Spike and the Stone of lust

Celestia’s sun was rising from the east casting a long shadow of the mountains over Ponyville. Never the less with or without the lack of light Spike still awoke on schedule. He lazily got out of bed and started shifting towards the door. He opened the door and proceeded down the steps. Looking around as he reached the bottom of the stairs he noticed that the main room for the library was a total disaster. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes he also noticed that Twilight had fallen asleep on the couch with an open book covering her face.

“She doesn’t make this easy on me, does she?” Ever so quietly he started returning books to their rightful place of origin.

With the last of the books cleaned up he walked over to Twilight getting prepared to wake her from her slumber. Before he pulled the book from Twilight’s face he looked at the title to see what she was reading.

“The Diamond Shrine, hmm…wonder what that is.” He slowly lifted the spine of the hardcover book with his claw trying his hardest to keep it steady. What he saw made his heart skip a few beats and forced him to clutch his heart with his claw dropping the book to the floor.

Twilight was lying there on the couch with her eyes wide open. Spike stood up and snapped his claws a few times in front of her face. After she didn’t reply Spike started to get worried, but that worry was soon replaced with relief when he heard her snore. “*phew* scared the crap out of me for a second.”

A light soon went off in Spike’s head “oh cool, that means free day today.” Spike was about to open the door to his freedom until he heard Twilight stir.

“Spike, is that you?” Twilight shifted till she got a view of her number one assistant.

Spike sighed in disappointment knowing that his freedom had been ripped from his grasp once again. “Yeah, it’s me.”

“Where are you going?” Now semi awake she stood up and trotted towards him.

He looked left and right “just…out.”

She paused a moment… then lazily patted him on his tip of his snout “okay, have fun.”

Spike’s expression changed from disappointment to confusion “real…” He stopped himself from going any further since he knew Twilight was still to sleepy to understand what she was saying.

“Well, I’m going back to bed.” She slowly turned and started to trudge to the stairs stumbling into something every so often.

“Wow you really are tiered, aren’t you?” Spike walked over to her and took a hold of her hoof and supported her up the stairs until they reached the edge of her bed.

“Thanks Spike.”

“No problem.”

When Spike was sure that Twilight had fallen asleep he crept his way outside. He held his claw up blocking his eyes from the harmful rays of the sun. Once he got adjusted to the bright light he made his way into town. He aimlessly walked down the roads of Ponyville waving at its occupants. He noticed that he was now as tall as Big Mac and felt very accomplished about it. He did have his growth spurt on his last birthday, this time it was a pleasant growth instead of an impending doom one like the first year he was here.

He was walking through the market place looking at all the different stands that the pony folk had set up. Rose, the local florist, was selling flowers, Berry was selling grapes, and Applejack was selling apples. He decided to go over and talk to his friend since he didn’t have any real destination in mind.

As he approached the stand a smile made its way onto Applejack’s face. “Why, howdy Spike, what can I do ya for?”

“Oh, nothing just a day out on the town, ya know?”

“Well, if ya don’t got plans fer today would ya wanna help around the stand?”

Spike gave her a skeptical look. “I’ll pay ya.” Spike shrugged.

“Yeah, okay why not.”

Throughout the day Spike had made a fair amount of bits, but at the price of his own dignity. Applejack had him juggle apples to try to get some passerby’s attention, but every time he would drop an apple the crowds would start throwing stuff at him and boo.

They were about to call it a day when Fluttershy approached the stand. “Evening Fluttershy.”

“Oh, good evening Applejack.”

“Ya look’n to buy some apples?” Applejack sounded a little to egger to Spike.

“No, I was actually looking for Spike.” Spike stood up from the chair he was sitting on and walked over to the shy pony.

“What do ya need Fluttershy?”

“Oh, well, I was wondering…if it weren’t any trouble, if you could take care of my animals tomorrow. You see I’ve got a spa day with Rarity tomorrow and I won’t be able to take care of them.”

“Uh, sure Fluttershy, I could watch your animals for a while, but of course I would need to talk with Twilight about it.” Truth was Spike didn’t really want to go and look after a bunch of animals. Especially since they didn’t exactly enjoy his company.

“Oh thank you so much Spike.” She zipped up to him and gave him a quick little squeeze. “If you can, be at my cottage by eight.”

“A.M?”

“Yes.”

