Now, whenever the Cutie Mark Crusaders were in their clubhouse, there was usually a sense of enjoyment about it. Maybe they'd be excited over their plans on what they'd be doing for the day, or perhaps they would simply be hanging out and having fun. Not so today, apparently, as the three fillies were instead just lying on their backs, staring at the ceiling, looking tired and rather sorry for themselves. Not that anypony could blame them after all, given everything they'd been through, but still, it was a sight to see them so unenthusiastic like this, and that was exactly how Spike felt the moment he entered the clubhouse himself. He opened the door, saw the fillies on the floor, then sighed and closed the door behind him. After a few more steps, he placed his claws on his hips, looking to each of the fillies in turn, before finally raising an eyebrow and breaking the long silence between them.
"So...rough day?"
A collective groan from the fillies followed that question.
"It was the worst!" Scootaloo replied.
"Yeah! Ah had ta do extra chores on the farm today!" Apple Bloom added.
"And I had to help Rarity with all of her deliveries!" Sweetie chimed in.
Spike nodded to them.
"Okay, I'm guessing this was because of your little wish fiasco?"
Another groan from the three fillies, and Spike had his answer. Nodding to them, the young dragon sat down on the ground himself, cross-legged, and spoke softer to them.
"Still, at least you've got an interesting story to tell after all this, right? Magic flower, growing up, having a crazy adventure."
Scootaloo looked to him with incredulity, prompting some backtracking on Spike's part.
"Okay, maybe 'adventure' is the wrong word here."
Sweetie exhaled deeply.
"Who'd have ever guessed being grownups would have been so much harder than we thought?"
"The way those kids were looking to us to look after them and their pet...I never even thought how hard that would be for us," Scootaloo mused.
Spike shrugged.
"Well, it's like the old saying goes. The grass is always greener on the other side."
"Until y'all actually get there!" Apple Bloom finished for him.
A chuckle from Spike, and he nodded in agreement.
"Well, look at it this way, your punishment won't last forever. And hey, at least you came out of this a bit wiser than before, right? Don't always rush into growing up, always be careful what you wish for, that sort of thing?"
Scootaloo, in spite of how tired she was still feeling, nevertheless managed to get out a chuckle of her own, albeit a rather dry-sounding one.
"Why do lessons always have to get learned the hard way around here?"
Spike chortled right back.
"At this point? I'd just say it was plain old tradition."
None could really argue at that, and the four youths actually managed to share a laugh together because of it. When it died down, and the fillies all resumed their earlier bouts of tiredness, Spike took to look at each of them, thinking hard on what they'd been through. After a while, a new thought came to him, and after showing some hesitation, he began to speak again.
"You know...I actually do understand."
Sweetie looked to him with confusion.
"Understand what?" she asked.
Spike shrugged again.
"You know, what you three went through. I understand what it's like."
Naturally, a remark like that earned him the undivided attention of all of them, who seemed like they didn't know if he was kidding, exaggerating, or both.
"Ah don't mean ta be rude, Spike, but what we went through was kinda unique. Magical growing up, causing a big disaster at the fair, ya know?"
Scootaloo nodded.
"Yeah, I mean...what did you go through?"
Spike raised an eyebrow.
"So, you did something that caused an unexpected growth for yourself, and after it happened you went around causing complete chaos and ended up needing our other friends to come and to both deal with what you caused and to change you back? And you think I don't know what that was like?"
Almost immediately, the fillies understood what he was talking about, and blushed at their earlier remarks.
"Oh...right...the giant greedy dragon thing. Sorry, kinda forgot about that," Scootaloo confessed.
Spike chortled again.
"Kind of a big thing to forget about, Scoots."
Another laugh between them, and when it ended, Sweetie Belle looked to him with some softness.
"Huh...I guess you do kinda know what we went through, right?"
Spike nodded, folding his arms.
"The details might be different, but yeah, the broad strokes are pretty similar. And you know, I know what it must have felt like, wanting to grow up."
Apple Bloom looked to him with renewed interest.
"Ya did?"
Spike nodded.
"Yep. Back then, before a lot of the bigger things in my life, I was always 'the baby dragon', or 'the little kid', and there were a few times...okay, a lot of times, when I'd secretly wish to be bigger or older just so I wouldn't have everypony think of me like that."
He paused, glancing to the side while nervously scratching the back of his head.
"Granted, having my growth come along like that probably wasn't what I would have wanted, but even so, the point still stands."
He looked back to them.
"Like you, I felt that being older would just be this big solution to all my problems. Grownups not looking down on me anymore, being able to do things I wasn't able to before, you know, that kind of thing."
The fillies all nodded in agreement, remembering well how they too felt that exact same thing not so long ago.
"But I'm betting it wasn't all that great when you actually got bigger at the time right?"
Spike shuddered.
"Ugh! Nope! I still have nightmares about that sometimes. It's right up there with getting kidnapped by Chrysalis along with Twilight and the others as one of the worst experiences of my life."
The grimace on the fillies' faces indicated that they weren't about to argue with that, and as Spike sighed, he resumed speaking.
"But it's still the same thing to remember in both cases. Being older or bigger or whatever else you want to call it can actually be pretty bad if it happens and you're not ready for it. It happened to me, and it happened to the three of you."
Scootaloo blushed, rubbing the side of one foreleg with her other.
"And like you, we kinda caused a mess for others."
Sweetie hung her head.
"We even nearly ruined the day at the fair for those other kids."
"An' came close ta hurtin' a lot o' folks," Apple Bloom concluded.
Spike nodded to them all.
"Hey, everything worked out alright in the end, just as it did with me."
Scootaloo giggled.
"Well, at least we know it could've been worse with us. At least we weren't the giant monster in this scenario!"
All of them, even Spike, broke out into a big group laugh at that one, helping to make them feel a lot better than they'd been feeling before. When the laugh ended, Apple Bloom looked to her draconic friend, and actually seemed impressed by him.
"Ya know somethin', Spike?"
Spike looked to her.
"Hm?"
The earth pony filly smiled.
"Yer kinda a grownup already most o' the time, aren't ya?"
Spike blushed to that, shrugging.
"Well, I don't know about that."
But Sweetie spoke up herself soon afterwards.
"She's not wrong, you know. You've been, like, this voice of reason for a lot of the craziness that goes on around here."
Scootaloo chuckled.
"Heck, a lot of the time, you seem like more of a grownup than some of the actual grownups in this town!"
Spike paused, blinking a couple of times, then smirking.
"Well...okay, no arguing that one."
Again, the kids laughed, and when it was over, Spike looked to his three pony friends with curiosity, tapping his chin a couple of times.
"You know, it's a shame I wasn't around for all this fairground chaos. I'd have been interested in seeing what 'CMC as grownups' might have looked like."
Sweetie's eyes lit up.
"Oh! We actually have a photo!"
She got up, trotting over to a nearby set of drawers while the others watched, then whipped out, as promised a photo.
"We got it taken at the fair. You know, as a memento?"
She walked over, offering the photo to Spike. He took it, but when he looked at the image his eyes widened, and he suddenly started to develop a noticeable blush, much to the confusion of the fillies.
"What's wrong?" Scootaloo asked.
Scratching the side of his cheek, Spike gulped, then nervously looked back to them.
"So...er...this what you're gonna look like when you're older?"
Apple Bloom shrugged.
"Eyup. Apparently."
Spike paused, thinking hard on that, then looked up to Sweetie Belle.
"Um...are you doing anything later, Sweetie?"
