Torn Between

Chapters

Chapter One: A Normal Day
Chapter Two: The Flash
Chapter Three: Past and Present
Chapter Four: The Precipice
Chapter Five: The Beginning
Chapter Six: Abnormal
Chapter Seven: Confluence
Chapter Eight: Home
Chapter Nine: Influence
Chapter Ten: Confession
Chapter Eleven: Inevitable
Chapter Twelve: Twilight
Chapter Thirteen: Everything Will Be Alright

Chapter One: A Normal Day

Normal days tend to be a occurrence that can draw itself out into a normal week, a time of casual smiles filled with opportunities to get work done and take the time to appreciate the simple pleasures life can bring. In the hollowed out tree-library near the center of town, Twilight Sparkle had taken it upon herself, alongside her number-one assistant, Spike, to turn this normal day into her nigh ritualistic Re-shelving Day. She stood at the center of the library, horn encircled with the magenta glow of concentrated magic as a plethora of tomes floated themselves out of an back into their proper places. The lavender pony stood as the center of her own solar system of books, her mane swayed lightly over her clenched eyes as her magic continued to orbit around her body.

To the grumbling dragon clambering atop the highest of the shelves, working the same process manually, the reasoning behind this strange chore was one of the mysteries of his closest friend. With his green spines and purple, reptilian body, Spike resembled a childish variation off a B-rated monster novel rather than an epitome of magical prowess. He looked between his pile of books to the void like shelves he was to fill and sighed in discontentment. When put in comparison to Twilight he just didn't have the speed or concentration. It wasn't that he minded the work, he loved helping anypony in need, it was only that his mind couldn't help but wander to things more important to the young dragon.

Spike looked at the afternoon sun blazing outside and longed childishly for the freedom of all the ponies he saw wandering about in their daily lives; he wanted to do anything other than waste his precious time relocating dusty old books. Thoughts trickled into his mind, tempting him to make a daring escape one could relate to the Daring Do books he read anytime a certain pegasus didn't have them checked out. There were so many shops and ponies he loved to frequent in this town and they all called to him with their alluring promises of an entertaining day. Sugarcube Corner and it's treats that could stand to rival the decadence of Pony Joe's donut shop, he could even visit the new music shop that had opened downtown to see if they'd let him practice with their instruments. The owners of the shop, a gray mare with an air of pure classical music and a pale unicorn who seemed to exude the word "rave", always made Spike wonder about the stability of the shop; always arguing about music and yet somehow retaining friendship, sometimes it could boggle his mind.

A tinge of heat rose into his scaly, purple cheeks as he thought upon his most desired of options. There was Carousel Boutique, the elegant clothing parlor that housed the object of his dreams, Rarity. His thoughts turned to those of a hopeless romantic as he fantasized about the beautiful mare that had captured his heart from his first day in Ponyville. Anything he did with his crush would be a welcome hiatus from this monthly chore, heck, he would gladly go through this chore everyday if it meant doing it with Rarity.

As Spike stared longingly the open portal into the free world his spines shot up as a familiar voice rang out to call his attention, "Spike!"

Spike turned around to face Twilight as nonchalantly as possible so as to throw off any suspicion, "Yeah, Twilight?" He asked, nervousness tinging his every syllable.

"I've been trying to get your attention for over a minute now. What exactly have you been thinking about while I was talking?"

"I, uh-", Spike stammered, trying to come up with a cheap excuse, to which his only reply was a light giggle.

"Whatever, Spike, I suppose it doesn't matter. I was thinking we could take a quick break and go grab lunch, seeing as your head's up there in Cloudsdale and all." Twilight smiled as she looked up at her blushing assistant. She always thought teasing him brought the perfect reward, a sight so cute it could even make Rainbow Dash feel warm at heart.

Spike's tail perked up slightly and his pudgy stomach rumbled at the thought of food, "Gladly!" He shouted, jumping down from his bookshelf spire, seemingly teeming with a newly found energy that caused Twilight roll her eyes to the ceiling.

"Is it so much to ask that you get as excited about Re-Shelving Day as you do about food?" Twilight asked with a bit of humorous irritation as she trotted towards the door Spike had held open for her. She cast him a warm smile to which Spike casually shrugged off, leaving a barely noticeable hint of disdain in Twilight's mind.

"I'd rather stuff myself full any day than hoist dusty old books", Spike replied with a devilish grin.

Twilight huffed at Spike's jab at a scheduled chore, but helped him clamber atop her back nonetheless. The two trotted on and let their conversation drift to the playful banter they always shared, Spike's cheap puns and cynical jokes bouncing perfectly off Twilight's analytical standpoint, she liked this. Being around Spike always made Twilight smile, perhaps it was the fact that she had raised him or maybe it was deep seeded relationship that had grown between the two over the past years, either way she saw him as her closest and dearest friend. Twilight felt in her heart that she could only grow closer to the little dragon what with her caring instincts and his tendency to get himself wrapped up into all kinds of trouble, not to mention his adorable naivete. The two trotted along laughing towards the middle of town in search of their next meal, their image the epitome of friendship beneath the afternoon sun.

Twilight had opted for the two to eat at a local outdoor cafe that she often frequented with her friends. She ordered her usual, a daisy sandwich with lemonade, while Spike scoured the hoof-written menu in search of anything with gems in the recipe. With a sigh the young dragon resigned and ordered the crispiest hay fries the chef could produce. Twilight noticed his disdain and cast another smile in his direction, ready to make a benevolent offer. "Spike", she called, "if you're really that beat up about gems, why don't we head over to Sugarcube Corner after this? I'm sure Pinkie could at least make you some ice cream."

Spike’s face immediately went from a lazy dream of rubies to a shining beacon of appreciation, "For real, Twilight?" He practically shouted out of pure excitement.

She chuckled again, growing more amused by Spike's antics by each passing minute, "Of course, Spike, cool your jets."

He stuttered a bit and suddenly looked at Twilight with a bit of suspicion he'd picked up from a few detective novels he'd slipped from under Twilight's nose, "Hey, why all the sudden niceness? I'm not in trouble or about to get another huge workload, am I?" Spike had one portion of his brow raised, remembering past tricks he'd fallen for. Twilight stared at her assistant and became lost in her thoughts once again. She wasn't doing anything out of character, was she? Sure Twilight had never been one for breaks, but she didn't like to see Spike overworked. She just looked at him and started wanting to be nice and caring. These emotions had started a few months ago, yet she brushed them off due to the most plausible reasons that they would be occurring; motherly and sisterly instinct or simply the warm feelings of an ever growing friendship. She'd tried to commit herself to a research of it, but always ended up more confused the more she read. Twilight blamed herself for not forming the proper hypothesis prior to her studies whenever they brought her back to the sections regarding love in her psychology books. That was impossible, wasn't it? Twilight started to worry as her paranoia kicked in alongside a subtle heat rising beneath her cheeks, she was quickly brought back into reality by a purple claw snapping in front of her muzzle. "Twilight, hello? Equestria to Twilight Sparkle, do you respond?" Spike's continued inquisition thankfully brought Twilight back her composure.

"Well", she stuttered, trying to find the best choice of words, "is it so bad that I want to be a benevolent philanthropist to my number one assistant now and then?" She responded with a knowing smirk, breathing an internal sigh of relief as she watched Spike struggle with her choice of vocabulary.

"Ben-elephant-four-loco-what-now?" Spike asked, struggling to wrap his scaly head around what Twilight had declared herself to be.

Twilight rolled her eyes at Spike, "Basically I felt like being a generous pony. Oh, look, food's here!" She happily sang as two plates descended from the hooves of their lithe waiter. Twilight immediately dove into her sandwich while Spike scrutinized the exact crunchiness of each hay-fry individually, his process consisted of him breathing a short blast of fire on each one in an attempt to make at almost as hard as some of the spare turquoise he kept hidden beneath his basket. Twilight couldn't resist a chuckle every now and again, his antics were just too ridiculous and endearing to pass up.

Their impromptu lunch continued on in a dreamy bliss for Twilight until an eloquent voice rang out from behind her, bringing her out of her daze quicker than a letter from Princess Celestia could, "Is that Twilight and little Spikey-Wikey I see?" Twilight turned to see an overjoyed Rarity, but something was off about her. Her pure white coat was scuffled and her normally pristine mane was slightly out of place, normally Rarity would have gone positively insane at these so called "crimes against fashion", yet she stood with an unchanging smile before the two.

Spike was the first to respond to this odd sight and leaped into action, running to Rarity's side with a worried look plastered across his snout, "Rarity, what happened, are you okay?"

Rarity let out a dainty chuckle as her magic brushed a few stray hairs back into place, "Oh, Spike, no need to become so chivalrous, I was simply out gem-hunting. I've discovered the most lavish reservoir for emeralds and sapphires, their potential for beauty is unfathomable", she cooed as she led herself back to the table Spike and Twilight had once been exclusively sharing. Twilight scooted slightly for Rarity to seat herself neatly beside her as she set a small sack atop the table. She turned to face Twilight with a composure of pure business, "Twilight, dear", she began to ask, "I was wondering, could I borrow Spike for the evening? There's a few piles of gems back at my little excavation sight that I could use a little masculine help with."

Twilight shivered a bit at Rarity's emphasis on the word "masculine" and immediately began questioning her own internal response. She and Spike had yet to complete their chores, but she knew how vehement her two could be when there was something they wanted. Despite her logic, something spoke up in Twilight about Spike going to Rarity's, "Well, I-"

"I'm all for it, Rarity!" Spike happily declared, cutting off Twilight.

"Truthfully?" Rarity said with gratitude glistening off her every syllable, "Don't worry, Twilight, I shall have this gentle-dragon back to the library soon after nightfall." With that she beckoned Spike as she began to trot elegantly off in the direction she had come in.

Spike wasted no time even as he shouted, "Later, Twilight!" Running off with the white unicorn, leaving Twilight alone at the table feeling nigh dejected.

"Bye, Spike", Twilight mumbled as she left the payment on the table and slowly trotted back to her home. She didn't like the sudden feeling of abandonment. It wasn't a surprise that Spike had run off with Rarity, Twilight had long since accepted his crush, but it caused an influx of emotion to stir in the pit of her stomach again. Twilight sighed as she struggled to comprehend her emotions towards Spike, towards Spike and Rarity, this new experience boggled her mind as she entered once more into her library home. As she stepped in and noticed the piles of books that had been left before her short hiatus and sat down with another sigh. "Guess I'd better finish up this job", Twilight muttered to nopony in particular. As she worked in silence her thoughts drifted, leaving her magic to warble and place certain books in the wrong places. Her thoughts turned once again to her number-one assistant. Twilight sighed as if in a dream, she couldn't quite put her hoof on it, but she just wished Spike would come home soon.

Chapter Two: The Flash

A responsibility of some sort can always stand as a staple of sanity for anypony who feels to lack purpose, whether it be the responsibilities of controlling celestial bodies or assisting with a menial chore, it brings with it the sense that a task has been completed that somepony can benefit from. Perhaps this is why Spike rolled a small, red wagon along a dirt path that led to a clearing just west of the Everfree forest, a scaly grin never leaving his snout.

Or perhaps, at least in a more likely sense, it was because he walked alongside the mare of his dreams. He and Rarity had left Twilight at the cafe with nary a second glance and had begun their walk shortly after, both of them smiling and making the idle conversation that can only pass between two beings that have found a certain comfort in one another. Spike had felt a tinge of guilt after he jogged away from their once shared table, but an opportunity with Rarity was just too good to pass up. She laughed at his devilish jokes and carried herself with a pristine beauty that Spike could barely seem to see polished to such perfection even in the innermost circles of Canterlot. It was a grace that called attention without making the slightest effort. Spike began losing himself in Rarity's presence even as a voice reached out to try and pull him from his amorous daydreams.

"Spike?" Rarity's voice hung like silk in the air as the dragon seemingly continued to stare of into the world without any focus, "Spike, yoo hoo, Darling?" Rarity said, waving an expertly polished hoof in front of his dreamy eyes. Rarity cracked an amused grin as the little dragon next to her shook his head and attempted to reinstate himself into reality.

"Huh, what's that Rarity?" Spike asked, desperately attempting to hide a blush. He'd been thinking about how the light of Celestia's sun reflected off of rarity's fur, it reminded him of the moon taking in just enough light to radiate an ethereal glow and reflecting the last bit to send it's beauty into the world below.

"Goodness, Spike, drifting off into a daydream even as a mare speaks to you. Certainly I must be more entertaining than your fantasies?" Rarity cooed with a false, condescending smile. She laughed as a filly would at Spike's stuttering attempts to correct himself, "Darling, it's okay, it was just a little joke. Now, as I was saying before, do you think it would be okay for you come to my boudoir tomorrow afternoon to assist me in affixing our treasures to various designs?" Just for good measure she turned to Spike with a half lidded smile to try and seal the deal. Rarity knew it wasn't necessary for Spike, the little dragon was always so eager to please, it was more of a natural reflex. When dealing with colts she often found herself having to sway her mane or bring attention to her beauty to get them to do what she wanted, but it was different with her borrowed assistant. Spike often did as she asked with a gusto she expected from her little sister and her ragtag gang of fillies, she truly admired him for that. A true gentlecolt, or was Spike a gentle-dragon? Rarity gave her mind an internal shake to clear it confusing thoughts about the etiquette regarding dragons.

"Your boo-what?" Spike asked with the same confusion that he often regarded Twilight's lapses into scientific jargon.

"My shop, darling", Rarity said with the slightest roll of her eyes. One would think that living in a library would result in having the widest of vocabularies.

"Oh!" Spike cried with a start. To accentuate his enthusiasm he climbed on top of the wagon and stuck one clawed arm into the air as he set the other on his waist, mimicking a stance he had seen many of the first founders of Equestria strike in their paintings, "You can count on me! I'll affix those delicious jewels to anything you need!"

Rarity stopped dead in her tracks and stared at Spike, taking in the enthusiastic spectacle he had just made himself the epicenter of. She tried to hide the torrent that was rapidly rising in the back of her throat, but the resounding explosion was too much to bear. She laughed, she laughed and laughed with a mirth that young foals possessed anytime a vulgar phrase. Spike valiantly held the pose as Rarity calmed herself through the expulsion of pent up hilarity, a smile of the goofiest hero painted on his face. "Oh", another burst of light chuckles interrupted her speech, "Oh, Spike, I'm sorry, but that was just too much to bear. Your jokes are a riot, but that was just perfect." Rarity started giggling like a school filly at the end of her apology which sent her off into another tirade of laughter.

Spike leaped off the wagon, still smiling, and gave Rarity a pat on the side. "Ah, you don't need to apologize, Rarity. Making a beautiful mare laugh is reward enough for a corny joke."

Once Rarity had finally felt her laughter ebb back into a slightly quivering smile, she was able to speak, "Spike, darling, that was pure comedic gold. Especially that little vow of yours, I swear you were the spitting image of a knight." She turned to stare at the dragon, noticing the smiles they shared were one and the same. It was the radiant grin that stretched across one's face whenever a simple pleasure was encountered, a smile that came from smelling the roses or seeing something beautiful. Rarity let her eyes lose focus on her surroundings for a moment as she thought of a knight wearing armor of purple and green. It was almost ridiculous, but it held a perfect charm to it. Without realizing it, or even caring about the images that surfaced in her mind, she began to picture Spike as that very knight. But why a knight, why not a prince? Yes, that was it, his scales would look perfect against the dark robes of royalty.

She kept staring at Spike without noticing that she gradually turned to face him directly, going so far as to tilt her head down to get the perfect angle on his face. She thought of how his scales could have been made of amethysts and emeralds for all anypony truly knew when a noise shocked her out of her daze. "Uh, Rarity?"