Spike was walking down stone sidewalk on his way back to the library. It was already dark and he was hoping that Twilight wouldn’t be to mad about him staying out. He was happily tossing the sack of golden coins in the air proud to say he did the work to acquire said coins. He noticed that there was barely a pony on the road because it was dark. One time when Spike was younger he had a horrible nightmare about the dark and Twilight told him a saying that didn’t really help his nerves. She told him ‘don’t be afraid of the dark, be afraid of what’s in it’. But now that he was older his eyes have adjusted to the darkness and he could see what was in the dark and to be honest it wasn’t so scary.

He looked up at the moon that illuminated the night sky and ground below his feet. By the position of the moon he could tell that he would get a lecture from Twilight about staying out too late. He knew a way to get the library faster, but he really didn’t want to go home this very second. He passed a very familiar looking structure it was none other than the Carousel Boutique. He stood there for a few seconds thinking about the mare he so desperately wanted to be his, Rarity. He noticed something out of the ordinary; the base floor of the wedding cake shaped building hade a light on.

“Wonder why she’s up so late?” Spike made his way to the front of the building now face to face with the door knocker. He hesitated at first thinking if he should disturb her or not. He decided against it and turned to walk away.

Before he could take a step away he heard the creak of a door being opened. “Spike, is that you?”

He turned and faced the most beautiful being in all of Equestria. “Hey Rarity.” He said a little too enthusiastically.

“Whatever are you doing here at this late hour, why you must be freezing, please darling come in.” She stood aside and gestured for the large drake to enter her home/place of business.

“Well, thanks” He entered her home and took a look around. Everything seemed to be in order, so why would she be so distraught.

“Now, please sit and tell me what you’re doing here.” She lay down on her rug in front of her fire place and patted the area next to her.

He accepted her offer and sat crossed legged next to her. “Well, I was out for a walk when I noticed that your light was on and I wanted to know if there was anything wrong.” Spike didn’t notice until now that Rarity had a frown upon her face the entire time.

Her frown quickly became a smile. “Oh, yes everything is just fine dear thank you for your concern.”

Spike wasn’t buying into the fake happiness that she desperately wanted to emit. “Rarity…” Spike took a more serious tone now “I know when you’re lying.”

She looked up into the dragons green eyes and knew that he was right, lying to him was pointless. She let out a sigh signing defeat “well, if you must know I’ve been having…well…um…relationship troubles.” She was now blushing with embarrassment.

“Really?”

She looked back at his a little angrier than before. “What, I can’t be in a relationship without your consent?” She had a hint of playfulness in her voice which made Spike ease up a little, but not a lot

“No that’s not what I meant, I just… you know…thought that you’d be the last person to have those types of problems.” He gave her a sheepish grin and scratched the back of his neck with his claws while giving a nervous chuckle.

“Oh, don’t be so nervous dear I was only pulling your leg.” She gave giggle that sent Spike’s heart a flutter. He would do anything for her to stay this happy forever.

“I know…” Spike now lay on his belly and held his head up with his claws “now tell me what happened.”

Rarity looked at Spike shocked that he offered his time to help her like he used to do. “Are you sure you want to hear the whole story?”

Spike didn’t reply, but instead gave a vigor nod of his head.

“Well, alright if you insist. It all started when I met him at…”

With every passing word that Rarity spoke, Spike’s heart sunk more and more about the stallion that swopped her off her hooves and was the most romantic pony she had ever had the pleasure of meeting. He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help but feel that it should have been him who swept her off her hooves. After all he loved her from the first time he saw her.

Over the years he spent less and less time with Rarity, which he hated by the way, it’s just he had too many responsibilities for Twilight now that he was in his mid-teens. The more he tried to express his feelings for her the harder it got, if only she had let him finish when they were falling towards the river the day of his birthday. He got better at hiding his feelings from her though. He didn’t exactly want to hide his feelings from her, but Twilight told him that it would never work between them due to the species and age boundary and that it was just a stupid little crush, but as time passed he realized it wasn’t a crush but love and he really couldn’t give a lesser damn about the boundaries. All he knew was that he wanted to be with Rarity no matter what till the end of time itself.

“And that’s when he proposed.” Spike heard those dreaded words and came back to reality with wide eyes and a broken heart.

“W-what did you say?” He swallowed hard trying to get the lump in his throat to go down, but it wouldn’t comply with his wish.

“I said no.” That helped the lump go down, but it was still not completely gone.

“But know that I think about it…” Spike froze thinking about what she was just about to say.

