drops, because we're about to have a hard one!”
He looked up at me so scared, holding on tighter to my body. “W-What!?”
“Ha!” I hit above the clouds in a twirl, and letting my winds furls back to my sides, I let gravity take me again. “Hold on, loverboy! Things are about to get fun!”
We started to fall below the clouds, shooting down to the ground below. The speed stole my body and my belly started to tingle. The air was the perfect amount of cold as it blasted my mane out from my face, making me feel free and glad to be alive.
“This is not fun!' Spike repeated as he threw his face into my chest, and without meaning to, my hoof raised to the back of his head, rubbing it gently. “This is not fun!”
“Then let yourself have fun, Spike!” I cried as I spotted my home growing below. “Being scared is such a waste of time anyway! Open your eyes and enjoy, because it's about to get a whole lot better for us both!”
I let my wings unfurl and the current carry me from under them. Twirling as I pulled up, the speed raised us slightly as it flung us across the green lands below. It was too dim to see them properly—or even from my position at all.
I was lying on my back, letting Spike lay on top of me. It was nice to feel his entire body weighing down on mine. His scales were... hard. They weren't something that I wasn't used to feeling, but they were flexible, and the way how they pressed into my body created this surge of things that I... that I... that I don't know!
“You doing alright there, Spike?” I asked without any trouble in my tone. “You can look up from my chest now. Everything from here on out will be smooth sailing.” I smiled at him in a way that felt sort of different. “I promise.”
It took a few seconds for him to do something. But he did end up raising his head—guessed that showed he trusted me or something. The first thing he did was look right then left, his eyes glowing at the sights. The claws on my back were no longer trying to rip off my fur.
“Whoa...” Spike managed to say, lifting his body slightly off of mine to get a better look. Deciding I wanted to look smug, I pulled my hooves off him and brought them behind my head, resting against them as I smiled. “This... this is what you get to see all the time?”
“Yup.” I watched as his face settled on me. I hadn't noticed how much it had sharped throughout the years—all sleek and no baby-fat. Sometimes, when I was lucky, a fang would slip out from his mouth, only one, that made him looks so... so... exotic? “Everything is stupidly slow down below. See now why I'm always trying to go so fast?”
“The world certainly does look different,” he said, and without shame, put his head against my chest again. “Does it ever stop being scary?”
“I hope not,” I said, letting my head fall back as I looked up at the clouds above. “No point to any of this if it wasn't scary. There'd be no challenge and no fun. You don't get better by having everything be easy.” I blinked, letting my eyes softly close. “Even if you did, it wouldn't be worthwhile in the end.”
We soared in silence. We soared until our momentum declined. My wings unfurled on reflex and I prepared to take flight once more. I clenched my eyes, expecting the claws on my back to grip at me again, but they kept relaxed and tight.
“I get what you mean.”
My eyes opened to Spike. He was still holding onto me, still shaking and trembling, but he did his best to keep himself straight, to keep looking off to the beyond and below, both scared and excited by what he saw, but choosing to focus more on that last one.
For a dork, he had courage in spades.
“Why did you even put a comma here!'”
“Because it sounded cooler with one!”
“What?!” Spike had to do a double blink at that. “You can't... you can't just switch up the rules of grammar because something sounder cooler! It just... it just doesn't make sense, Rainbow Dash!”
“Oh, so something has to make sense for it to be good?”
“Most of the time, yes!” He shook his head. We were in the living room, sitting side by side on the sofa, with the story sitting on the coffee table. “If you're breaking the rules for a good reason, then maybe you can get away with it. But as it stands, ya gotta learn the basics before you break 'em.”
“I know the basics!” I could feel my wings flaring out. “You don't think I got into the Wonderbolts without knowing the basics?”
“I don't doubt you know the basics, Rainbow.” Spike leaned into his side of the couch, taking a breath. “It's a matter of being able to apply them. You've got a good story. I really wasn't expecting for it get me the way it did.”
“But all the parts you liked are the sucky parts!”