Rarity jolted up, finally noticing Spike, rather than the intrinsic beauty she saw in him. Wait, beauty? Rarity gave herself a mental kick and, with a little convincing, concluded she stared simply for the sake of fashionable appeal. "Yes, Spike?" She replied, almost scaring herself with the minor quiver she noticed in the pitch of her voice.

Spike stood unblinking, almost scared to move, as an undaunted blush rose into his cheeks, it turned his scales to a shade of purple that the darkest of sunsets would envy to produce. "You were staring", Spike practically yelped, unafraid, or rather unable, to hide the nervousness in his voice. Rarity had been looking at him the way Twilight looked at a book she hadn't read or how he looked at rarity herself, it was enough to make his heart leap in heavy beats that shook every vein in his body. The situation gave him a lightheaded feeling of apprehension that could only have been made worse by rarity's reply.

"Oh", Rarity almost whispered as they trailed off. Had she really been staring? Was it that obvious that she had done something so unladylike right in front of Spike, to his face no less? She felt the same heat she saw in Spike's cheeks begin to rise in her own as her innermost thoughts became dominated with the one question she had no coherent answer for, 'Why?'

Thankfully she was able to shake her head and, with a clearing of her throat, turn her attention back to the clearing looming at the end of the path the two had abruptly stopped on. "In any case", Rarity quickly continued her sentence after it's long hiatus, "we should be able to get our work done just as the sun begins to set." Rarity quickly trotted in the direction of the clearing in an attempt to save face and collect her own thoughts.

Once Spike had caught up to her steady pace she quickly led him to the center of the clearing, it was a grassy patch that was bordered by the outermost edge of the Everfree forest on it's east curve. The grass that snaked out from under the leaves of the Everfree's trees as if to conquer all it could before the forces of nature somehow held it's roots back, it ran slightly over a small group half buried boulders to create what looked like floating islands that constantly dripped oceans of green water. Piles of emeralds and sapphires, along with various jewels that didn't seem to have much aesthetic worth over quartz, dotted the landscape at erratic intervals next to the holes they had created after Rarity's magic had forcefully excavated them. The patterns of gems and holes made less sense than a draconequus, gleaming mountains that loomed next to minor fields of pitch black craters, each field was smaller or larger than the least and each had no set distance from the other.

Rarity would have called it "organized chaos", while Spike could only relate it to the nonsensical art that somehow sold for millions of bits in Canterlot's many art galleries.

"Alright then, Spike!" Rarity cheered with an enthusiasm that came envisioning her fashionable victory, "I leave the job to you!" She knew yelling like an excited foal was slightly uncouth, but wasn't a mare allowed to have fun when nopony was around?

Spike responded with a salute and ran off to the first pile without a word, the wagon bouncing behind him as it's wheels hit the holes the dotted the landscape like a caricature of cheese. While his body and subconscious mind worked in tandem to pick up gems and set them in the wagons crevice, Spike's mind was aflame. The way she was looking at him and the silence they shared, it had to have meant something. If it didn't Spike thought he must have begun to finally lose his mind from all of his pent up emotions flaring and subsiding over the short walk. He remembered how close their faces had been, her eyes looked like two looming sapphires from where he stood, he had kept telling himself to do something. He wanted to confess his feelings then and there where there was no fear of imminent death. Spike wondered how it would have gone if he had bared his heart on the line at that exact moment. Would Rarity have pressed her hoof over his mouth? Would there be a statement of bitterest denial or would she stir the fires in his heart with that of her own?

Did Rarity already know?

The last question had been in his mind ever since his first attempt at a confession. He remembered the touch of her hoof against his muzzle, a gentle brush of silk that held his feelings behind his fangs, and how she gave him the kindest smile he had ever seen. That smile, that beautiful sight that gave Spike the ability to die happy at such a young age. He felt that Rarity had smiled like that only for him and that nopony else in all of Equestria would ever hope to see, it was a blessings from the heavens themselves to Spike. Yet they had been saved and their lives eventually went back to normal, but what did the whole experience mean? Had they grown closer, even by the tiniest bit? Spike had been convinced that they had and he had been satisfied with that. Being close to the mare of dreams made him feel accomplished and at peace. He wanted more, but couldn't truly complain if everything could just stay in this near perfect way.

That short moment on the path, that miniscule exchange of words and silent sensations that seemed to drag on into the infinite expanse of time itself, had blown his contentment out of the water like a depth charge. Spike felt like it was just the white flash one would see before an explosion passed over and alter it's surroundings. The fact that all he could see and think about was the moment they shared left the sensation of a swarm of invisible butterflies fluttering about in his stomach.

As Rarity had predicted, Spike finished his task just as the sun turned to a great, wavering orb of crimson and touched the horizon. She regarded him with a smile that Spike automatically reciprocated despite his internal conflict and, without a word, turned to lead him back into the hamlet of Ponyville.
Their trip back home was silent, no words needed to be said between Rarity's feelings of success and Spike's tumultuous emotions. Spike looked up from his daze and was shocked to see the entrance of Carousel Boutique looming before him, he was further dragged into the surrounding reality by Rarity's voice, "Well, here we are." She turned to face him with a smile as the glow of her magic opened the door behind her, "Thank you ever so much for your help, Spikey-Wikey, I couldn't have hoped to do it without you." She gave him another gratitude filled smile, "And on that I must bid you adieu", she said with an accentuating bow. Rarity was ready to turn and enter her home when she heard Spike call out to her.

Spike stood as straight as he possible could, determined to get over his nerves and speak as truthfully as he possibly could. "Rarity", he began and looked up to meet her eyes.

She looked into his eyes and saw something, some glint that made her breathing tense and her heart flutter. She didn't understand, nor did she regard the miniscule twinges, she could only wait for him to continue.

Something inside of Spike buckled, some boyish clasp that just couldn't bear the weight of the ramifications his decision could bring, and he looked down, returning to the stance he had held before he called out to her. Spike looked up and sighed, "I just wanted to tell you to have a good night", he said with a bittersweet smile.

Rarity exhaled lightly and drew herself back into her home after uttering a short farewell to the dragon.

Spike stood on the porch and let the few tears he had held back at the moment his cowardice had made itself known out. They ran down his face like hot streams of magma, yet he didn't utter a single sound, all he could do was mentally berate himself for his inability to say the three words that had stuck in his mind for months. He turned and let his back hit the door, not noticing the accompanying strike his tail made on it's wood, and confessed to himself and the scenery around him, "Rarity, I love you." He stood on the porch until his words faded out into the sounds of the wind and the birds descending into night, once he had wiped all signs of his tears from his face he left and struck out for his home. He wanted to go eat a comforting ruby and retire to his basket of a bed, the idea of being unconscious had never seemed so appealing to the nerve wracked dragon.

In the entryway of Carousel Boutique, Rarity stood facing the door with a hoof over her mouth and tears running down her face.

Chapter Three: Past and Present

There is no known realm of solid objects in which the past continues to exist after the lives of those who had lived it have moved on, in truth, their lives are forever constrained to the present. While they may foresee the future it will always remain unknown until they experience it in the moment future becomes present, the past can be felt through memories. Reminiscing, as it is called, of lives once lived and experiences shared, and though they had descended into the annals of history, these visions of the past could still evoke the emotions they had created as though they were material once more.

Twilight sat in the center of the library with her hooves curled neatly beneath her body as her magic turned the pages of a book that lay splayed out before her, a diligent reading pose she had perfected as a young filly. Miniscule piles of books lay across the library relatively near the shelves they belonged in, the moment Twilight had realized the minor errors in organization she had made earlier that evening she had put the job on a mental to-do list.

She let out a gentle chuckle as her magic turned the page to a picture of a much younger Spike wearing a tin pot. The photo album, "Memories" as it was entitled, held roughly two-hundred pictures of the life Twilight had shared with her family in Canterlot. Pictures of Twilight enjoying her simple life with her family as a young filly dotted the beginning of the album. these memories were sweet and filled with the love that only a tightly knit family could give, especially the pictures of Shining Armor taking of his dear little sister, however she was focused more on the pictures that lined the center pages. Experiences that Twilight had shared with Spike as the two grew up alongside one another lay sprawled out before her, captured forever in the borders of each photograph. She focused intently on the picture of Spike with his culinary accoutrement and, closing her eyes as her smile spread further across her face, began to relive the memory that danced like a dream in her mind.

"If it's the guards' duty to protect the princess, like Shining Armor said, then it's my duty to protect you."

Spike had said those very words to Twilight as he stood before her in his improvised uniform, the vividness of the memory caused tears of reminiscent happiness to well up behind Twilight's closed eyes. How Spike had followed her around even closer than he always had and his ridiculous attempts to scare away small animals that could have disturbed her outdoor reading made him all the more a devoted knight than any simple guard could ever have been.

Spike had kept up his role as Twilight's protector for two weeks until he abruptly decided to hang up his pot and descend in the ranks back to an assistant. When Twilight asked why Spike justified his actions with the decision that he would look better as her protector if he had a lance and a cape, it was a boyish decision that made Twilight giggle like the young mare she had become. Before Spike could return the pot back to it's rightful place in the kitchen, Twilight had felt the compelling need to take a picture of Spike in his "helmet".

"So I can always remember how my knight protected me", Twilight had justified.

She opened her eyes to gaze at the picture once more, Twilight laughed every time she saw Spike's ridiculous pose. One leg was raised onto a small pile of books as he pointed a scroll into the horizon as a makeshift sword, the look that Spike held on his face was that of a true knight. He looked on into the horizon, staring down the unknown future as if challenging it, saying thus without words, "Here I am, send me any challenge and I'll conquer it." Spike's visage, Twilight had decided then as she did now, was handsome, at least for a baby dragon seven years her junior. Twilight giggled at her girlish thoughts, beginning to envisioning a grown Spike wearing the cape he had once spoken so fondly of when she heard the bell over the library's door ring.

Spike stood in the open doorway, his purple scales framed by the deep blue of the rising night, eyes cast towards the hardwood floor. Twilight stood up with instantaneous concern, yet she could only watch as her assistant turned and closed the door behind in silence. His eyes seemed to wander the floor as if he hadn't entirely registered where he was, To Twilight they looked like emeralds that had lost their natural radiance. "Spike, are you okay?" She asked as she hurriedly trotted towards him.

Spike didn't respond, couldn't even, all he needed to do was look up to meet Twilight's gaze. The look on his face could spell out the waves regret and despondence to anypony who had once seen his cheerful smile. Once their eyeses met they couldn't be separated, locked into an unspoken communication that forced Spike's tears back into sight.

The very moment she saw them Twilight leaped with outstretched forelegs at Spike and pulled him into a tight embrace. As he curled his arms around her neck she could feel his back hitching and hot tears soaking into the fine fur of her shoulders. Spike didn't cry as a foal would, noisy and begging for the attention of his parents, he shed silent tears that made Twilight's comfort all the more necessary. At one point a single choked sob emanated from the dragon's snout, as if to silence it Twilight hugged Spike's body closer to hers. She didn't know what had made Spike like this nor did she know if it was anything she could solve, all she could do for Spike right now would be to hold him and comfort him for as long as it took.

The two remained in their embrace even after Spike's silent tears had ebbed away until his voice came muffled from twilight's shoulder, "Twilight?" He asked, the rasp of crying and fatigue clouding his voice.

Twilight looked down to face her assistant, upon seeing his defeated expression at a closer angle she had to stop herself from demanding to know what could put her dear assistant into such a state. Twilight knew that Spike would tell her when he was ready, but she wanted to shield him from anything that could turn his optimism into such a state. "Yes, Spike?"

"I'm really tired", he said through a yawn. All his energy had escaped through the burden of exhausting physical and mental labor. After everything he had gone through it was a wonder Spike could still coherently stand.

Twilight nodded sagely and let her hooves trail away from behind his head and rest on his cheeks, wiping away the smudges of tears with a gentle and loving touch. Twilight softly spoke, using every bit of comfort she could put into her voice, "I understand, Spike. Get yourself washed up and go to bed, I'll be up to tuck you in soon." At the end of her sentence Twilight gently brought Spike's face closer to hers and pressed a light kiss on his forehead. As she pulled her lips away she stroked his cheeks and whispered gently, "Get to bed, Spike, you deserve some rest."

After their embrace had separated and Spike had ascended the stairs leading to the second level of the library Twilight began to descend into her own thoughts. Spike, the dragon she cared more about than anypony in Equestria, had come home crying, why? Scornful thoughts about Rarity began to surface in her mind, but she shook them out as quickly as she possibly could. Spike needed her and she would be there, it was that simple, he would tell her what happened when he was ready. Twilight looked up and followed the stairs to the door of the bedroom they shared and made an instantaneous decision, she would return the vow he had made years ago and protect him in every way she could.

Twilight set the album atop one of the piles of miscellaneous books that had yet to be organized and trotted up to her bedroom, planning to keep the promise she had made to her assistant about tucking him in. She opened the door quickly and and closed it as her horn began to glow with a dull sheen of magic, softly illuminating the room before her. She stood on the tips of her hooves and made her way to the basket at the foot of her bed, careful not to make even the slightest as the synthesized light from her horn washed over the rising and falling mass that lay beneath a small blanket. Twilight looked down and smiled at the sleeping Spike, his expression held the air of peaceful dreams. This, Twilight decided, was how the dragon should look even as he lay awake, at peace with the world that lay before him.

Twilight began to lean her head down closer to Spike's, her lips were a hair's width from Spike's cheek when her eyes shot open to reveal the white that surrounded her violet irises. Her mind began to fill itself with terror as she realized the actions she had been about to take.

'What am I doing?'

Twilight stayed stock still for a few seconds before shaking the doubtful thoughts out of her head and, with a quiet strike of her hoof against the bedroom floor, steeled herself. She closed her eyes and brought her lips to kiss Spike's cheek, letting it longer just slightly longer than any goodnight kiss she had ever given him. When she looked up she saw Spike smile and shift further into his blankets, the faintest imprint of her kiss still lingered on his scales. As she walked to her own bed to descend into sleep a smile that could not be placed as either giddy or proud shone forth beneath the dwindling light of her horn.

Once the magical glow had ceased and the two had both sank beneath the covers of their beds, Twilight's dreamy voice floated through the room, "Sweet dreams, Spike." Twilight was about to continue when her breath caught in her throat, making her worry in the silent darkness. The next few words that came out of her mouth barely rose above a whisper despite their being said many times prior, "I love you."

Spike awoke with a start, panting and in a cold sweat after dreaming shapeless nightmares. A rumbling that emanated from his stomach caused him to jump, once Spike could determine it's source he quietly began to scold his stomach, "Be quiet, I just want to go back to sleep." Another rumble, deep and demanding, was the only response in the night air. With a sigh Spike conceded to the demands of his body and clambered out of his basket, silently making his way towards the kitchen. He briefly began to wonder why a library, among a plethora of other shops providing public services, would also be built with home furnishings. He placed his forehead in one claw and furrowed his brow, "What am I even thinking about anymore?" He asked to nopony in particular, talking to himself was a habit Spike simply couldn't break.

He stared into the pantry, finding only ingredients that would have to combined with others almost with an alchemist's diligence. Spike wanted something instant, something to take his mind off of the day that was already seeping back into his mind, a quick fix for his needing stomach. After shifting around scattered ingredients he found a dusty can of soup at the back of the pantry, as Spike pulled it out of it's crevice between daisy flour wheat germ he noticed it's "sell-by" date had inconveniently passed just days prior to his midnight snack. With another sigh he yanked it out and tossed the can atop the counter, slowly going through the cabinets to find a pot to cook his meal in. Spike made no attempt to be quiet as he spilled the concoction of noodles and chunks of some unidentified flower into the pot and set it to boil, all he wanted was to sate his rebellious stomach and return to the comfort of his bed.

