But First!! Here are Some Doubts....

Chapter 2?

Oh right yes, Chapter 2.

Now to be completely honest, Ponyville wasn’t nearly fancy enough to ever have a five-star restaurant. Luckily, Sugarcube Corner was never short on taste, no matter what it lacked in atmosphere. And it just so happened to be the only sliver of a nightlife a quiet town like Ponyville could have. Long after the stalls, candy shops, and even the Cake’s bakery had turned out its lights, the diners and soda shops further down the street kept their doors open. This of course was a clever business decision on the owners’ behalf; colts were always willing to spend money for a romantic nighttime diner-date with their mares.

The night found Spike and Rarity walking along the light from the street lamps, the two only a short distance from the lights from Sugercube’s dining section.

“So Spike, what sounds good to you tonight?” Rarity watched the dragon from the corner of her eye as he fidgeted with something behind his back. No doubt something he took from his saddlebags when the two had dropped off the jewel-filled wagon back at the Boutique.

“1…2….3….Oh! Um,” Spike whirled back around at the sound of Rarity’s question, a claw tapping at his chin for effect. “It doesn’t matter really, why don’t you decide?”

“Well there is that charming little diner just at the end of the street, the one that has the postcards everywhere?” Rarity suggested, smiling widely at the thought of a nice flower salad.

“Oh yeah, I love their hay fries!” Spike had to resist the urge to run ahead, his gentleman side putting his urges in a headlock.

The continued in silence, listening to the few ponies left in the streets talk amongst each other. Most seemed to be couples, a few even had their tails wrapped around each other as they walked. Upon seeing a tall, burly colt wrapping his tail around a rather petite giggling mare’s, Spike began to feel a bit self-conscious. Allowing himself to drop back a step from his beautiful unicorn, Spike swung his tail around his waist and into his claws to inspect its length. Nothing was different than it had been this morning, still short and stubby. The little dragon willed his eyes to Rarity’s flank, watching her long beautiful tail bounce happily in the cool night air.

“Oh gee, I wonder if that’s a good sign,” Spike thought bitterly, dropping his tail behind him and letting out a sigh.

A sigh which Rarity heard.

Spike jumped as he heard the mare squeak and stumble off to the left of his vision.

“Oh my, Spike ! Whatever are you looking at?” Rarity looked at him with a questioning glare, a slight blush tinting her face pink.

Spike’s mouth dropped open before he had time to make words to fill it, “Uh…..w-well you see I was just, um….,” Spike bit his tongue, and thought of a good lie.

“I thought saw a piece of gum stuck in your tai—,”

Before Spike finished his sentence, Rarity had already snatched up her tail and was poring over it with a blue light emanating from her horn. Spike allowed himself a few deep breathes, desperately trying to slow his pulse that had skyrocketed when he heard Rarity’s squeak.

“I um…don’t see anything dear,” Rarity had let her tail drop back down as she walked back over to Spike.

Spike had to force himself to look the mare in the eye, trying to play it casually.

“Oh, I guess my eyes are playing tricks on me,” Spike offered a smile up at the unicorn.

“Yes well, just warn me next time darling,” Rarity let it slide, trying to keep herself from imagining Spike staring at her backside. Honestly, how could she think her little Spikey-Wikey would do something so…….rude. Other colts had done it before, sure. But she knew not to talk to such brutes, let alone humor their staring.

Of course, Spike was too young to even think of such things. Or so she told herself.

The glass door of the sandwich shop swung open as a small bell chimed overhead. Spike waved at a rather tall, elderly mare from behind a polished wooden counter. Receiving a kindly nod and smile, Spike took his cue to find a good booth for Rarity and himself to sit in.

Rarity on the other hand politely excused herself to go to the “Ladies Room”. This was, of course, just an excuse to take another look for the gum Spike had claimed to have seen in her tail. The dim yellow lights of the restroom didn’t reveal anything new in her tail however, no matter how many times the unicorn checked. Gum was just icky! Or so she told herself….

Now any other day, Rarity considered chewing gum one of the most threatening substances known to ponies. But she had doubts about it being the real culprit here. She allowed herself a moment to settle down and inspect herself in the restroom mirror, all the while reviewing Spike’s behavior in her head. Once again, the thought of Spike staring at her flank popped back into her mind. He wouldn’t do that, she thought, he’s much too young to think of that.

“And what if he was darling?”

Rarity gave her reflection a questioning look as the words left her mouth.

“No, no simply not. Spikey-Wikey is a gentlecolt, and that’s that,” Rarity shushed her thoughts as she hastily washed her hooves in the sink. Her little dragon just saw something clung to her tail, and that was, a she said, that.

Rarity returned a few minutes later, smiling at the dragon waving at her from the cushioned booth from across the room. Sitting herself across from him, she couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. She watched as he signaled at the mare waiting to take their orders.

The brown, elderly mare took a pencil out of her mane as she made her way to Spike and Rarity’s booth.

“What’ll you be having to drink tonight sweetheart?” the kindly old mare asked, her writing hoof poised to take down his order on a notepad.

“A sarsaparilla for me, and….” He turned his head toward Rarity, turning the mare’s attention to the unicorn.

“Oh unsweetened tea for me, thank you,” Rarity smiled up at the elderly Earth Pony, receiving a nod as the waitress flipped her notepad closed and wandered off to the kitchen behind the counter.

Spike stretched his claws, earning a few satisfying pops for his efforts and settled them behind his head as he leaning back in his seat. He gave a smile to the mare across the table, watching as she fidgeted into a comfortable position in her seat.