“I believe I need to think again about the proposal after all I do love him.” Those last few words were the words that sent Spike into emotional turmoil.

How could she love somepony that wasn’t him? He knew it was selfish, but right now he really didn’t care.

“Thank you Spike for helping me realize the mistake I made.” She got up from her place on the rug and walked over to him. She gave him a light peck on the check which really didn’t help his mood that much.

He put on a forced smile and blushed “just happy to help” he said rather bluntly.

“Well, again thank you, but I must get my beauty sleep.” She ushered him out the front door before he could give his rebuttal.

When he heard the door close behind him he felt as though he could burst into tears right then and there. And that’s exactly what he did. He started walking in the direction of the library, he wanted to run and just be rid of all the ponies in this town, but he knew he could never leave them especially Twilight. Before he was halfway home he heard a clap of thunder overhead and looked up. And sure enough there were thunderclouds starting to roll through Ponyville.

He collapsed to his knees and started to cry harder than he ever thought he could. He dug his claws into the ground below and started to squeeze the life out of the already non-living soil. He looked up at the clouds above as the rain started to lightly pitter-patter against his face.

“Do you enjoy seeing me suffer?!” He yelled at the night sky.

“Boy do I ever.” A voice rang through the sky.

“Who’s there?” Spike called looking in all directions for the owner of the voice.

“Oh dear, Spike, do you not remember me?” The voice sounded sad, but Spike could tell that it was also being sarcastic.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about I can’t even see you.” Spike still franticly looking around trying to decipher where the voice was coming from.

“Come on, close your eyes and imagine what body goes with this voice.”

Spike was still a little scared of the voice that was talking to him, for all he knew the voice could be his own subconscious. Reluctantly he closed his eyes and tried to image the pony that was talking to him.

“There, now think of who I am.”

Spike kept his eyes closed, but he still couldn’t think of who was talking to him. “I’m sorry I don’t know who you are.”

“Oh for the love of…” Spike felt the talons of an eagle and the paw of a lion wrap around the sides his face. Spike opened his eyes and recognized the figure that stood before him. “Do you recognize me now?”

Spike fell on back in surprise and in slight fear. “D-discord…what are you doing here…how did you get out?” Spike tried to sound fiercer by the end of his words.

“Me, oh I’m simply here to help you as for how I got out that doesn’t concern you.” He sounded as if it was just an innocent visit from an old friend.

Spike collected himself and stood up. “I somehow find that hard to believe.” Spike sneered at him.

Discord reared away from Spike with his hands in the air. “Hey hey hey hey, what’s with all the hostility?”

Spike was not in the mood to deal with Discord after the emotional turmoil he had just gone through, but he had to watch his tone because he knew with a snap of his talons Spike could turn into a duck. “Why are you here?” He said with a slightly less irritated tone.

“Like I said before I came to help you; I have a gift.”

Spike now started to trudge back to the library. “Keep it, I don’t want it.”

Discord scoffed at Spike’s response. “Do you even know what it is?” Discord caught up with Spike and was now floating on his back next to him.

“No, but whatever it is I don’t want it; especially if it’s coming from you.” Spike turned his head until he was practically nose to snout with Discord giving him a death glare; which by the looks of it was not having any effect on him.

“Oh come on, just take a look at it; I’m almost positive you’ll want it.”

Spike looked over at Discord and there, in his hands, he held a shiny diamond gem. Spike eyed the gem taking in its majesty and started to ponder if it tasted as good as it looked.

Discord smiled to himself. “Gotcha.” He said to no one in particular.

Spike vigorously shook his head. “No! I need to get out of here.” He darted off towards the library leaving a very confused looking Discord in his wake.

“Don’t gotcha? Why, that hardly ever happens.” Discord took another quick look at the gem in his hands and shrugged. “Oh well, he’ll come back…they always do.” Discord smiled a smile that the Grinch would have a hard time coping with. He then felt the pitter patter of something heavy hitting the top of his head. He looked up and received a piece of hail to the eye. “Ow!” After rubbing his eye enough to get the ice rock out he scurried into the Everfree forest where he would continue to carry out his plan.

Spike was still sprinting through the town streets not giving any attention to the hail. He had forgotten, for the time being, about the incident with Rarity. He needed to tell somepony about this, he needed somepony to confide in, he needed Twilight.

Other story is on hold for those who care, I doubt anybody does, but just for those who wonder.