As he stirred and grumbled to himself he was unable to hear the light clip-clopping of hooves traveling towards him. Spike jumped nearly a foot in the air when Twilight's tired voice came questioning from behind him, "Spike, what are you doing up?"

Spike turned to face Twilight, searching rapidly for an answer that could make valid sense to the unicorn, "Uh-"

"Spike, it's well past four in the morning, what are you doing in the kitchen at this hour. And what in the name of Equestria is that smell?" Twilight asked, scrunching up her snout at the end of her last inquiry.

Spike turned and shut off the stove, ignoring his appetite, and turned to face Twilight with a simple shrug of his shoulders. "I was hungry, I guess", came his only reply. The two stared at one another for a few seconds until Spike broke the eye contact, he just couldn't take all the concern that was laced into Twilight's eyes. "I'll go back to bed", he muttered, already beginning to step past Twilight. Once a lavender hoof was placed between his chest and the path back to his bed he looked up to see Twilight giving him a look he had seen for years, an inescapable look of pleading concern that he could never escape no matter how hard he tried to sink into his own pessimism.

"Spike", her voice washed over him like a soothing rain, "I'm here for you, you can tell me what happened today."

Spike stared up at Twilight and felt the tears he had shed just a few hours ago begin to resurface, "That's the thing though", he stuttered, "nothing happened." Twilight gave a confused stare, she was about to speak when Spike interrupted her again, "I had the chance, Twilight, I had it. So why?" He stared up at his guardian with a look of desperation that brought tears to Twilight's own eyes, "Why couldn't I do it?"

Twilight wasted no time in pulling her dear assistant into her chest, trying to keep him from sinking into the state he had been previously in. She wanted to help, but she needed to understand, "Spike", she cooed to him, "what do you mean? What couldn't you do?"

There was a brief moment of silence between the two, as if Spike was debating whether or not confess his failure. After a few seconds his voice came, flat and cool as glass, "I couldn't confess to Rarity. I couldn't tell her how I feel."

Hearing this put Twilight in shock, even as he stared up to her, pleading for an answer, she was unable to speak. All she could to was pull his head closer into her chest and stroke the scales that lined the top of his head, whispering promises that everything would be okay. She knew Rarity had something to with Spike's despondence, but what could she do about it? Twilight knew she didn't have the right words to comfort Spike at the time, just as she was about to give up and send the two back to bed for the comfort of sleep an idea came to her. "Spike", she gently called, "come with me." With that she turned around and walked into the living room, Spike following behind her with an inquisitive stare. She seated herself on the couch and pulled Spike close to her with a quick flash of magic, "Comfy?" She asked with a loving smile. Spike could only respond with a silent nod as he wiped what residual tears were left lingering in his eyelids. Twilight leaned her head down and nuzzled her dragon as her magic brought a familiar photo album and a blanket over to the duo. The blanket pulled the two further into a snug embrace as Twilight opened the book to one particular picture, "Remember this?" She asked with the same heartfelt gaze.

Spike looked up to see a family portrait he had taken with Twilight, her parents, and her older brother. They all sat next to one another on an elegant couch, jostled next to one another with Spike on Twilight's lap. His eyes drifted to the picture next to it, the silly version as it was called, and chuckled. Shining Armor and Mr. Sparkle were flexing next to one another with looks that were supposed to be manly painted on their muzzles as Twilight and her mother kissed each of Spike's cheeks with him looking dumfounded and embarrassed. Anypony could tell Spike had not seen the kisses coming by the blush that painted itself across his purple scales. "Of course I remember", Spike said in between chuckles. "Your mom wouldn't stop lecturing when she noticed I took off that dorky tie she wanted me to wear."

Twilight turned to him, feigning shock, and gasped, "Dorky? Why I thought you looked handsome in that tie." It wasn't a lie, exactly, she thought actually him cute at the time. However, at least at present, she could truly believe that he was handsome.

"Twilight", Spike deadpanned. "It was plaid, that is the definition of dorky."

She huffed at him with a smile, "Well I think you look very handsome in plaid."

Spike returned his eyes to her, smiling his familiar, devilish smile, "I always knew you had a bad taste in fashion, Twilight." She responded with a light nudge to his shoulder which Spike only laughed at.

The two sat and flipped through the album for hours, talking and joking as they reminisced about the pictures that had been taken throughout their shared lives. The sun could be seen tickling the edges of the night sky outside the library's circular window as Twilight looked fondly of a picture containing only her and her assistant. They were curled up together on Twilight's bed, sleeping together as they always used to. The image conjured up a warmth in her heart as she turned to Spike, ready to spark another conversation when she heard a light snore. They had both cuddled up to one another so Twilight had no idea when Spike had fallen asleep, she could have been talking to herself for hours on en for all she knew. Twilight smiled as she unceremoniously tossed the album, careful enough not to damage it, to the floor in front of the couch. She turned herself to lie at Spike's side, pulling him into a more comfortable embrace with her forelegs. She placed a tender kiss on his forehead and smiled as he wrapped his arms as far as they could go around her body. As Twilight faded into the realm of dreams alongside Spike she recalled the memory of the last picture one final time and smiled. Her thoughts filled with happy memories she had shared with Spike as she began to dream.

'This is the way it used to be and this is the way it should be now.'

Chapter Four: The Precipice

The words permeated through the door of Carousel Boutique and hung alongside the few dust particles that glinted in the last rays of sunlight while Rarity could only stand and let her tears rain down her face.

She thought she had heard Spike knock with the same two quick raps he would always give before he entered the boutique, right as her hoof drew towards the doorknob she heard Spike speak.

'Rarity, I love you.'

She gasped and quickly drew her hoof to cover her mouth in fear that Spike had heard her and let the tears flow from her emerald eyes. Love, it was love, not some boyish crush. Spike didn't just like her mane, didn't just find her beautiful, he was in love with her.

Rarity turned on her hooves and walked quietly to a simple seat in the middle of her display room, keeping calm only from the aid of shock. She looked down as she drew her forelegs across her chest everything began to sink in, feeling a bit of warmth drop onto her hooves. "Oh", she whispered, noticing the tears that had started to soak into her fur, "I suppose I'm still crying." Rarity sighed in an attempt to clear the fog of emotions that stirred in her mind. "Of all the things that could happen, this is..." Rarity trailed off as her eyes grew to the size of saucers, her quiet voice fading into the surrounding dress-forms.

"Now that doesn't sound quite right", she said as she blinked a few stray tears from her eyes. In truth, it didn't. Rarity knew what she felt whenever she would cry out her 'drama declaration', as she had so aptly named it, but this just wasn't the same. She hopped off her chair and almost unconsciously trotted up to her vanity mirror, knowing far too well from experience with sad novels that crying would ruin a distinguished mare's makeup. Rarity hefted a sigh and closed her eyes, letting the memories of her day flow across her vision, "It isn't the worst possible thing, but it's not the best." Rarity opened her eyes to see trails of mascara running down from her eyes, "Goodness, I look like a mess." With that she closed her eyes and tilted her head up as her magic began to levitate various cleaning cloths and solutions from around the mirror. She was no Aloe, and was far from ever being a Lotus, but Rarity felt as if this ritual was more coordinated than any day spa would ever attempt to be. Each piece of makeup had their own process of removal, a total of five, each working in perfect tandem; her lipstick was washed away by a miniscule wand adorned with frills as two specialized brushes worked the smallest amounts of blush from her cheeks. Her eye shadow came off with a solution made from distilled pears, Rarity honestly had no idea how pears worked to clean eye shadow, but she appreciated it anyway.
Next came the false eyelashes, this brought a sensation that always made her want to sneeze. The glue pulled ever so slightly at the nerves of her eyelashes that refracted the sensation into her muzzle, her sneeze came the moment the false apparatuses of fashion let their grasp of her own eyelids drop. The moment her eyelids fluttered open after the resounding reflex a glow of magic surrounded two transparent discs above her irises.

Rarity let stared at her reflection with a modest smile as makeup, brushes, and contact lenses all descended into their appropriate drawers and boxes. Seeing herself without makeup brought a secret thrill to her that nopony else had ever experienced, aside from her lovely parents, none of her closest friends even knew she actually needed the crimson glasses she wore whenever the finest details were needed on dresses. "Well, Rarity", she chuckled as if she were engaging in a conversation with her reflection, "I suppose there's a few questions I need to answer. Spike is-" Rarity stopped and stared wide-eyed at the mirror, noticing a crimson heat rising across her face, "Spike is in love with me."

She brought her hooves up to her cheek and whispered through a smile she hadn't felt rise since she was barely her sisters' age, "Sweet Celestia, Spikey-Wikey is in love with me!" Rarity let out a girlish squeal, the same she would let out when her favorite romance novels ended with a passionate kiss, and giggled like a madmare. This was juicier than any of the Gabby Gums columns she had once fawned over, the kind of drama her heart of hearts absolutely lusted after, a young dragon falling hopelessly in love for a mare the age of his guardian.

'What am I thinking?'

Her revelry lasted for a few moments until her stare went back to the mirror, "Sweet Celestia, Spike is in love with me."Her reflection stared back as a thousand stunning truths entered her mind, "Everything he's ever said to me has been true; every compliment, and every little speech made to encourage me, all of it was true." Rarity's heart fluttered in her chest as she realized the implications from this. Was it illegal? She knew dragons aged differently from ponies, but Spike still held the appearance of an adolescent. "What do I do?" She asked herself, bringing her hooves back to her cheeks, "How am I supposed to react?"

'Well, the prince has just confessed to his love, how do you think?'

She brought her head down to gaze at the floor and felt her heart beat faster alongside her rising smile as started to giggle again, "All of it was true and all of his adorable little speeches came on the spot, such a little charmer." Rarity shuffled her hind legs against the floor, feeling a shy blush creep across her face, "I've had poets try to talk me into their beds with romantic flourish, but that handsome little dragon just puts them to shame. He truly is a prince." A contented sigh emanated from her mouth, causing her eyes to snap open and stare back to her mirror-bound doppelganger.

'That wasn't me, right? Right?'

"A prince?! Come now, Rarity, you're looking for a handsome young stallion to be your prince. A colt who could sweep you off your hooves and make all of your dreams come true!" Rarity's voice grew less and less audible as she continued, memories of a certain noble being the opposite of everything her dream colt had been rising, soon she could barely face her own reflection.

'And I was fool enough to think that would be the epitome of perfection.'

"Somepony who's charming and has a way with words, who would cast his coat down so you wouldn't have to walk in a puddle. A suitor who would always compliment you and give you gifts he couldn't bear to let anypony else have." Her breath hitched a bit in her throat as the white fur of an imaginary prince turned to amethyst scales, "A brave knight who would defend you against ruffians ten times his size."

'I was stupid enough to ignore him or shoo him away.'

She went silent as her eyes closed for a few moments until she was able to continue, "A perfect dragon who couldn't bear to actually confess his feelings if he thought it would upset his love."

The tears started flowing with the end of her soliloquy, soaking warm lines into the fur across her muzzle. Rarity once again looked upwards toward the mirror, once she could see clearly through the tears she had shed, all that she saw was herself smiling. Here she was, a grown mare crying about love as her emotions got caught up in a tempest. Usually stallions were the one's feeling their pride dwindle whenever they couldn't court her rather than a distinguished pony like herself weeping about a baby dragon who had no idea the object of his adoration had even heard.

The memory brought a lighthearted chuckle to her, "Oh, Spike", she sighed as if in a dream, "you're so perfect and you don't even know it." Once she had spoken she felt a familiar surge of shock coarse through her entire body, hey eyes, big as saucers, stared at her reflection once again. The wave carried goosebumps in it's wake that tingled all beneath her fur, but her expression softened. Soon a warm smile that brought back a vivid memory of a sunset washed away her frightened daze. She stared into her own eyes this time, rather than those of her conflicted reflection, questioning where that memory had arisen from.

A familiar voice washed out from her memories brought a bit of clarification to her. 'You were staring.'

Rarity sighed through her grin, "I was staring, wasn't I? I suppose a lady can't help when she's faced with such a beauty, those scales could really accentuate a top of the line dress." Her eyes shot open, more memories of her day rushing out to meet her, "Dresses? Oh my, he's still coming over tomorrow, isn't he?" her voice dropped to an excited whisper, "Spikey-Wikey is coming over tomorrow to be my darling assistant! What if he confesses directly this time?"

The answer to that question could was spelled out entirely by the giddy smile presented on her alabaster face. "I wonder", Rarity said from behind closed eyes, "how would Spike react if he were to see me like this?"

Simplicity, a welcome blessing for those with complex lives. Some desire it, some cherish it when they have it, and others tend to lose it without knowledge of their loss. However, some things just can't abide by the rules of simplicity; love being a prime example. For most who get swept into loves embrace, simplicity is a blessing they could not even pray to receive.

Normally the citizens of Ponyville would go about their business as the sun reached it's peak in the sky, especially those burdened with the occupation of public service, however one lavender librarian and her amethyst assistant lay sleeping on a couch during the prime business hours of their literary outpost. Twilight lay in the same position, her forelegs wrapped lovingly around Spike's chubby body, while Spike's clawed arms had wrapped themselves around her velveteen neck. If anypony were to see they two, they would have been discerned as lovers.

Twilight regrettably pulled herself out a dream in which she had gone stargazing with her number one assistant to glance at the clock.

Noon.

It was twelve in the afternoon, the literal middle of the day, and she hadn't opened the library. Twilight's voice was barely an audible whisper, "Oh dear sweet Celestia, what have I done?"

In reality, she hadn't done anything at all as very few ponies tended to rent books on Tuesdays. Why Tuesday, she would never know, it was just one of those strange statistics that life seemed to hold.

However, this statistic didn't stop twilight from engaging in a mental tirade of scheduling and rescheduling. Her eyes had begun to dilate slowly when a light snore from below her sought to prevent her oncoming descent into unorganized hysteria. Twilight looked down and felt her cares melt away at the sight of the dragon sleeping against her body, the way the purple of their bodies complimented one another just seemed to look right to the unicorn. Seeing him curled up like this was just too cute for her to bear, she had to take the opportunity that lay before her. With a smile, Twilight Sparkle leaned down to her assistant and planted a gentle kiss on his scaly cheek.

Twilight let her lips linger millimeters way from Spike's cheeks, a blush rising to her cheeks and seemingly crazy ideas climbing into her mind. She brought her lips down again, kissing just a centimeter closer to the dragon's snout. She placed her hooves on either side of his head and leaned further towards the center of his face, Twilight could feel the breath from his nostrils on her lips moments before she stopped.

Her eyes shot open, filling her gaze with the sight of her sleeping assistant. 'What in Equestria am I doing?' Twilight leaned upwards, trying to look as far away from Spike as possible. Was she doing something wrong, was it bad to have feelings for her assistant? 'Wait! Feelings, who said anything about those?!'

She looked back down to face the dragon and gave up her mental resistance the moment she felt her heart increase its pace. Twilight kept staring once her conflicting thoughts seemed to pass further an further into a distanced haze. A memory of the night before rose up to greet her, strengthening her advance. 'I love you.' She had said it to him once already after comforting him, and she did, what was so different about her doing it now?

She had closed half of the distance when her neck jerked into a halt. One thought rose above the rest, one massive wall in her psyche, Spike had a crush on Rarity.