“You know we never get to hang out one on one like this,” Spike began, trying to keep his voice sounding nice and casual. Rarity on the other hand was starting to draw conclusions in her head.

“Yes, it is nice to sit down without work between us,” the mare pretended to look around the room at the numerous postcards adorning the walls, still uncomfortable that the little dragon mmmmight have been taking a peek at her from behind.

“Well just wait til you see what I’m gonna order for you, it’s to die for!” The little dragon picked up the menu resting under his elbows as he finished his sentence, Rarity’s heart melting at his words. She playfully nudged his foot with a hoof under the table and gave him a faux-stern look.

“Don’t order anything too lavish now, I’d hate for you to spend all your bits in one place,” Rarity picked up her menu as well, looking for something she felt would fill Spike’s stomach nicely.

The two put down their menus one after the other, Rarity had set on ordering a nice breakfast platter (knowing the dragon was a big fan of pancake houses). Spike had remained refused to tell Rarity what he had ordered for her, claiming that it was something made at personal request and as such, a surprise. Rarity just smiled and rolled her eyes at the dragon, amused as he whispered the order to the elderly mare who had returned to take their orders and deliver their drinks.

The next ten or fifteen minutes passed relatively fast, the two chatting and occasionally taking a sip of their drinks. Rarity had captured Spike’s attention by telling him how Rainbow Dash had come by the Boutique, asking what stallions liked when it came to the way mares looked.

“......so then I told her, ‘Darling your mane would look magnificent if you just grew it out a bit more’,” Rarity said with a hoof stretched out for effect.

Spike had been resting his head in his claws, his eyes growing wider with each word of the story.

“What did she say?”

Rarity scoffed and looked down to polish her hoof on her coat.

“She said, and I quote, ‘stallions don’t go for all that frou-frou stuff’,” Rarity put her hoofs on her hips and imitated a deep voice for effect. “’They only care if the mare isn’t fat’.”

“Wait….,” Rarity blinked her eyes a few times, realization hitting her like a truck. “Did…..Rainbow Dash call me fat? *GASP* Spike!!-“

Rarity launched across the table and seized Spike’s face in a panicked grip, her eyes wide as she looked down at him.

“Am I fat!? Should I be eating right now!?”

Spike blinked a few times at Rarity’s meltdown, trying to make the jump from the story to this. He raised up from his elbows and shook his head as well as he could in Rarity’s surprisingly strong grip.

“Not at all, you could eat what you want whenever you want.”

Rarity dropped the little dragons face and flung herself dramatically back against her seat, draping a hoof across her eyes. “You’re just saying that to be nice! I’ll never look at another fork or knife again!!”

It was right when she said this that the elderly mare had neatly placed the gargantuan salad in front of the distressed mare. Rarity looked up as she heard the light thud of her utensils being placed on a napkin beside the bowl. What met her eyes was a vibrant array of every vegetable imaginable, as well as an assortment of neatly sliced fruits all mixed uniformly within a fine, rather large china bowl. Her stomach betrayed her before any words had so much as left her mouth.

“Perhaps I’ll go on that diet after this one last dish,”

Two finished dinners later found Rarity and Spike making their way back to the Boutique. Rarity had stuck to her word, and allowed Spike to pay for her meal, as she did for his. However she did feel just a bit guilty about it, part of being a babysitter was catering only to the need of the child right?

Wait. Spike was a child right?

“He sure seemed quite grown up tonight,”  thought the unicorn as she trotted side by side with the dragon, “and he must have saved up quite a bit.”

Rarity watched as the little dragon jogged up to the Boutique door, intent on opening the door for her. Surely Spike could have spent his money on sweets as soon as he had gotten it from Twilight. And yet he had more than enough to pay not only for her side of the bill, but left a tip as well. Well now.

“After you m’lady,” Spike said as he held open the door and bowed.

“Why thank darling,” Rarity replied, patting his head affectionately as she passed. “Now be a dear and go get washed up, don’t want to get my sheets dirty do you?”

“Oh am I gonna be in a guest room?” Spike asked as he turned to close and lock the door.

Rarity cast her magic on some stray fabrics and thread, gently levitating them back into a set of cupboards.

“Oh dear I’d be a terrible host if I made you sleep I that dusty old room, worse so if I made you take the couch,” Rarity paused, counting the spools of thread she had under her breath before continuing, “No no, I think you’ll find that my bed would accommodate you quite nicely.”

“Wait, I can’t kick you out of your room!” Spike protested, “I-I could just take the couch, you need your beauty rest.”

“Beauty rest that I’m sure I’ll find just as easily on my sofa, now do be a dear and go on,” Rarity nudged Spike forward with the bridge of her nose, meeting only a little resistance from the hesitant dragon. Spike complied and wandered up the stairs to the bathroom, while Rarity continued cleaning around the first floor.

The fashionista smiled as she heard running water, happy that Spike was nowhere near the trouble that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were. “Ugh,” she said aloud as she thought back to Sweetie Belle’s little surprise sleepovers she would throw at her sister’s expense. Thankfully, that was not the case this week.

She stopped as something caught on her hoof, nearly tripping her over a ponyquin stand base. Reaching down and picking up the object, she couldn’t help but give a small giggle. Thunderlane was always forgetting his things at the Boutique, and this time he had managed leave his cart harness from their last date. What a forgetful stallion he was turning out to be.

**AAAaaaaand that wraps it up for chapter 2 good people! Remember, constructive criticism is always appreciated, as are grammar corrections. Since this is my first story I’m striving for it to be a good one! But there are no worries there because...."you are always looking out for me because you are a radar detector, you are a radar detector"

             haha sorry I'm just eating that song up right now!

Onward to writing Chapter 3!!