“The parts that I liked were the ones that weren't ripped off.” He let a claw drape down the side of his face, closing his eyes as he looked like he was thinking hard about something. “Those parts where... Daring Did sits down with her partner and just... talks! Those parts were great.”
“But they're boring!” I threw up my hooves, falling into my side of the couch. Spike had the right idea. Giving up, for now, would do us both some good. “They're not chasin' or fightin' or anything cool like that! They're just, you know, talking about their feelings.”
Spike scrunched his face. “What's wrong with that?”
“I... I guess nothing?” I shook my head, leaning it against the rest of the couch. “It just seems boring is all. I don't know. Going on about your feelings like that, who would care? The reader's there to experience all the cool stuff. They don't want to deal with a pony trying to figure themselves out.”
“But that's the whole point of the cool stuff!” Spike tried again. The idea got him a bit excited, because his eyes started to glow in the dimness of the room. They grew a bit brighter once they settled on me. “Look. I'm not an expert at any of this stuff, alright? The rules of grammar and my tastes in comic books: that's all I got backing myself.”
I tilted my head and rolled my eyes. “Seriously? Geeze, maybe I should have gone to Twilight after all.”
“First of all, ouch.” Spike actually rubbed his shoulder for some reason. “And second, don't knock what I haven't said yet. You can make fun of my reasons after I've said them, alright?”
Spike seemed liked hurt for a second, and I felt bad for it. I let my body go limp against the couch, feeling my body sink further into the cushion. My mane covered my eyes, and for once, I was glad for it. “A-Alright.”
He took a few seconds before speaking again. “Listen, the reasons why I like those scenes where the characters talk deeply about their feelings, really, is because those scenes are the only ones that feel real.” He sighed like I never heard before. “And that feeling stretches to the rest of the story. It doesn't save it in some places, but it does its best.”
I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to say. I wasn't sure there was anything for me to say. I wanted to shake my head, but couldn't get my body to move. “Ponies actually get off to stuff like that?”
“Mmhmm. 'Course they do.” I could feel the couch shift as Spike sat up. Even from the corner of my eyes, I could see him gazing at the stack of pages, those horrible pages filled with me. His spines were slicked back in a way that almost made them look like a spiky mane. “Those were the parts that most felt like you. I could hear your voice in them, I could feel when your voice cracked.”
I flicked my tail against his arm. “You said you'd stop making fun of it!”
“I'm not!” Spike fired back. “There's nothing wrong with letting yourself become vulnerable on the pages, Rainbow Dash! Those were the points where I felt like I was talking to you the most, where I got to learn a bit more about you... it actually felt like we were connected for a while.”
That was enough to raise my head. My gaze swept down my body and over at him, where he had picked up a page from the top of the stack, smiling at whatever he saw. “You really mean that?”
“I wouldn't lie to you, Rainbow Dash, even if we're not that close.” He turned the paper over and showed it to me. “Look at this page. Do you remember writing it? It when Daring confesses that she may not be able to perform the job at the temple, where she's scared of harm coming to her friends, where she admits she wears the hat... because it helps her hide away a little when she has no choice to act.”
“And that's good writing?”
“Leave those questions to the criticisms.” Spike brought his knees up onto the couch, shuffling along to me. “You just gotta focus on telling the stuff that only you can tell, and in your own voice. You don't need to be relying on Daring Do to tell your own story. You're already great and awesome as it is.” He smiled as he put the paper back on the desk. “But don't tell Rainbow Dash that. Her ego is bound to swell up.”
I couldn't stop myself. I could stop from laughing and crying and feeling so many things all at the same time. It just hit me and I was powerless to stop it. I didn't want to stop it. It had been so long since I'd felt something like this. It was like a release of something I didn't even know I was holding deep inside me.
“I p-promise to do my best!”
“R-Rainbow Dash?” Spike asked, sitting on his legs. “Are you... crying?”
“Ha!” I hiccup soon followed. “Me crying? I think I... I think I... yes.” I blinked only to feel my eyes stinging with tears. “I am crying, aren't I? I-I don't think I've cried for a very long time.” I started to laugh and sob at the same time. “I'm crying!”