She shut her eyes and gritted her teeth together, feeling the flames of jealousy for the first time in her life. 'Why Rarity? She never did anything for Spike aside from a few snack gems!' Twilight furrowed her brow as she gazed down at Spike and started making promises to her sleeping dragon, "Anything you need, Spike, I'll get it." Twilight started to close the distance between her and Spike, "I'll make sure nothing can hurt you." She started to let her eyelids fall as she drew ever closer to his scaled muzzle, "Anything you need", she trailed off the moment she was close enough to feel his gentle breathing once more. Her voice dropped to nothing more than a mumble, "I'll be everything you need, everything you deserve."

"I love you, Spike."

Twilight brushed her lips against those of her sleeping dragon, reveling in how smooth they felt. She repeated this act like a filly practicing how to kiss on a pillow a few times before she pressed her lips down a bit harder, more intent on kissing her assistant.

As she continued, Twilight became too content with her actions to notice the stirring beneath her.

Chapter Five: The Beginning

Spike lay asleep, a small smile on his face suggesting he was dreaming of an ice-cream-world in which he could save fair maidens and wear aprons. Or, due to dreams being rather erratic nuances of sleep, it could at least be inferred that he was having a good dream.

Above, or rather on top of his sleeping form sat Twilight Sparkle, exploring his lips with her own. Shy brushes had become light pecs, steadily growing in frequency and determination.

Spike furrowed his brow slightly, his adolescent mind rejecting the idea of waking from the pleasant warmth he found himself encompassed by. It was far softer than any blanket and seemed to coil itself around his body as if in an embrace. From the edges of his dream he could smell a faint scent of cinnamon that he likened to the dusty old tomes that lay strewn about his home. The thought of books turned to cleaning and work which made him relish more in the ethereal embrace he found his body in.

As Twilight ventured more and more into her efforts she let her hooves brush themselves onto Spike's cheeks, holding his precious lips where she could get to them. She had been letting her lips linger against his for longer periods of time, stifling small moans in her throat. 'You don't need her', she thought against the electricity that surged through her brain, 'you can let me be all you need.' To her, each kiss was a promise. A promise of a heart, a promise of a home, and a promise of protection; to Twilight, there was nothing wrong with what she was doing.

As Spike steadily rose out of his dreamland, he began to feel his imagined blanket take on a strange and very warm shape. It definitely had a body and arms, and was obviously touching him, but something about the exciting jolts he felt involuntarily flash through his hazy mind felt strange in his current position. However, the scent of books rose to meet him again and his mind quickly justified that the source of the sensations was Twilight.

Her pace increased as her body involuntarily pressed down upon the object of her affections. Twilight had begun to lose herself in the moment as fantasies of kissing a conscious Spike took over her mind. She pulled her lips back for a breath and whispered, "I love you, Spike", before continuing.

'Was that Twilight?' Spike asked himself, 'What could she want? I'm still sleepy.' Spike had stopped dreaming and lay in a semiconscious state from behind closed eyes. As his senses began to ready themselves into action, Spike began to feel the sensations across his body grow clearer. His cheeks twitched against the sensation of a smooth hoof, the mass encircling his body was clearly the body of a pony. There was something else, though, some warmth he couldn't place. The vague taste of unsweetened tea came to him as he tentatively licked at his lips, eliciting a gasp from some unknown source. 'This is getting weird.'

Twilight shot upwards the moment she felt something slender brush across her lips, her eyes were white saucers resting over her burning cheeks. His tongue, Spike's tongue, had passed over her bottom lip. Her gaze locked on Spike lightly smacking his lips as he sleepily furrowed his brow. Millions of questions flooded her mind, threatening her very sanity with the paranoid implications they brought with them. Was he awake the whole time? Did he know? Was what she was doing wrong? More importantly, at least to the flushed unicorn, why did it feel substantially better than anything she had previously done herself?

The dragon beneath her let out a yawn and shifted in her grasp, startling her out of her delusions and sending her crashing to the floor with a yelp. Twilight quickly gathered her senses and looked up to face Spike, rubbing the remnants of sleep from his eyes. He threw his arms to his side and bent his body upwards in an audible stretch, once his eyes opened he gazed towards her tangled mass beneath him. Twilight's eyes contained shock and worry while Spike's demeanor obviously spoke that he had no knowledge of anything prior to his waking. With an almost quizzical sigh, Spike finally questioned Twilight's position, "Twilight, why are you on the floor?"

Twilight shifted nervously, searching in her mind for a rational explanation. It was a simple task to kiss Spike while he slept, but even facing him after doing so was proving to be arduous. 'Come on, Twilight, think of something', she thought to herself. She shifted her gaze around, physically searching for a plausible reason as to why she had scrambled to the floor until she finally regained eye contact with Spike. He was giving her a quizzical stare from atop the couch, waiting for an answer. In response, Twilight chuckled like a nervous foal and gave him a grin, "Good afternoon, Spike, how did you sleep?"

Spike looked down at his guardian and shrugged, dismissing her actions as one of the many quirks of Twilight Sparkle, "I guess so, but I had a few weird dreams." Spike grumbled a bit and arched his back, another audible pop emanating from it before he continued, "how long have you been up, Twilight?"

Twilight's left eye twitched ever so slightly at the mention of dreams, her intrinsic paranoia bubbling into her consciousness as she glanced hurriedly towards the clock. The minute hand, a lion's claw that descended to it's center point of a certain darconequus, pointed towards the etched "4" on the clock's face while the hour hand, an eagle's claw with a firm grasp on a glass of chocolate milk, remained affixed to the "12". 'Twenty minutes, that's all? I was sure it had been longer than that.' Twilight quickly found herself wondering about the scientific validity of romance novels in regards to time slowing during a kiss until her subconscious returned her eyes to Spike. "Only a little bit, Spike", she said with a little uncertainty. She wasn't lying to him, but part of her wanted to confess what she had been doing. Part of her wanted to tell him what she had said so many times as he slept, so many times throughout their shared lives. 'Only a little bit of me kissing you', she thought as the sensations of her actions flooded her body along with a crimson shade. Twilight looked down towards her hooves, embarrassment and shame filling her until something smooth cupped her cheek. She looked up with a gasp to see Spike in front of her, looking concerned.

"Twilight, you're beet red, what's the matter?" Spike asked as he brought his face closer to hers, intent on knowing if his guardian was alright. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Spike noticed the faint scent of old books and cinnamon. Her cheeks felt hot beneath his claws, but he was always taught that the best way to gauge sickness was through the forehead. He never knew why it worked in that specific way, but he would never question Twilight or her mother whenever they seemed to know what they were talking about.

Twilight couldn't do much other than stutter a few times in response before Spike had unceremoniously pressed his forehead against hers. A quiet tap and a dull pain was quickly overtaken by an amplified amount of sensory input. Her eyes involuntarily closed and her lips parted slightly as her mind went blank. Spike's face was touching hers, his claw was cupping her cheek, and their snouts were mere millimeters apart. She wanted to reach up and grab Spike's cheeks to pull him those few millimeters closer, but her body simply wouldn't comply. Twilight mentally cursed herself for freezing up at her opportune moment.

Once Spike had pressed his head against Twilight's the scent he noticed before became incredibly more noticeable, it was if he had inhaled right as the page of a novel had been turned. The more he smelled it he became all the more distracted from finding out whether Twilight was sick or not. The scent called back everything he had felt before he woke up. Spike closed his eyes, trying desperately to figure out where head felt this before when the taste of unsweetened tea floated to his tongue. The moment Spike placed what he had felt before, everything grew hot. He had felt this whenever he fantasized about Rarity in his dreams, specifically when she would kiss him as a princess would a hero or whenever she would do things he didn't understand when he woke up. 'Was Twilight, no, no that's crazy. She would-'

Spike was jolted out of his innermost thoughts when he felt something smooth press against his spines. He let out a short gasp and felt his eyes shoot open to see Twilight sitting before him, wearing the same expression of shock and embarrassment on her face. The afternoon sun shone in through the library's west window, casting them exclusively in a natural spotlight. Twilight Sparkle sat blushing before her beloved assistant with one hoof gently caressing his cheek with Spike perfectly mirroring her actions and expressions. Dust danced in the air as the two sat in silence, unable to say anything. Twilight found herself staring, not that she cared, into Spike's emerald eyes. Her hoof started to move in gentle ovals alongside his spines as her eyes fluttered slowly. Gradually, she noticed Spike's stunned face drawing closer to hers. Or was she getting closer to him? At this point she honestly couldn't care less, she had recognized she was moving for a kiss, a real kiss this time.

Spike kept telling himself that what was happening was crazy, that there was no chance in a million years that something like this ever would or was supposed to happen, yet he still found himself frozen in place. The closer Twilight moved the more he found his cheeks burning, his eyes darting around the room until they settled on the clock. The moment Spike noticed the time a huge mistake crashed through his psyche. 'Rarity! I was supposed to help her today!' As if forgetting everything that had or was about to happen, Spike turned towards the door with a shout, "Twilight, I've got to go!"

Twilight opened her eyes to see an empty space before her, obviously confused. All she could respond with was a baffled, "Huh?" She was just about to kiss Spike, right? What happened, what had gone wrong? She turned to see Spike practically sprinting for the oaken door leading out into the streets of Ponyville.

Spike had heaved the door, letting in the afternoon's light and heat, quickly yelling back to Twilight, "Rarity asked me to come help her stick a bunch of gems on her dresses yesterday, being the greatest assistant in all of Equestria, I can't let her down!"

Spike was halfway down the porch when a lavender explosion of magic erupted in front of rim to reveal Twilight Sparkle with an expression on her face he couldn't quite place. Seeing her appear before him, along with the sheer force of a teleportation spell, knocked him to his scaly bottom. He looked up, noticeably irritated, questioning her, "Twilight, what in the Equestria was that for?"

'Rarity's', she thought, 'he's going back over there even after he came crying to me.' It would have been a gratuitous lie to say that Twilight didn't hate the thought of Spike leaving the library and completely abandoning the moment the two were readily about to share. However, she couldn't let what she wanted get in the way of keeping her dragon safe, "Spike", she spoke softly, leaning down to his level, "Are you sure about going over there? I just don't want to see you come home crying again, it hurt to see you like that." Keeping calm and gentle was proving to be hard for her as jealousy had no qualms to taking over her thoughts.

Spike sighed and sat up, dusting himself off before he took the time to speak. "Twilight", he said flatly, "I've been through worse, especially for Rarity." He looked up and shrugged, "I've turned into a giant rampaging beast, fought off Diamond Dogs, and stuck needles in my butt. Knowing that I still can't tell her is nothing compared to all the other stuff I do." Spike cracked a bittersweet smile before looking off into the afternoon sky, "And I know I'll be okay because I always have you to come home to." Once he had finished speaking Spike began to walk lazily towards Carousel Boutique with a simple, "Later, Twilight."

Times like this always served to remind Twilight that Spike was only a baby by dragon standards, whenever he spoke like this it tended to make everypony forget he was scared of dual explosions and the paranormal. He was more grown up than Twilight herself was, especially during her pointless mental breakdowns, what was catastrophic tardiness to her was missing Arbor Day to him. He was always around anytime she needed him, staying up well past his limits just to fetch a quill or a bundle of scrolls. Her closest friend, her number one assistant, her dragon.

'And he's walking away.'

"Spike."

The dragon turned around when he heard Twilight call out to him only to be greeted by two lavender hooves on either of his cheeks. Suddenly, without any warning, his lips were met with hers. His eyes shot open as he attempted to pull back, only to be pulled further into the kiss by Twilight. The scent of old books flooded his nostrils even after Twilight pulled back from him. The warmth, the scent, even the taste of tea on his lips, all of it made sense! Electricity surged through his body, making every scale across his being feel separate from the other. It felt good, but he didn't know if it felt right. Spike had to know, had to understand why Twilight would kiss him like that. He tried to speak, but all that came out was a single whisper, "Twilight." He looked up only to see her turn around and head back into the Library.

Before she went through the open doorway, Twilight spoke to Spike without turning around. "Have fun at Rarity's, Spike", she said with a noticeable quiver in her voice that seemed a mix of giddiness and sorrow, "I'll be home for you when you need me.

That was that, the door closed and Twilight went back inside, leaving Spike alone on the path leading to the library. Spike's heart was pounding in his chest and the taste of unsweetened tea wouldn't leave his mouth.

Chapter Six: Abnormal

For Spike, a normal day would always consist of assisting Twilight Sparkle, his beloved guardian, and having chances of entertainment and the promise of seeing friendly faces spread out across his waking hours; on days he counted himself to be lucky he would be granted the chance to interact with the mare of his dreams, Rarity. Things were simple and pleasurable, a life that he felt ponies everywhere could dream of having.

However, at the ethereal hooves of a single emotion, it had all changed. Simplicity had shattered and was gradually falling away, uncovering something the baby dragon couldn't yet understand. Even as he stood stock still and silent in front of the very library he made his home in, he could not find a coherent thought anywhere in his head.

Spike finally brought himself out of the haze of disbelief to try and come to terms with what had happened. Things like this had happened before, but this time it was different. There had been situations in which Twilight would nuzzle his cheek and even kiss him in some nondescript spot on his head, but nothing like this had ever occurred. It had never been that direct, that lasting of an experience. There was never any need to blush, never any need to question anything that had previously happened as anything other than an act of simple gratitude.

'It's never been like this before.'

A single claw went to brush against his still warm lips, sending resounding jolts through his nerves in a testament to his memory being factual. As the memory surged so did the sensations, once again, it was almost a sensory overload for the young dragon. The heat that would run through his body and somehow freeze it like glacial fire centered from Twilight's lips. It was like Spike had become a superconductor for some unknown force that wrenched him apart molecule by molecule and scrambled his thoughts into a state of disarray that could rival even the spirit of chaos. It was something he'd felt somewhere before, but where?

"Oh, my little Spikey-Wikey!"

"Spike, I just want you to know that I'm proud of you."

"Rarity!" He shouted, scaring off a single bluejay that had played as the singular audience to the spectacle that had just recently erupted. Urgency took over his body, temporarily washing away his stupor as he jolted his head to stare upwards at the sun. It still hung lazily in the sky as the obvious totem of high noon reminding Spike of his promised duties.

He scrambled to the his feet and began to steadily walk towards Carousel Boutique. Spike did his best to concentrate on the job he would be accosted with, however not a minute had gone by before he turned his gaze over his shoulder towards the library. Everything about the building was still, a false tranquility to mask the recent eruption. Spike's teeth clenched and his whole body turned to face the stolid oak, wanting, needing some sort of sign of movement. The more he stared the more his insides seemed to shift and contract. "Come on", he told himself, "move!"

Spike clenched his claws hard enough to perforate the tender scales lining his palm and took a single step towards his home, towards Twilight. It would have worked, he knew it would have, he would have gone inside and figured everything out with Twilight. However, as it is bound to, history repeated itself. Spike felt his chest grow heavy and cold as something inside him faltered and cracked into some endless abyss down in the pit of his pudgy stomach. He couldn't do it, he couldn't and he knew it.

Spike sighed in defeat and sank into his cynical nature as he turned away from the library, dragging his tail with every step. "I'm hopeless", he sighed, "a hopeless baby dragon who can't tell the mare of his dreams how he feels." He kicked a rock, sending it tumbling into the leg of a bench where a pegasus of deep violet lay unconscious over a bedraggled chestnut colored colt. Their lives, at least for what Spike knew, must have been as easy as his once was. He watched the two toss and turn slightly before returning to his steady trudge.

