Spike's Mates

It was dusk when Twilight returned to the Friendship castle to find Starlight and Sunburst coming downstairs. "Hey, Twilight, where'd you come from?" Starlight asked.

"From Canterlot." she answered. "I had a meeting with the princess. Did Spike make it back yet?"

"No. It's been just the two of us here." she answered.

"He must still be at Rarity's." she said with a sigh.

"Is something wrong?" Sunburst wondered.

"There's something everypony need to know, but I don't wanna tell Spike in case it upsets him." she said. "Can you two wait for me at the map table?"

"Sure." Starlight answered; unsure of what was going on this time.

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Spike and Rarity had made it back to the boutique where Spike brought her to bed. The fashionista had wore herself out with how hard she cried, so Spike had to carry her and the cart of gems all the way back to Ponyville. Now that she was resting, Spike took this time to quietly leave her room and head downstairs. In a shocking sense of willpower, Spike walked passed the cart of gems; not even giving a second thought about taking some. It wouldn't be right to do so; especially after comforting Rarity. He was about to make to the door when somepony knocked on it. "I wonder who that is?" he thought as he opened the door. To his shock, it was none other than, Pearl, holding a large bouquet of flowers.

"Rarity, ple....." he started, but stopped once he saw Spike standing in the doorway. "What are you doing here?!"

"Just got back from helping Rarity gather gems." he answered. "She's asleep right now, so come back later." Spike took a two steps outside and closed the door behind him. He was about to leave when Pearl suddenly grabbed his arm.

"Hold on, you." he said. "What did you tell her?"

"What are you talking about?" Spike asked.

"When Pinkie broke things off with Dizzy, you told her something that made her get back together with him, right? he said. "I want you to tell Rarity the same thing, so that she'll take me back."

"I only told Pinkie to at least hear Dizzy out, and she took him back on her own." Spike explained. "Rarity clearly wants nothing to do with you."

"How do you know that?" Pearl asked with a tone of anger.

"Because she told me while she cried her heart out." Spike answered. "You've hurt her by going along with Stargazer's plan in some petty to show me up."

"N-No. You must've said something to her to....." he started.

"Don't put that on me!" Spike interrupted. "If I wanted to wreck your relationship with her, I would've done so a long time ago, multiple times over, but I didn't, because as her friend I wanted her to be happy. You're the one that screwed that up! Maybe if you weren't so fixated on me having a crush on her when I was 12, she'd still be with you. So if you wanna blame someone, blame yourself!" Spike yanked his arm away and turned to leave; wondering where the tartarus THAT came from. Maybe his cycle changed him in some way. His thoughts were interrupted however when a bouquet of flowers was thrown to the back of his head. Spike quickly turned around to see Pearl running off like a coward. "Let it go, Spike, he's not worth it." he thought and began to make his way home.

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"SHE'S WHAT?!" Pinkie screamed; anger building up in not just her, but everypony else.

"That bitch has some nerve coming back here." Rainbow growled.

"We don't know if she's in Equestria right now." Twilight explained. "Cadence said she'll have her guards patrol the border just in case."

"Does Spike know?" asked Fluttershy.

"No. I don't know if I should tell him." Twilight confessed. "I mean, I don't wanna keep secrets from him, but I don't know how he'll react to finding out that she might me be in Equestria."

"I think you should tell him." Sunburst suggested. "Look, the dragons having a civil war is big news; all of Equestria is sure to hear about it sooner or later, and that means Spike as well. Maybe it's better to just tell him now so he'll know, than possibly getting caught off guard if he runs into her later."

"He has a point, Twilight." Applejack answered. "Even if she ain't in Equestria, Spike needs ta know."

"But if she IS in Equestria? What then?" asked Starlight.

"We give her sanctuary until she can be safely brought back to Dragonia." Twilight answered much to the shock of everypony else. Pinkie and Rainbow looked as though they were about to break the map table out of sheer anger. How can they be expected to take care of her and not just throw her in a dungeon after what she did to Spike? "Look, I don't like any more than you girls do, but Celestia wants to keep Equestria out of this conflict as much as possible." Twilight explained. "And that means, she has to be taken care of until their war is over." None of the mares liked this, but they can't go against Celestia. If she says this is what's best, then they have to accept it; even if they do want to.

"I'M BACK!" came Spike's voice. Everypony turned towards the door as the heard Spike's voice. Seconds later he entered the room where he saw everypony gathered around the map. "Twilight, you're back, I figured the meeting was gonna last until nightfall." he said.

"Um, Spike, why do you have flowers over your head?" Fluttershy asked. Spike looked at her confused before reaching over his head grabbing a few flowers that were tangled over his scales.

"I thought I got rid of all of'em." he said.

"What happened, did Daisy, Rose, and Lily crash their flower cart again?" Pinkie asked with a giggle.

"I wish." he answered. "Let's just my conversation with Pearl didn't go all that well and......."