Spike must have been confused. I chuckled. I couldn't blame him. I would be confused too! I was confused! I didn't enough why I was crying. But something heavy was leaving my chest and I couldn't have laughed harder for it.
“I'm... I'm sorry!”
“Don't be sorry.” I wiped the tears from my eyes. “I've... needed something like this, for like, a... a really long time now.” There wasn't any sense in trying to think. Everything left me freely and I didn't fight against it.
Something happened that I wasn't expecting. Spike crawled over to me and, slipping his arms underneath my barrel, he lifted me up. Without needing to say anything, he let me rest my head on his shoulders, all while I held him back—as tightly as I could as these feelings coursed through me.
“I didn't know you could be so sensitive, Rainbow.”
“Tell anypony about this,” I said through a hiccup, “and you're dead.”
“I don't plan on it.” We hugged each other for a little while, the mood weird and the feeling odd, but it was enjoyable—too just hold someone else who was willing to put up with me. Who thought what I felt was real. “Rainbow? Can I-I be honest with you for a second?”
“You just got pure honesty from me,” I said with a chuckle. “T-Think it's fair I repay the favor.”
“Y-You know how you asked to meet up yesterday?” Spike said, placing his head on my shoulder, almost like he was afraid of the possibility of me looking at him. “I uh, I kinda took that us, um, you a-asking me out.”
“Oh.”
“It's cool though!” He tried laughing it off. “An awesome mare like you has plenty of better guys to pick from. Figured it was fair that I let you know.” His fake laughter cut off. “You really are an amazing mare underneath it all. Kinda wish you would share it with us more often—even if it's only on paper.”
“Would that make me likable?”
“I'm impossible not to like you from the start.”
I could feel something in my heart, something I'd felt a hundred times decided I should ignore. If Spike was willing to give my works a chance...
“Hey, Spike?”
“Yeah, Rainbow?”
“If you had to deal with that mare in the book,” I began, swallowing as I talked, “w-would you still like her. Y'know, how you like me?”
“Of course I would,” he replied without missing a beat. He must have gained some courage, because I felt is head leave my shoulder. I also pulled back, if only to stare into his glowing green eyes. “It means I would get to learn more about her. She's not alone in some of the stuff she feels. You don't think a dragon has to act up just to feel like he fits in?”
“So that's why you liked those scenes so much?”
“Reliability helps.”
“Do you think the characters could relate to this?”
He looked so cute. Not handsome or tall or strong—cute. I knew I was a sucker for cute things, but I never knew I was into cute dragons. Spike opened his mouth to speak, enough for me to lean forward and take his lips against my own.
They were soft. Softer than they looked. I could feel the shiver that coursed through his body as his eyes went wide. I giggled at him, smiling as I let my eyes drift shut, and a second later, I heard him exhale slowly.
He soon started kissing back. I could feel the fur of my bottom lip tickling his scales, which were flexible enough as we tilted our head. I giggled when his lips kissed next to mind, but hey, everybody has to start up everywhere.
“Mmmhmm.” Spike pulled back from the kiss with a breath. His face was goofy and he looked ready to faint. He gazed at me, giggling as he said just one thing. “Heh. We're going to write the best story ever.”
And then he fell forward, falling on top of me as I fell back into the couch, having his body draped over my chest and stomach. In a second, he was out cold, sleeping from who knows how many hours awake and work done all for me.
Which is why I didn't kick his scaly butt for sleeping on top of me. In a way, it was kind of sweet, almost like having my own dragon teddy. He had his head on my chest, his mane like spine tickling my skin, though I did was rub his back.
And that's how I got here. I didn't like I was supposed to, but I felt something there between us. He wasn't like any guy I've dated before—and that wasn't because he was a dragon. He was cute and small with a sensitivity that I used to mock him for.
But he was willing to understand a weird mare like me. He was weird enough to put up with whatever I could put down on paper. I still wanted to write a story, though... one different from Daring Do.
I wanted to write my own story.
And I wanted Spike to be in it.