As he walked his features hardened into a self abasing scowl, "I'm a crybaby, I wear aprons, and I can't even ask Twilight if something is wrong." At the mention of Twilight the memory surged again, eliciting the same emotions he had felt as it had happened. He'd felt all of them before, the kind of emotional blows that could make him float or fall flat to the earth in a wave of hallucinatory hearts. Twilight had kissed him and it felt almost the same as when Rarity herself had, if not better, and he had no idea why. It just didn't make sense, none of it made any sense. Spike shuddered and hugged his arms about himself, muttering to himself as he clenched his eyes in a vain attempt to clear his thoughts, "It shouldn't have felt good."

Twilight was his guardian, the mare who cared about him and took care of him from the day he was hatched. They were always supposed to lean on each other, the number one student and her number one assistant, right? Twilight studied and made sure he got everything Spike needed, he fetched the books and took care of her when she forgot to take care of herself and on his days off he would try and woo Rarity. That's how things always were, the only things he couldn't understand, or rather wouldn't let himself understand, were Twilight's ingrained idiosyncrasies and why Rarity wouldn't notice him. A torrent of ice flushed through Spike's body as an paranoid thought went through his head. 'Is it my fault, did this happen because I couldn't dragon up and tell Rarity?' Spike clamped his claws on either side of his head and shook it, letting out a childish growl. Spike's awareness focused once more into reality despite his claws remaining clamped over his ear frills. He stood at the center of a small intersection, to his back stood the library and to his right reigned the elegant rise of Carousel Boutique. Something made him stop and stare between the two juxtaposing structures. In one was Rarity and in the other was Twilight, each bore their own turmoil that Spike would have to face.

As if to try and rectify his past shortcoming he turned on his heels to face the library. Even at this distance he could make out the candle insignia ingrained into the heavy door of his humble home. Even despite Spike steeling himself for the experience that may have lay ahead he was unable to make two steps before turning around with his eyes shut and sprinting eastward. Perhaps he was too scared or perhaps it too much to bear for the baby dragon, all he felt he could do now would be to live up to his title as Equestria's greatest assistant. He would go to Rarity's and do his job like he always would then he would go home to find that he had just been dreaming or that Twilight had gone crazy after a failed experiment. Everything would be able to go back to normal.

As plumes of dust floated where his claws had previously dug into the pathway and Spike disappeared from sight a single curtain in the Ponyville library was shut.

Everything was set, the room was aligned perfectly and her appearance was nothing short of the grandest 'au naturale'. However, this didn't stop Rarity from fretting around her shop like a nervous filly with somepony to impress. In fact she was a full grown mare who knew exactly what she was doing with somedragon to impress, yes, that was it. With a dignified huff Rarity steadied herself for the sake of her plan. Whether or not Spike truly confessed to her it was her job to subtly inform him that she wasn't entirely opposed to the idea, a lady such as herself can't act too brashly after all. She turned to face herself in the vanity mirror that sat as a totem behind her precious sewing machine with an undying grin. Her coat was pristine and held not the slightest drop of cosmetics, even her own eyelashes rose over the crimson glasses she would dutifully shift whenever needed. "Honestly", she tittered, "I have no clue as to why I don't do this more often. She giggled a bit more as she began to question an imaginary Spike. "Oh Spike, darling, is there a certain reason as to why you're staring?" She brought her hoof up to her chest as if in feigning indignation towards a certain imaginary source of stammering, "However, I don't mind if you take in all there is to see." Her voice dropped to a slightly seductive hum as she turned to sway her hips, making sure to face nonchalantly behind herself, "I'm sure there's plenty you'd like to see." Rarity's smooth grin scrunched up and she fell to the floor in a tirade of absurd laughter, "Oh, Rarity, you are such a cad!"

So much for being a dignified lady.

Rarity's legs sprang her body upwards as a quick knock resounded from the entrance of her boutique to the center room. A foalish squeal rose from her mouth and a hoof quickly went to her lips to stifle it, she had to be prim and proper despite her excitement. Rarity gathered herself and shouted briefly to her visitor as she trotted daintily towards her work table, "Come in, darling, the door is open!" The sounds of a door opening and closing prior to the familiar click of claws against tile began her swaying turn towards the entrance of the living room the same way a crescendo would bring a conductor's hooves to face the heavens. Her best smile was already in place when she turned to face Spike, waiting for him to find her visage other than surveying the room around him.

All Spike wanted to do was get his mind off absolutely everything that had cluttered his mind, even wearing some girly outfit while singing the Equestrian national anthem with needles all over his body would have been better than the constant sensory input his thoughts were releasing. "Hi, Rarity, sorry I'm late. I just got a little caught up with..." His speech trailed off to float with the molecules of the surrounding room. Rarity had brought herself before him looking like an unfettered angel, the only thing he could liken the sight to was the glorious smile he had seen on his birthday. Yet it was different this time around, something made it seem all the more pure. There wasn't anything getting in the way of this unbound beauty before him. As he stammered the realization hit him. "Rarity!" He sputtered a bit, "You're not wearing makeup!"

She smirked a bit and waved her hoof about the small space between them, "And? Sometimes a lady doesn't want to put on ever so many drab cosmetics just to stay home." Rarity knew she already had him, but it wouldn't be much fun if she didn't elicit one of his adorable responses. "I had no idea you thought I absolutely needed makeup, Spike", she said with a false huff as she turned around. An unseen smile played across her face as she turned away from him.

"What?!" Spike shook his claws a bit before trying to save himself, already his mind had been wiped clean by Rarity's little game, "I didn't mean that, it was just a shock to see your beauty without all of that makeup. You don't need it to be pretty, honest!" Nothing he could do would stop the burning red from rising onto the entirety of his scaly face.

Rarity turned around and placed a gentle hoof atop his shoulder, "Darling, I was just playing." She giggled a bit as she smirked down towards the blushing adolescent, "Spikey you are turning a delightful shade of red, it is most becoming." Spike was about to yammer something else before Rarity gently prodded him towards a pair of stools next to her favored work table. Watching the way he followed any unspoken order with the utmost devotion turned her playful smirk into a genuine smile. Once she had sat him down she decided to put her plan into action. Small talk about a subject one's partner understands and enjoys always starts conversation and conversation can eventually lead to certain actions beneath the veil of candlelight.

Spike was quickly mesmerized by a sizable pile of gems before him, he had to wipe a drop of drool away from his muzzle before he could speak. "This is the haul from yesterday right, what did you want me to do again?" He asked with a slight quiver in his voice, the desire to be nothing short of perfect was weighing heavily on his demeanor. Spike's sweet tooth was screaming at him to abandon all table manners and wolf down every precious stone that lay defenseless before him, yet his lustful hunger was annihilated as Rarity took her seat behind him. The careless glance she passed the gems with ignited a waiting curiosity in the dragon.

"Oh, darling, the dresses can wait. I never gave you a reward yesterday anyway, let loose your reservations and take a gem of your liking." She rested her face atop her right hoof, giving Spike a half lidded stare from behind her glasses. She giggled daintily as an unchained smile spread across his scaly muzzle. Watching how his emerald eyes locked on a single slender sapphire was just too enamoring, a suitor who saw and went for what he wanted just radiated confidence. Spike was about to shove the gem between his ivory fangs when she spoke up, "Spike, I've been meaning to ask, what do gems taste like?"

Spike turned to the luminescent mare to his right and gulped down an imaginary lump in his throat. "Uh", he stammered, "I'm not really sure. Fruity?" He looked up at Rarity in wait of a response, but she just kept staring at him. He started stammering again before words just started to tumble out of his mouth, "I mean, technically you don't taste the gem itself, you taste everything that went into the making of the gem. The heat and all of the exact minerals blend and stuff, you can even taste how old it is. It's like wine, only it tastes good." He grinned at Rarity, proudly showing off his seemingly intrinsic knowledge of gems. maybe it was there because he was a dragon, or maybe twilight had rambled about it at some point.

Rarity chuckled a bit, "Well, Spike, I am a bit of a fan of wine myself and I think it is simply an acquired taste. Now gems, however." She leaned forward towards the gem Spike was holding, glancing from it to Spike. "Do you mind, darling?"

Spike had no idea what she was getting at, all he knew was that Rarity was inches from his face with an alluring look in her eyes. After managing a short nod his heart hitched in his chest. Rarity leaned just a little further, closed her eyes, and gave the gem in his claw a tentative lick. Spike could have sworn he had felt something warm and flat touch the smallest spot of his claw before he saw Rarity's sapphire eyes staring at him. If Spike hadn't been blushing before, he definitely was at this point.

Rarity leaned back to her original spot, her head resting on her hoof once more as she gave her lips a quick smack. "Darling, it tastes like a window."

"You've tasted a window?" It was all he could honestly say, the shock of the previous spectacle had loosened every bolt in his brain and brought him into the state of a blank slate.

A brief moment of silence passed between the two as they both became aware of their individual statements. For a moment, nothing in the world seemed to move, a pin dropping could have loosened a big bang into creating another universe into the silence. Then came the slightest sound, it was quick and quiet at first, but it gradually turned into a tirade of infectious laughter that spread from Rarity to Spike. "Glass, darling, I meant glass. Goodness, charming and funny, it's a wonder some sprightly young mare hasn't snatched you up."

Spike fought back the last remnants of his laughter before he could speak comfortable, "Aw shucks, Rarity", he mused, "I'm not all that. You're the one with the looks and grace." He closed his eyes and sighed a bit, but was jolted out of his tranquility by a light impact on his shoulder. He looked up to see Rarity with her hoof planted firmly into his shoulder, a glare of determination had taken over her face. He gulped in preparation of what was yet to come.

"Spike, I mean it. It truly is surprising that you're not, let us say, involved with anypony." She ended her sentence with a quick smirk. She leaned back on her hoof, "I wonder, have you ever kissed anypony?" The look on his face was just too much to bear, she had to bite her tongue to keep with laughing at just how adorable it was. He looked like his very life had flashed before his eyes.

Unbeknownst to Rarity, Spike's mind was practically flipping itself in thousands of possible directions. 'I haven't, right? I mean I've been kissed, but never actually kissed unless you count what Twilight- Wait! Do I even count Twilight?! What, what am I supposed to say?' The only response he could muster in the face of his fear was a quivering noise that sounded like a question. A quick shock ran through him as he felt Rarity's hoof being placed atop his head.

"Darling", Rarity sighed, "it's okay." She moved herself closer to Spike, hopping off her stool to be perfectly aligned with his level. "It's okay that you haven't had your first kiss." She heard a quick sound begin to rise from Spike, but effectively shushed him by placing her hoof on his lips. 'His smooth lips, oh don't lose yourself right when you've got him, darling!' She turned to face him with a lighthearted smile as the glow of her magic removed her glasses. Rarity turned to face Spike completely before removing her hoof from his smooth muzzle, "In fact, I think I know why."

Spike jumped as electricity ran through every bone in his body, making him sit rigidly atop his stool. "You, you know?" He gasped, straining to keep his composure.

Rarity brought her face closer to his, whispering, "I have thin walls darling." It wasn't in her plan, and it wasn't subtle, but she couldn't help it. He was right there in her hooves, what mare in their right mind wouldn't take the chance?

Spike had frozen at the words. She knew, Rarity had heard him. He felt a dizziness run through his body for a few brief seconds until a burning spark went through his mind. For one brief moment he saw Rarity reaching out towards him. he felt her hooves encircle his head and pull his face closer to hers. It was too much, he had to close his eyes. At first he couldn't feel anything in the darkness, that is until Spike felt Rarity's lips pressing against his own. The sensation caused him to reach out to caress her face, it was almost as involuntary as the quick moan that tried to escape past the kiss.

The gentle caress between the two's lips lasted for a few moments before he could feel something warm and flat brushing against his lips. In an instant Spike had figured out what it was and opened his mouth to gasp. Rarity saw this as her opportunity and pressed further inside Spike’s mouth, relishing against the feeling of his slender tongue fluttering up against hers. She immediately took charge and freed herself to explore her young suitor.

Spike's mind had gone blank, all he could know at this point was some pleasure that floated through his mind. He was brought into a haze once he felt Rarity pass her tongue over the back of his fangs and pull away from him. The moment he could breath, he tried to speak. "Rarity, you", he started to stammer, trying to register if she was saying something, "you, you and Twilight. And, and..." he trailed off as the memories from before and the current wave crashed through him. He saw Rarity staring at him, obviously concerned as his speech began to get quieter and quieter. White stars began to fly in and fade from the edges of his vision, removing any and all sensory detail with the sound of candles being blown out.

Spike half noticed a feeling of dizziness as his incoherent body collapsed from atop the stool. It wasn't a hard fall, nor was it a hard one, but it gave just enough time for a single thought to rise in the mind of the adolescent dragon. 'This, this isn't normal.'

Then it all went black.

Chapter Seven: Confluence

Falling unconscious and being knocked unconscious are naught but two different paths that lead to the same destination. Falling can often be found through fainting or the crippling vice of exhaustion, sights that can induce a mental overload can often induce the effects of fainting, while being knocked out necessitates only a good blow to the back of somepony's head.

When one is thrown out of their coherent thoughts by a strike they often wake up with no recollection of anything in between the strike and their waking moment. However when one sinks into the black fog at the bottom of their mind something much different will occur, they find themselves in a blank lucid dream. It is the place everypony forgets they have been every time they awaken to see the first rays of morning light, the place between sleep and dreams.

It is there that Spike rests, floating listlessly as he waits for his eyes to flutter open.

From outside some ethereal wall that he couldn't quite grasp, his nerves recognized a touch that could have simply been an imagined gust. The frills on either side of his head picked up vibrations and sent them directly into his head in the form of an interpreted sound. There was definitely movement outside of his fulminant slumber, almost a full reversal of the fall he had taken to get into this state, and the sounds of pegasi dropping coconuts on a wooden floor.

'Can a pegasus carry coconuts while they fly?'

Or maybe it was hooves, yes, hooves impacting a wooden floor while somepony was running. Somepony was walking and then that very same pony was talking. Spike could at least register it was a she, a she he definitely recognized. He'd heard his name called out by her before, something about having thins walls or another phrase like that.

Thin walls, that really sounded familiar.

What Spike experienced next can only be described as a dream. His mind began to sort through whatever memory it could find, attempting to make coherent sense of each scene's meaning and motive. It was almost like watching a play that he starred in, there he was kissing Rarity, and there was Twilight snuggling their bodies together on the library's solitary couch.

'We should get a new couch, maybe even another couch. That's a really good idea, I should tell Twilight about it later.'

Images and sounds played past in reverse for the young dragon. Rarity kissed him, then Twilight did the same and took him to bed while she read him a picture book or something. At the end there was only the moving frames of his own claws tossing something unidentifiable out of a can and into their best cooking pot. There was probably more to the dream, or whatever it was, but Spike had already lost interest.

'What was in that can? It looked horrible.'

He had lost interest and his mind had gone to work. It wormed through all of the stress that had been caused in a measly two days and searched through them like a foal would work backwards through a maze to get a quicker solution. The quicker solution in this case was a different truth, one that made more sense, a convenient recollection. All of those crazy images had to be a dream. He'd fallen asleep after looking at old pictures and was finally waking up. Twilight would be miffed about him sleeping in, but he honestly wouldn't care. It isn't like he hadn't withstood he abilities of lecturing before. He would wake up from this dream and everything would be back to normal.

Forwards or backwards, either way, it seemed like a dream. As with any dream there must be an end, an end to the delusion. For Spike it was to be a few sounds. he tried to concentrate, but he couldn't get much. The feeling reminded him of Twilight muttering math equations in her sleep before a big experiment.

Along with the noises came a new feeling that spread across his body, something he had felt a number of times throughout his life. It was the electric tingle of being picked up by magic. Something soft encircled him along with the magic and the sounds started to become voices, recognizable voices.