*BOOOOM*

Before Spike knew it, a pink and cyan blur zoomed passed him; nearly knocking him over along with everypony else. Once Spike looked up, he noticed that both Pinkie and Rainbow were gone. It was then he realized that he might've just gotten Pearl killed. Applejack noticed it too as she quickly stood up and asked both Starlight and Sunburst for assistance in catching those two. Fluttershy went along with them just so that Twilight and Spike could be left alone. With everypony gone, Twilight walked over to Spike and grabbed his hand. "Come with me, Spike, there's something I want to talk to you about." she said. She led him upstairs to her room where the two of the sat quietly on her bed for a while. Twilight had no idea how she was gonna break the news to him, but knew she had to get it over with. "Spike, at the meeting, I was told that the dragons have begun a civil war." she explained. Spike sat there in shock as she continued. "And because of that, SHE might've fled to Equestria.

"She?" Spike asked.

"Please, Spike, don't make me say her name." Twilight pleaded. "It's bad enough I have to think about her." Spike quickly figured who she was talking about as he looked down and saw her trembling hands. Twilight was so filled with anger towards Amethyst she looked as though she was about to explode. Spike gently grabbed her hands and held them until she calmed down a bit. "We don't know if she's here or not, but in case she is..." she started.

"You don't have to worry about me, Twilight." Spike reassured. "I can handle it, besides, I have you guys with me.....well at least.....for the time being I do." Spike lowered his head a bit as he thought about releasing Twilight. The same feeling of heartache and depression started to wash over him, but then images of Celestia entered his mind, and everything didn't hurt as much; though the pain was still there. Twilight caught on and wrapped her arms around him. It was then she remembered that there was something she wanted to talk to him about. "Spike?" she said softly. Spike turned his head to face her. Looking deep into her eyes, the dragon could swear that he could see his reflection in them. With a slight blush, Twilight moved in closer to him. "There's something I want to tell you." she said; almost sounding like a whisper.

*BOOOOOOM*

The sound of a massive explosion rocked the entire castle and caused both Twilight and Spike to fall over. "What the Tartarus?!" Twilight yelled as she got up from the floor. Both she and Spike ran towards the window just in time to see the aftermath of a sonic rainboom and a ragdoll body of a stallion flying through the air.

"Looks like Pinkie and Rainbow found Pearl." Spike said; following the body of a possibly dead unicorn.

"We better go help Applejack stop them." Twilight suggested. Grabbing Spike, the two of them started to head out, but there was something Spike wanted to know.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" he asked.

"I'll......tell you later." Twilight answered with another blush.

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The next day, Rarity slowly awoke wiping her eyes. She looked around and discovered that she was in her room, but was confused as to how she got there. Last thing she remembered was that she was with Spike and the two of started talking about Pearl. Then it all came back to her, the heartbreak she kept bottled up inside had finally come out. "I must've worn myself out with all the crying." she said as she slowly got out of bed. Rarity moved to sit up just as her door opened and Spike entered her room.

"Hey, Rarity, you feeling okay?" he asked as he slowly approached her.

"A little bit." she answered. It was then Rarity noticed that Spike had a bruised right eye. It was as if somepony kicked him as hard as they could. "My goodness, Spike, what happened?!" she gasped.

"Huh, oh this." he said; realizing she was talking about his eye. "Well....you see....Pinkie and Rainbow tried to kill Pearl when I told them that he threw a bouquet of flowers at me and...…." Spike didn't get the chance to finish caused Rarity yelled then stormed off; most likely to finish what Pinkie and Rainbow started. She was able to make it downstairs where Spike stopped her by grabbing her from behind. "Wait, Rarity, where are you going?" he asked as he struggled to keep her still.

"We break up and he takes it out on you when it's his own damn fault?!" she yelled. "I'll destroy him!"

"Pinkie and Rainbow already did that last night!" he said as they both fell to the floor. "There won't be anything left if you go after him!" Rarity ignored Spike's words and continued to struggle to get free. She was dead set on getting to Pearl and making him pay for attacking Spike. This time, a simple molotov wouldn't do; she'll use something far worse on him, if she could only get away from Spike. She continued to struggle for a while with Spike's grip tightening up. Eventually, she tired herself out and gave up; panting heavily as Spike slowly released her. "You calm?" he asked.

"Y-Yeah." she answered. The two of the slowly rose to their feet while Rarity started to fix her mane.

"Okay, like I was saying." Spike continued from earlier. "Pinkie and Rainbow already dealt with Pearl last night. I got this bruise from Rainbow when she kicked me in the face trying to hit him."

"So where is he now?" Rarity asked.

"Sunburst brought him to Nurse Redheart to receive medical treatment." Spike answered. "Pearl is determined to get you back, though." Rarity's anger rose so much that tears started to form once again, that is until, Spike continued. "Also, Rainbow said something about round two between me and her was gonna start soon, and I have no idea what she was talking about." Rarity's anger faded away and was replaced with a giggling before escalading into laughter. Spike had a confused look on his face; clearly Rarity knew something he didn't. Rarity's laughter came to an end when her stomach started growling. With a chuckle, Spike grabbed her hand and offered to buy her breakfast. She agreed to the offer and the two of them headed out. It wasn't long before Rarity saw what looked like the aftermath of a bomb that went off. She overheard some ponies mentioning Rainbow Dash and Pinkie then remembered Spike telling her that the two of them went after Pearl. Whatever those two did to him, she hoped it really hurt, but enough about him. Now, she just wanted to focus on having breakfast with Spike.