Rarity talking, then Twilight saying something that sounded like a question. There was another exchange, but it got a little muffled, Spike couldn't help losing interest in something he didn't quite get. There was a ringing that was instantly known to be a burst of magic before he actually started to feel something, something soft and smooth stroking and prodding his cheek.

From somewhere beyond the veil of his eyelids, Spike could hear a voice he knew and loved, "...ike. Spike? Spike, wake up, I'm here. Everything's going to be okay."

As if emulating Atlas lifting the sky, Spike began to raise his heavy eyelids.

Twilight shut the curtain to her bedroom window with a sigh, knowing she had made a fairly large mistake. She shouldn't have turned away like that, shouldn't have left Spike out there to fend for himself while he was under stress and she definitely shouldn't have let him go so easily. She had turned around and closed a door on him for Celestia's sake!

Watching him go, however, that was the worst part. Seeing that desperate stance he took before he turned tail and ran made her legs twitch, wanting, needing to go after him. In the end, though, it wasn't her place. Past experiences had taught her that she couldn't fix something before it happened. While a preemptive strike would work in a simple game of chess with her older brother, it wouldn't work when an actual problem was occurring.

In reply to her previous sigh, Twilight chuckled to herself over the knowledge that almost anything could work on Shining Armor when it came to chess. Spike had even beaten him once. The captain of Celestia's royal guard ended up cooking gem enhanced pancakes that night. A gentle smile burst through her somber mood, shattering it with another pleasant memory she had shared with her assistant. The accidental bite she had taken from a bit of turquoise was always a good topic to make her family laugh, one minute she tastes something like a test tube and the next her final filly tooth had fallen onto her plate.

That was a charm about Spike, he would always make you smile with some intrinsic idiosyncrasy of his. "More than anything though", she softly spoke to herself, a quirk the two had picked up from one another, "it's a charm about loving him." Twilight stopped to blush before she let out a patient giggle, admitting it to herself would still make the bookish unicorn flustered. Her mirth ended, however, when she looked at the drapes she had drawn across her window.

Spike was currently with Rarity and, based on recent events, had a good chance of needing her when he returned. Twilight needed to be at her best for him and she knew one foolproof method to be at her best, using her superior intellect for everything it could muster.

Any scientist would say that they needed their lab to work, any writer their typewriter; the occupation didn't matter, all that mattered would be the tools of the trade. And Twilight, as a subtly renowned scholar, would need her research materials. She closed her eyes, shutting off each sense she possibly could as her mind was cleared into a state almost akin to sleep before a spark of magic began to radiate from inside her horn.

Sorting books was simple when she could simply lift them with a beginners telekinesis spell and float them to wherever they needed to be, however, finding a book that could be on a shelf or under a bed multiple rooms away could be a bit of a chore. She couldn't see the book, she couldn't even physically look for it, she just had to find it, know where it is, and bring it to her. The search and retrieve spell, an extra credit report she had never had the courage to submit to her mentor. After all, what was a usable spell without some sort of manual?

The spark gradually began to shift and expand like putty, stretching itself through the ridges of her horn and outwards into her coat. Twilight opened her eyes to reveal glowing discs, exhaled, and released the charge in a focused wave. From behind the rays of mystic light that radiated from her irises she could see thousands of twisting images of her library, fluttering by too fast for even a single location to be discerned. Then, she felt it, that knowledge that she had it like Captain Peghoof had the white whale he sought after. With an actual motion of tugging on an invisible object she reigned in the object of her desires.

And promptly fell on her flank as a violet notebook tumbled from a magical portal directly into her snout. "Reason number two never to teach anypony this spell", Twilight grumbled, "no way of knowing how the object will make its way towards you." Rather than getting up and sitting like any civilized mare to study, Twilight simply picked the book up with her magic and let it float above her. It wasn't anything all that extravegant, really, just a five bit notebook any parent would buy for their foals' first day of school. The cover, though, it always made her smile. In green letters that had never been washed off sat the title, "Twilight + Spike", written by her own hooves. She flipped it open to the first page, revealing a note scrawled in much more legible handwriting. "A Study on the Possible Relationships of a Unicorn and a Dragon", she had written that as an embarrassed teenager after her brother had teased her about having a crush on her young assistant. The first few pages she skimmed through were those of lighthearted "notes" about her assistants' appearance and how they acted around one another.

The first section of the book didn't serve any scholarly purpose, really, rather it served as another portal into the beautiful memories of Twilight's foalhood. Photo albums, family traditions, even diaries kept the memories alive. With a few more turns she found herself giggling at scrawled messages in the margins of her entries. Spike had written silly statements outside the barriers of her more organized text while under the illusion that she had no idea he could possibly have been the draconic culprit. Small sentences like, "Twilight is best pony", or something with little more grammatical potential littered corners and edges, sometimes running off the pages before they could be completed. The best part about finding Spike's idle communications was finding her own reply to a single statement that lay at the center of a page left purposefully blank.

In letters of a glossy emerald stood the words, "I love you, Twilight."

Below them, "I love you too, Spike", lay in purple ink.

The messages had stopped after that and Spike wouldn't look at her for more than two seconds without blushing. She'd never blatantly said that she'd caught him and wanted him to stop, Spike had just gotten embarrassed and figured he had done something wrong.

Twilight breathed a sigh to bring herself into a more studious manner, beyond the written communication lay actual notes. There was everything about Spike in this book, his favorite foods down to his chemical makeup. Twilight had been continuing this project even after the two had reached Ponyville so she was sure there must be some information regarding the possible changes of his personality.

"Ways to help him if he's hurt", she muttered, flipping over a section of Spike's sleeping habits. "Ways to convince him that I'm better than- No!" Twilight shook her head and shouted to herself in an effort to regain her concentration. This wasn't about her, this was about Spike. Spike and Spike alone, she was here to help him, love him, and take care of him. "It's his choice", she steeled herself, "and I'll be with him every step of the way."

Twilight had come partway through her studies, she honestly had no idea exactly how long she'd been reading, when a series of quick raps came to the library's door with somepony calling her name.

Twilight's fur filled itself with a static charge as she was enveloped in a cerise explosion of magic, instantly transporting her inches from the door. A glow of magic encircled the door as she pulled it open, ready to take charge of whatever crisis may be at the outer edge of her home.

"Spike?"

No answer, no answer because he was laying there on the floor, not moving an inch.

"Spike?!" Rarity shouted his name as she drew towards him, if there was any time for her dramatic voice to rise forth from her throat it had picked the perfect opportunity. She flipped his body over, obviously forgetting a medical lesson about moving the injured, and scanned over his body. Her eyes and hooves traced over every accessible scale she could find, searching for a bruise or tear. Any wound on her darling Spikey-Wikey could have brought tears to her eyes. Said torrent found itself building behind her eyes as a certain thought of morbidity bloomed in her mind.

"No", she muttered, "not him, not here, not now." Rarity looked down to Spike's underbelly, paranoid delusions increasing in their power the longer she took.

She was greeted with the steady rise and fall of Spike's stomach, shifting ever so slightly like a smooth sea of green, he was breathing. He was breathing, just unconscious, and she was losing her mind over nothing.

However, that didn't change anything about her situation. Spike was unconscious in her hooves and it was probably her fault. She had to do something other than call out to him and verify his beating heart, but she wasn't a nurse.

'Rarity, you, you, you and Twilight. And, and...'

"Twilight!" She shouted, startling herself at her discomposed outburst. With a quick lift of azure magic Spike was on her back. "Oh, come on, Spikey-Wikey. You're going to be just fine." At that moment Rarity felt a feeling of insecurity bubble in her chest, was her previous statement for the dormant dragon resting atop her or was it for her own sake?

As more nervous questions cluttered her mind a dignified trot for the door became an all out gallop into the streets. Spike fainting was definitely her fault, Rarity had come to accept that, but there was something else bugging her as a great oak tree began to draw closer.

'you and Twilight'

Why did he mention Twilight? Was she calling out to her for help? That seemed the only explanation, but his words just wouldn't leave her head.

His words repeated themselves over and over again until she made the erroneous decision to shake her head as she ran towards her destination, Rarity only learned her lesson when her forehead bounced backwards off of the heavy library door. Before standing on all four hooves, Rarity quickly berated the door with a shout of, "Dumb door!"

She quickly righted herself and began knocking on the heavy door loud enough to permeate every room in the library as she called Twilight's name. Her knocking obscured the distinct sound of magic discharge from behind the door and Rarity quickly found her hoof touching something a little softer than the hard wood of the door.

"Ow! Rarity, what they hay? Why did you hit me?" Twilight stood in the doorway, dumbfounded for the moment by the light strike she was met with upon opening the door to her home.

"What?" Rarity asked blankly before realizing her hoof was a few mere inches away from brushing against her friend's muzzle. "Oh!" She quickly drew it back, already preparing a barrage of apologies, "Twilight, darling, I apologize. Something has me very worked up and I need your help." As she was speaking Rarity shifted her body so that Spike could slide down next to her forelegs without any major impact to the ground. Spike let loose a quick snore as his tail end met the ground and quickly returned to his dormant matter. "You see, darling-"

"Rarity, what happened?!" Twilight cut her off, quickly picking up Spike's body in a veil of lilac magic. He floated tranquilly aside Twilight's head, listing lazily like a specter from an ancient Equestrian myth. Twilight's scrutinizing gaze turned directly onto Rarity, freezing her on the spot.

Rarity had seen her friend agitated to the brink of madness before, but this was something else entirely. Twilight's irises seemed to have frozen into violet shards of broken glass as almost indiscernible sparks of magic danced and flashed across her pupils. To say she was taken aback would be an outright lie, Rarity was obviously shaken by the sight before her. So much, in fact, she could barely hide the quiver in her voice as she spoke, "Twilight, dear, Spike fainted. I was worried so I brought him to you thinking you would know what to do."

"He fainted?" Twilight asked incredulously, "What did you have him doing?"

Rarity flushed a bit with agitation, clearly upset by her friends adverse reaction. "Twilight Sparkle, calm down. I did not have him do anything at all." She ended her rebuttal with a quick step towards her fellow unicorn in hopes of bringing the already erratic conversation to order.

Twilight, however, held her ground and remained as resolute as she had been before. With Rarity coming so ostentatiously close to her, she couldn't help the small growl that escaped into the underlying volume of her reply. "Then what did you do, Rarity? Tell me exactly why Spike fainted."

Rarity drew back, scoffing in an attempt to avoid giving the answer, or at least a direct one. With a hoof drawn to her chest she drew back to her original position, speaking in a proper and level voice, "I'm afraid I can't tell you the exact details, darling. After all", she almost confidently sighed, "a lady doesn’t kiss and tell."

For a brief moment Rarity believed she would be off the hook, that is until she opened her eyes to face the aghast demeanor spread across Twilight's visage. In an instant she knew she could have picked a much better phrase to save her tail. The shocked stare Twilight had so quickly changed to rapidly regressed and formed into something cold and calculating, to Rarity it was almost like the infuriated glance of Princess Celestia herself.

"Rarity, get out", was all Twilight said as she turned around with her dragon assistant still levitating at her side.

"What? Twilight, surely you must-" Was all she could say before the iridescent charge of magic surrounded her body. She saw an image of Twilight glaring at her, glaring with glowing eyes, before her body met the floor of her own boutique. Her lunch stirred in her stomach and her legs hurt from the instantaneous impact of her friend forcefully teleporting her away from the library.

After the events of her day and this unpredictable climax, all Rarity could do was simply sit in the center of her designing room in utter confusion.

Twilight had Spike cradled in her forelegs, rubbing his cheeks with her hooves as she cooed softly to him, "Come on, Spike. Spike? Spike, wake up, I'm here. Everything's going to be okay."

A soft smile played on Twilight's lips as she saw Spike's eyes begin to flutter open.

Chapter Eight: Home

Waking from a dream is often a disorienting experience for anypony who had once caught themselves in the vivid embrace of their subconscious. The dream can become so real, so right, that the time the quiescent mind spent floating withing itself becomes reality. However, there is nothing at the end of a dream. At the end there is only the instant strike of reality, the reality of a saliva stained pillow, the reality of an occupation, the real world. And yet nopony ever wants to wake up from a dream, fillies grope at their blankets and grown stallions will fumble for the snooze button atop their alarm clocks if only for the age old plea, "Five more minutes."

In the end, though, there's never those last few minutes. The same wonderful dream is never there to sink back to. There's no house made out of ice cream resting atop an infinite plain of confectionery treats. There's not an equation representing the exact magic that makes the beloved Princess's manes flow in an unknowable breeze. There aren't hordes of fashion designers bowing before an insignia of two opalescent eyes with a single purple coif accentuating their unconquerable simplicity.

With grumbling noises of displeasure not uncommon to him, Spike begrudgingly opened his eyes. Before him was Twilight Sparkle, the rays of an overhead lantern radiating from around her body. The curvature of he lilac lips was automatically reciprocated by a scaly grin spreading beneath Spike's tired eyes. Spike closed his eyes and let out a soft sigh, not letting his smile droop, thinking to himself, 'Maybe everything's going to be okay.'

Spike was about to speak before he felt Twilight lean down to his forehead, planting fervent kisses one after the other. "Spike, I was so worried!" She continued to reprimand Spike as she peppered his cheeks, forehead, even his ears with kisses.

'She's still-'

Spike's thoughts were cut off by Twilight firmly pulling his body against hers in a tight hug, humming sweet reassurances into his ear. "Spike, please just tell me you're okay", she softly pleaded as she looked down at the dragon's face planted firmly in her chest.

Spike turned his emerald eyes up to her, unable to move the whole of his head without sufficient writing, and sighed. With a bit of a twist Spike had loosened Twilight's grasp just enough to look up with a bittersweet smile. "Twilight, I'm hungry."

Twilight stared down at him incredulously, letting a few moments of silence pass between the two before she started chuckling to herself. The more she laughed the more Spike would find himself caught up in the infectious laughter. With an exasperated sigh, and plenty straggling giggles, Twilight began to ruffle the spines atop Spike's head. "Alright then, tough guy", she cooed, "let's go cook some dinner."

Twilight set Spike down and turned on her hooves to make way for the kitchen, leaving Spike standing stock still where his claws were planted. He reached up to touch his cheeks, feeling how they burned beneath his fireproof scales. Feeling the burning shadows of Twilight's kisses against the simmering surface of his scales. The more his claws traced over each marker his heart seemed to explode over and over again inside his chest. It was like his whole body was expanding from the inside out and filling his mind with a fog of questions, insecurities, and paranoia. Lazily, his thumb brushed across his lips. Sparks still flew from the signatures two mares had left upon him.

"Spike?"

His body quickly jolted upwards to see Twilight staring at him from the kitchen doorway. "Uh, yeah, Twilight?" He quickly stammered in response, heavily attempting to hide a subtle quiver in his voice and body.

Twilight extended a hoof to the open portal to the kitchen, beckoning Spike, "Well, are you hungry or what?" Spike stared back blankly for a few seconds before shaking his head and sprinting past his caretaker. Twilight simply rolled her eyes and followed Spike into the kitchen, humbly accepting that there were quirks even she couldn't formulate a proper response to.

As the two drew themselves into the kitchen Twilight began to open cupboards and gather ingredients. There wasn't much in the library, really. A few bags of noodles here and there and maybe a bowl of gems for Spike locked away where stubby little dragon legs can't reach them. "Spike, clear off the stove, please. I was thinking we could make some pasta or something."

"You mean I could make some pasta?" Spike quipped back at Twilight, graciously taking the opportunity to tease her about her inability to cook.

Twilight turned to face Spike with an indignant smile, levitating a stool over to her assistant. "Oh, shut up, Spike", she giggled, "I can boil water." Twilight grinned and made a mock bow as Spike sarcastically clapped for her latent culinary talent before he began to clamber his way up the stool's legs. Watching him do something so simple was like watching an explorer clamber up a mountain and knowing he had actually scaled a mountain in his young life made it all the cuter. As Spike crested the seat Twilight couldn't help but let her laughter wisp out from the corners of her mouth.

"Twilight", Spike's voice rose quietly. By now Twilight was still giggling to herself as she gathered up assorted ingredients, what they would mix to create was beyond her culinary knowledge. Without tearing his eyes away from the leftover pot on the stove, Spike called out again, "Twilight."

Twilight turned her head away from the open cupboard she was peering inside to face her assistant, "What is it, Spike? Is there something wrong with the oven?"

"Twilight, you've got to see it for yourself.

With a sigh Twilight walked over to the oven and, leaning her front hooves on its edge, peered into the pot. Withing seconds her nostrils became devoid of their senses and her eyes were as big as saucers. "Spike... what in Equestria is that?"

Spike stood frozen, arms hanging lazily at his sides as his gaze swirled into the slowly burbling concoction left over in the pot. "I knew it was expired, but I didn't think this would happen. How long had that can been in there?" His voice was almost a whisper, too shocked to do anything other than ask questions.

Twilight turned to stare at her aghast assistant, thoughts rising in her mind as what appeared to be vegetables rose in the broth. "Spike, is this? This is from last night? What is this stuff?!" Despite her raucous questioning, Spike still stared into the relic of a meal. Withing seconds Twilight had gone back to staring. For what seemed like hours the duo looked into the pot, watching it churn and shift without any source of heat.

Twilight stared.

Spike stared.

And something, something in that pot, stared back.

"Spike?"

"Yes, Twilight?"

"We're going out to eat tonight, get your blazer."

With a hurried, "Yes, Twilight", Spike was out of the room and halfway up the stairs. Twilight hopped off the oven's edge and sighed, wondering what sort of process could turn canned soup into a possibly sentient abomination. At this thought a bubble popped in the broth, letting out what sounded like a guttural noise, causing Twilight to yelp and fire an unknown spell directly at the piece of kitchenware. Lilac light enveloped and imploded, revealing an empty, albeit scorched, spot atop the stove. Twilight stared wide eyed at her accident, shifting her gaze to the entrance to make sure nopony had seen her outburst. When she had assured herself her actions would remain a secret she turned to exit the kitchen, muttering, "Problem solved."

Spike exited the bathroom in the midst of tying a simple green necktie about the collar of his only dress shirt. Juggling the blazer in the crook of one arm with both claws trying to not turn the tie into an art project was proving to be a chore for the young dragon. Spike had become so concentrated he didn't hear a door opening, nor did he see the lavender surface his muzzle was rapidly approaching. Right as his claws brought the fabric into the beginning of the perfect knot he felt his body bounce off of Twilight's leg and back to the floor.

He looked up, rubbing his backside, to see Twilight chuckling at him again. A simple yellow dress adorned with a pink scarf coated her body,. The fabric swayed with her every curve, the only breaks of the beautiful golden illusion being the pink scarf and the lilac tone of her fur. Spike couldn't help but stare, letting his eyes trace over the mare in front of him. His admiration was halted, however, by a quick question from the unicorn standing above him.

"I take it by your staring that you like my dress." Twilight prodded at Spike, hoping the cocky smile playing across her face would hide the heat ready to spread across her cheeks.

Spike stammered a bit before standing, letting his coat drop to the floor. "So what?" He responded, "I think it looks nice on you. I'm just wondering why we have to get all spruced up to go get dinner." Spike glared down at his tie, now just a limp piece of cloth draped across his neck.

"Oh, Spike", Twilight sighed, using simple magic to dress Spike properly, "we have to look nice to go out to eat. Well, for where we're going at least." At the end of her miniature lecture she pulled back to admire her work on Spike's fashion. She couldn't quite put her hoof on it, but Spike really cut the proverbial cloth in a tuxedo even if he wasn't wearing pants. The solid black and white on his torso really brought out the radiance of each individual scale on his body.

As Twilight kept looking over every inch of Spike he began to fidget and feel his stomach flutter again. "Uh", he muttered nervously, "so, um, lets go to wherever we're going!" With that he turned and made a start for the door, ready to break eye contact with Twilight and ignore the butterflies deep inside his stomach. 'It's supposed to go back to normal', he thought to himself, 'we're just going out to dinner. Everything will be okay if I just ignore everything that happened. It'll all go back to normal if I can just leave it alone.' Spike was immediately brought out of his internal debate by Twilight's cheerful voice.

"It's a date then", she said as she trotted up to meet him by the door. Spike looked up, frozen, to face Twilight. She looked down to him with a kind smile and opened the door for the both of them. "Shall we go?" Twilight asked softly.

Spike cracked an unsure smile thoughts screaming reassurances to his tumultuous mind. "Yeah", was all said as he took his first steps into the night air.

The walk towards the restaurant district of Ponyville was a mostly tranquil one. Twilight stared up at the stars and pondered the probability they had to line up so perfectly in the night sky to make constellations. However, more than any dot of light in the sky, she thought about the dragon walking silently beside her. She was still concerned about how he had arrived at her door, unconscious in the arms of Rarity, but he didn't seem to mention the situation at all. She wanted to leave him in peace, but the scholar in her wanted, needed to know what happened to her beloved assistant.

For Spike the walk was a constant internal debate. He ignored the dim lighting of a cafe enveloping him as a doorpony held the entrance open. He heard Twilight order drinks for them both, letting her do all the talking. She could order food for the both of them for all he cared, all he wanted was some food to get his mind off of the last few events of his life. Twilight, Rarity, the two of them doing this to anypony else would be a dream come true. After all, wasn't it every stallion's dream to have mares fight over him?

His chin jolted in his hand when he saw a glass levitate itself into his immediate grasp. Spike looked up to see Twilight holding a slender glass of her own with her magic, smiling. "Would you like to make the toast, Spike?" She asked, swirling the deep crimson liquid in her glass.

Spike quickly reacted by picking up his glass and holding it up. He wanted to respond, wanted to make a toast or whatever Twilight said, but all he could do was stare at her dumbfounded. With glass still held high, Spike shrugged and smiled. "I got nothin'", he said as he smiled towards Twilight.

She looked at him and let her smile breach the corners of her mouth. "Me neither", she said, laughing. Twilight leaned forward along with her glass, clinking it against Spike's as she laughed. "To having something!" She cheered and tipped her glass backwards, sending its contents to the back of her throat.

Spike followed suit, gagging a bit as the last of the sour fluid flowed past his tongue. "Ugh!" He cried, "What is this stuff?"

Twilight grinned as she refilled their glasses, "It's wine, Spike, it's an acquired taste."

"It tastes awful", he quipped, grimacing at the lingering taste. "And aren't I a little young to acquire the taste of sour grapes?"

Twilight shrugged and levitated Spike's glass back to him. "Maybe, I don't know. I'm your guardian and I say you can so just sit back and enjoy the dinner."

With Twilight's word floating about his ears Spike shrugged as well and said, "When in Canterlot."

The duo's mean continued as any other they had shared before. Light conversation found itself being interrupted by bad puns and clumsy jokes from either of them. When their meals had actually been set upon the table all words were lost to the sounds of mastication and appreciation, Twilight swallowing heap of lasagna one after another as Spike crunched down on practically scorched speared vegetables. Every time Spike would set down one of the spears she would notice chunks of the metal had been rendered into food by Spike's powerful teeth, she constantly had to turn her gaze away from him lest she spray pasta across the table.

By the time the two had finished their meals the bottle of wine had been drained of a little under half its contents and the plates had practically been licked clean, literally in Spike's case. Soon enough Twilight had paid the bill and the two made their return into the night air, Spike riding atop Twilight's back with an satisfied smile playing across his face. He let the cool night breeze wisp past the spines on his head, relishing in the shivers that arose from beneath his coat.

"Spike?" Twilight called, slowing her pace. Her tone carried a hint of concern that went completely unnoticed by the blissful dragon. "Spike", she called again, her tone a little more forceful this time around.

"Hm?"

Twilight sighed and stopped, lifting Spike to the ground before meeting him at eye level. "Spike, are you okay?"

Spike stared back at her confused, "Well, yeah, I feel fine. Dinner was great and all."

Twilight sighed a bit before placing a hoof on his shoulder, "Spike, I don't mean that. I'm asking if you are okay. You came home from Rarity's out cold and all you had to say was 'I'm hungry', I'm concerned, Spike."

Spike's eyes widened and a little color fled from his scales. "I-I don't want to talk about it", he stammered, turning away from Twilight.

"Spike, please, I want to help."

"I'm okay Twilight", Spike said with a notable quiver in his voice. "Nothing happened, just leave it alone."

Twilight pressed into his shoulder a bit, determined to get the information out of him. "That's not the way it seems from here, Spike. Please, Rarity do anything to make you faint?" She already had a fairly clear idea based on Rarity's indirect confession, but she had to be knowledgeable about this. She had to help Spike.

"She", Spike stammered, daring glances at Twilight, "I worked too hard and passed out." 'Please', Spike thought to himself, 'please stop.'

"Spike", Twilight sighed, "I know that isn't the truth." She was about to continue before Spike's voice rang out into the night, startling the both of them.

"Twilight, you did the same thing!"

Silence passed between the moonlit streets of Ponyville, Spike's echoing cry serving as the only waking sound against leaves scratching somewhere in the wind. He had his eyes closed as tight as his fists were clenched, preventing bottled up tears from escaping. "You and Rarity both-" Spike stopped, breath hitching in his back before continuing, "And I don't know how to feel!" Spike's breathing hitched again, his voice becoming quieter. "It's too much", he whispered, "I'm not used to it being like this."

Finally, after his breathing had evened out, Spike opened his eyes. For a flash he saw Twilight crying silently, the next there was only the subtle smell of rosewater perfume.

"I'm sorry", Twilight whispered, "I shouldn't have forced myself on you like that." She dug her face into the side of his head, muffling her apologies into unintelligible pleas for forgiveness. Twilight stayed like this as Spike instinctively wrapped his arms about her neck, the two pulling each other closer in the middle of the moonlit street.

Spike was in a complete state of disbelief, he didn't expect this. In truth he didn't know what to expect, but this blew him right out of the water. "Twilight", he spoke to the mumbling unicorn, "Twilight, it's going to be okay. Really, it's okay."

Twilight pulled back, trails of hot tears still on her face, chancing a weak smile. "I'm sorry, Spike. I really-"

"Twilight it's okay, you can stop apologizing." Spike smiled, honestly warmed at the apology, "I forgive you." Within seconds he found himself pulled into another embrace, this one bringing his cheek to meet Twilight's. When she pulled back her muzzle was closer to his and all either could hear was the sound of one another breathing. "Twilight?" Spike whispered, scared out of his wits to speak any louder.

"Yes, Spike?" Twilight asked. wrapping her forelegs softly around his neck.

She began to draw closer, eyes slowly closing before Spike spoke up again. "Twilight, I-"

Twilight gently shushed him, her lips brushing just under his. "I know", she sighed, "forgive me, Spike."

Spike thought he said something else before he felt her lips press gently into his. Their lips parted and met over and over again, Twilight planting a smaller kiss at the end of each like a signature. At this point he wasn't sure what emotions went through him, or if they were even his own. Yet, for whatever reason, Spike found himself sinking into the kiss.

Without any prior permission, Spike let his forked tongue stroke against Twilight's lips. A gasp escaped her mouth, giving them both the opportunity to let loose desperate moans as they dove further into their kiss.

The moon floated silently in the sky and leaves swayed in the breeze.

Beneath the stars and veiled in silence Spike and Twilight pulled apart and shivered in the cold.

"Spike?"

"Yes, Twilight?"

A pause was shared between the two once more as they huddled together for warmth.

"Let's go home."

Chapter Nine: Influence

Day and night, an eternal cycle that shall take place so long as the princesses retain their power over the celestial bodies. If fiascoes of an omnipotent nature do not happen to occur the dance of the moon and the sun will continue despite how much any certain pony would want a darker tan or a longer party.

Beneath a waning moon Twilight Sparkle and Spike had walked to their home, side by side, mist rising into the cool air from the heat of their warm breaths. No words flowed between the two, no threads of conversation, even as they climbed the stairs to their bedroom. Although Spike could have sworn Twilight kept stealing glances at him as he removed his clothes. Whatever reason Twilight kept blushing and turning away after each stolen sight was completely lost on the dragon.

'Must just be Twilight being Twilight, it's not like she hasn't seen me without clothes before. I'm not wearing anything, like, all the time. For that matter I don't think anypony ever is.' Spike thought to himself, making light attempts to wrap his mind around why Twilight would blush about seeing him take off a simple coat. He turned to face her, ready to raise the question when he caught the sight of Twilight's dress rising over the crests of her back hooves and dragging over her flank. The smoke that puffed from his nostrils and the feeling of a thousand butterflies forced Spike to turn on his heels and focus on unbuttoning his shirt. 'Question answered!' His thoughts flew forward as he desperately attempted to dispel the small clouds of soot that hung in the air.

Spike had sighed in resignation once he had finally gotten the constricting albescent cloth off of his body. He stared at the shirt draped over his claws, trying to let his mind focus on any anchor point he could find for himself when Twilight planted a kiss just below one of his ear frills. Spike's body jolted into the air a few inches, sending the shirt into the air before it sank back onto his head, the sight was too much for Twilight to withhold a chuckle. Spike looked up with a sarcastic smile and she responded with a subtle grin. "I had fun, Spike", she said, brushing the shirt off of his head.

Spike shrugged and closed his eyes, blushing beneath the sincerity. "Yeah", he chuckled nervously, "me too, Twilight."

Twilight turned away from her assistant, making headway towards her bed the same way Spike made for his. As the two were pulled beneath the caress of their blankets their thoughts were aflame.

Twilight riding the giddy thunderstorm of excitement she used to feel when she would perfect spells substantially above her level of abilities and Spike perennially questioning himself.

The night had ended with he and Twilight kissing and Spike had done more than Twilight would have. They had gone on a date, no matter how he looked at it their night out was irrefutably a date. However, at this point he just didn't mind. It wasn't the old normal, but for whatever reason he could come to accept this.

He and Twilight Sparkle had gone on a date. They cried together. They kissed and Spike was somehow not the surprised one in the end. Before he drifted into a tranquil sleep, Spike muttered, "I forgive you, Twilight."

After a dreamless hiatus from consciousness, Spike awoke to feel the sun pressing beams of heavenly light into his eyes through the oval window of his bedroom. The morning light cast shadows across the floor and lit up particles of dust that floated about the atmosphere, the juxtaposing sights blending perfectly as only the dancers of nature can. Sounds of Ponyville making its cheerful start into a bright new day seeped through an open window somewhere, giving the room a beautiful life of its own. The scene was an epitome of a perfect morning, a moment of frozen time that nocturnal beings could never hope to appreciate.

Spike personally thought it was rubbish and desired nothing more than five minutes of sleep. However, with a discontented huff, he swung his body out of the basket and stretched his spine out to the fullest length he possibly could. Once he was satisfied with the resounding chorus of pops that emanated from his limbering back Spike reached a claw behind himself and gave his rump a good scratch, completing his morning ritual.

With his routine completed, Spike set out for the kitchen. The responsibility of making breakfast had long ago become a pleasure for him. Sure cooking was considered a bit of a girly activity by the younger colts in town, but there were plenty of reasons Spike could enjoy it. He got wear his favorite apron, he could actually take pleasure in the fact that his claws were always busy with the chore, and the end result was always delicious. The kitchen was practically his inner sanctum, what with Twilight barely having any idea how to cook.

The thought of her somehow lighting a bowl of cereal on fire brought a smile to Spike's muzzle as he reached the library's main room. 'Twilight's great at magic, but she could barely tell a spatula from her horn of the had to.'

Spike, however, was quickly brought out of his musing state by the sounds of aggravated shouting and dishes clattering from the kitchen. After he firmly planted his face in his claw, Spike marched to the kitchen, knowing Twilight was attempting to cook breakfast. Whatever kind of responsibility or hunger took over the unicorn always exasperated Spike. If he ever overslept, which he apparently had, she tried to cook breakfast for the two of them. The results of Twilight's attempts were only rivaled by Rarity's younger sister, how Twilight could stand firm in the eyes of evil and simultaneously falter before frying hay strips Spike would never know.

Spike entered the kitchen to find Twilight standing amidst a pile of pans and ingredients that had no business in Equestria being combined. Twilight only responded to Spike's scrutinizing gaze with an embarrassed smile and nervous laughter. "I was trying to make omelets", she said, rubbing the back of her head.

Spike dropped his crossed arms and took his signature apron off its hook, smiling encouragingly at Twilight. "You didn't even light the stove did you, Twilight?" He asked with a laugh.

The unicorn stared downwards, hiding her embarrassment as Spike walked towards her. "I was only trying to make breakfast", she sighed. Twilight quickly brought her head back to attention when she felt a warm claw rest on her shoulder. The reassuring smile coming from Spike was enough to raise her spirits.

"I know, Twilight, I know." Spike said before placing both claws on his guardians back before giving her a gentle push. However, Spike's movement to clear the area was met with childish resistance.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Twilight asked as she shuffled to her hooves against Spike's shoving.

"Getting you out of the kitchen, Twi, we both know this is my job."

A miniscule argument rose between the two, but eventually Twilight was ejected from the kitchen. As Spike returned to the kitchen, Twilight swallowed her pride and set herself to the tomes lining the shelves of the library. She was steadily becoming engrossed by her favorite section of Modern Spellcasting, a brief essay on the theory of self-levitation, when a knock came from the door. Twilight looked between her book and the door, she quietly hoped the visitor would lose their desire to check out a book so she could continue her studies. Though when the knock came again, slightly more demanding this time around, Twilight exaggeratedly hoisted herself off the floor and made to open up the library.

Atop the small footstep stood a snow white unicorn, levitating a small bag alongside her head. Twilight barely had time to register that it was Rarity before the aforementioned mare took the opportunity to speak. "Twilight, I have come to apologize", Rarity declared, waiting formally for Twilight's response.

Twilight, however, was a bit shocked. Too stunned, in fact, to feel any residual scorn for Rarity's past actions. "You, uh, came to say what now?" Twilight jabbered, mentally kicking herself for not having a better prepared response.

Rarity sighed complacently before repeating herself, "I said I've come to say I'm sorry, darling." The brown bag made its way into an instinctive grasp of Twilight's magic before Rarity continued, "I've even brought these apology muffins to show my sincerity." With that, Rarity bowed slightly before Twilight in wait of a response.

Twilight herself was a bit taken aback, she honestly hadn't expected an apology, even she could admit to herself her actions were a bit harsh. "Rarity", she said a bit dazedly, "it's alright, I accept your apology."

Rarity's face shot up into a smile, satisfied with her forgiveness. "Truly, darling, you forgive me?" She cried a tad bit melodramatically.

"Rarity, of course I forgive you. In fact, I owe you an apology as well", twilight said, humbling herself as well. "What I did was cruel and unwarranted. I shouldn't have acted so irrationally." Twilight bowed her head ever so slightly only to have it lifted by Rarity's dainty hoof.

"Come now, darling, you were acting only to protect Spike. I would have done the same had I been in your shoes."

"I'm not sure, Rarity, I would have expected a roundhouse kick rather than forced teleportation from you", Twilight quipped mischievously.

"Oh hush, you", Rarity jibed with a smile as she bopped Twilight lightly on the snout. The resounding laughter that echoed between the two seemingly repaired the gap between them that had so recently formed. as the two stepped inside the library to continue their conversation. The two shared the designated apology muffins, speaking to each other calmly about recent events. Rarity was about to bring up what she had done with Spike, and his mentioning of Twilight prior to his fainting when an excited voice rang out from the kitchen.

"Twilight!" Spike shouted as he swung outwards from the kitchen, apron hung over his shoulder and a tray of small omelets resting in his claws. His gaze brought him to see Rarity sitting across from Twilight before he became slightly nervous. "Uh, Rarity, hey there", he said meekly, flushing a bit at the sight of her.

Without hesitation, Rarity's eyes shone before she turned to Twilight. "Darling, that reminds me, I need to apologize to Spike as well. Personally, if you don't mind."

Twilight felt a bit wary at her idea, but rescinded her worry to try and accommodate her friend. After all, things were the way they should be now, what could go wrong? "Um, sure, Rarity. Would you like me to leave the room or something?" Twilight asked as politely as possible.

"Actually, dear", Rarity replied, "I was hoping Spike would engage in a leisurely stroll with me. We do have a lot to talk about after all." At the end of her statement Rarity flashed a smile over to Spike, wanting to make the dragon feel comfortable with her.

The two mares stared at Spike as he contemplated his answer. He was nervous, but he had full right to be. Rarity knew how he had felt and then she had kissed him, aside from that he hadn't had any recent contact with her whatsoever. Spike glanced at Twilight, a sensation in his stomach telling him to stay in the library; however, the more he looked into her sapphire eyes he couldn't help but agree. "Sure, I'll go", he said confidently, making Rarity giggle a bit. Her laughter made him all the more nervous so, rather than blushing in front of the mares he cared more about in the world, he ran outside shouting, "I'll meet you outside, Rarity!"

Rarity turned to Twilight and smiled. "Well", she hummed, "I shall take my leave of you, darling. I'll be sure to have him home coherent this time."

As Rarity trotted towards the door Twilight called after her. "Just don't steal him away from me while you're gone, Rarity." Twilight couldn't help her instinct to put a threatening breath into her joke, even knowing it was rude to judge her friend after she had accepted her apology.

At hearing Twilight, Rarity turned around smiling with her snout slightly in the air. "It's not stealing if he comes willingly, Twilight", she quipped before exiting the library. The quiet slam of the oaken door and Rarity's jab filled Twilight with a sense of worry. However, when she ran to the window, Twilight saw that Spike and rarity had already began to make their way into the streets of Ponyville.

Twilight stepped back towards her book with a sigh of resignation, hoping she was fretting over nothing like usual.

The two shared their own section of a pathway leading into the central park of Ponyville, passing small talk around as they trotted along. Spike almost lost sight of Rarity when she made for a bench secluded under a blooming magnolia tree. "This will do", she said, making herself comfortable as Spike watched stoically before she patted her hoof in the space nearest her. "Come now, Spike", she said, beckoning towards him.

Spike sat down beside Rarity, visibly nervous against her calm and cheerful demeanor, trying to predict what would happen to him. "So, uh, what did you want to talk about, Rarity?" He asked, looking up to the pristine mare before him.

"First off", she sighed, "I want to apologize for being so brash. It was very unladylike of me to be so forward." Spike was opening his mouth, ready to reply when Rarity shushed him by pressing the edge of her hoof to his snout. "Let me finish, darling." Spike blushed and closed his mouth, waiting for Rarity to continue.

"I suppose I should explain myself as well, Spike." Before she went on, Rarity glanced tenderly at Spike. All of his attention was on her, making him resemble a knight waiting for orders. Just the thought made Rarity's cheeks feel a tad hot before she turned to stare out into the park. "Spike, when I heard your confession I was plagued by a flurry of emotion. I won't lie that I had possessed the previous notion that you were infatuated with me, but I wasn't expecting to overhear a confession of outright love. Honestly, darling, something so mature and romantic can really knock a mare off her hooves." She smiled, letting her right fore hoof stroke across Spike's shoulder. "The whole experience made me, oh. How should I put this?" She questioned, searching for the proper answer to her rhetorical question. "It nearly made me go through a mental breakdown, Spike", she said laughing. Her sudden happiness made Spike smile and laugh along with her.

"Sorry about that", Spike chuckled, "you kind of weren't supposed to hear me."

"Oh, Spike, what's a confession without the mare you so desire hearing you?" Rarity questioned, a flirtatious smile playing across her lips.

"Hopeless?" Spike jokingly asked, returning the smile. Earning him a light knock atop his head.

"Goodness, darling, spare me some of your charm or I'll literally fall head over hooves for you", Rarity chuckled, not noticing the nervous expression that took over Spike.

'Fall for me?'

"Spike", Rarity called, "to be honest I'm not sure if that's true."

"Huh?" Spike looked back towards her. Noting the distant smile on her face as he followed her eyes into the winding paths of the park.

"Spike", Rarity sighed, "I'm not so sure I can fall anymore. I don't see how I didn't before. Within the week of meeting me you became my willing assistant any time I called on you, for that matter, you eventually became my hero."

"Rarity", Spike stammered, "I'm not all that. Honest!"

Rarity turned to face him, giving his cheek a stroke, paying particular attention to the frill of his ear. She smiled at how his body shook under her ministrations. 'My dear Spikey-Wikey must be ticklish. How could I afford to not know this?' "Stop being so modest, darling", Rarity cooed, "you're practically a knight in shining armor. What stallion would fight canines ten times his size alone to save a mare, hm?" Spike started to stutter, but Rarity interrupted him. "What colt wouldn't stop trying to please a girl who made him take out her trash and stuck needles in his rump?"

Before Spike could react, Rarity had shifted herself and had pulled Spike into her embrace. He lay atop her, muzzle resting in the crook of her neck as she continued humming directly into his ear frill. "Could anypony else say that they literally conquered the monster that lay in their heart at the memory of the one they love?"

"Rarity", Spike whispered, muffled by Rarity's coat.

She cut him off by biting his frill gently with a giggle, pulling him closer as his body rocked with flustered laughter.

"Rarity!" Spike yelped between fits of laughter. "What the hay are you doing?!"

The alabaster unicorn laughed as she flipped the two so that she lay on top of Spike, careful not to crush him. Between her giggles, Rarity tried to speak to the dragon beneath her. "I know, I know, should have asked shouldn't I?" She inquired with a smile, leaning dangerously close to Spike.

Spike turned slightly away from her, stealing glances back at her as a deep blush took over his cheeks. "Well", he stammered, "I didn't mind, but a little warning would be nice next time."

Rarity smiled down at him, leaning forward to nuzzle his warmed cheeks. "You know, Spike", she whispered, "if you were to confess directly to me I would be able to tell you how I felt."

At that Spike's eyes shot open and the tumult in his stomach returned. he thought of Twilight, of Rarity, of himself. Memories of the previous night flew into his mind, filling him with a faint warmth, but he couldn't deny the love that had stayed with him for so long. All of the uncertainties weighed down on Spike; Twilight's feelings for him, his torch that still smoldered for Rarity and her throwing a wrench into his gears. he didn't repeat himself and pass out, however, Spike ignored the swarm of butterflies in his stomach and began to speak. His voice was quiet, almost blending in with the breeze that ran through the white flowers and green leaves of the tree. Yet it was noticeable enough for the pair sharing the bench in the center of the park.

In the same way Spike latched onto the sense of rightness that he felt under the moon with twilight, he latched on to the burning flame that had stayed in his heart since his arrival in his new hometown.

"Rarity, I love you."

For a moment, Spike couldn't hear anything aside from the sounds of autumn. The break quickly ended before he heard Rarity's voice, just as gentle and scared as his had been.

"I love you as well, Spike", she whispered, placing a tender kiss on his cheek. Her lips trailed up, brushing slightly against his scales before they found their purpose against the corner of his mouth.

Rarity didn't press herself into the kiss, nor did Spike. the two only lay together, pressing kiss after kiss upon the others lips.

With each kiss, each sensation of long delayed success and elation, there was also a sinking feeling in Spike's heart.

Two mares chased after him and both had caught him, all because he had let them. he went with their wishes, never able to make his own decision. The love for Twilight burned beneath the love for Rarity, filling Spike with a half ignored dread.

Above the spectacle that played out in the park, above Twilight Sparkle worrying over a novel in the library, the sun floated listlessly in the sky.

Chapter Ten: Confession

Petals of the two stoic magnolia trees danced towards the ground at the slightest brush of wind; some fluttered in front of the odd couple beneath their previous home. One settled itself in a purple coif of Rarity's mane, making it seem as if a piece of her coat had reneged to become a new clump of hair. Spike brushed it off lazily, ignoring a petal that had had the misfortune of finding itself speared on his tallest spine.

He had shifted himself back onto his bottom and Rarity, much to the embarrassment of Spike, had happily used him as a pillow. Spike instinctively began stroking her ears, earning little moans of approval from the drowsing unicorn. Eventually, she had dozed off on his lap, the dragon continuing to pet her ears and stroking her mane; he was a gentleman and he had a golden opportunity.

Briefly, Spike glanced up to take a peek at the world outside of Rarity. He could see dirt paths winding towards and away from his bench, rendering themselves into webs that would stretch across the park and, eventually, fuse with the center streets of Ponyville. Birds chirruped somewhere in the distance, making themselves nothing more than a supporting melody to the ethereal songs that were naturally made by an ever moving world. Leaves danced and rotated in the air with a myriad of flower petals, each taking to the skies to find somewhere new to rest until they would be lifted again.

The sun peeked from around a cloud, sending a burst of its light into Spike's eyes. His pupils contracted to slits before his claw made its way to cover his eyes; once his eyes had adjusted to the radiance of the day he looked to the skies to see a branch of the Weather Patrol whisking thin cirrus clouds across the sky. From his vantage point they looked more like colored dots spinning and twirling about the skies like little magnets that pulled nature where it needed to go. 'Just making everything pretty, I guess.' For a moment he thought could see a gray pegasus bouncing atop a thundercloud that released a flurry of electricity with each successful hop, however, after giving his eyes a good rub it was gone.

He could hear the bustle of the market square beneath the birds and found himself imagining the ponies of his town. There would undoubtedly be stalls with the local veterans set up at every corner; the flower girls would definitely be having one of their friendly competitions, despite everypony knowing they all worked together. Carrot Top was probably sharing a space with Applejack, Spike had always figured farmers naturally got along.

Spike chuckled at the thought of the whole Apple family out selling their wares together. Granny Smith would probably just gab with any customer willing to talk to her even if Applejack was trying to sell them something. Apple Bloom would try to maintain her spot as the Apple family advertisement, pestering potential customers within an inch of their sanity. Applebloom was a good kid and all, but she really knew how to wear a pony out. Then there was Big Mac, that colt would do nothing but work in manly silence while mares everywhere looked and admired him. Spike had to hand it to him, though, he was one good looking colt. 'Miss Cheerilee really is a lucky mare.' The thought made him grin just a little harder.

Spike glanced down at Rarity and his smile dropped a bit. He had never seen Rarity look at any stallion, or mare for that matter, in any sort of romantic light outside of what she called "The Royal Jerk Who Shall Not Be Named". For a minute, Spike felt incredibly unsure of himself. He wasn't tall, he wasn't buff, he wasn't very manly—and here the mare of his dreams was, napping on his lap. "Just what is your type?" he asked softly.

Rarity responded, albeit unconsciously, by wrapping her forelegs around his body and kissing his stomach. When her lips met the soft scales of his underbelly he began to laugh. "Who, who cares?" he questioned to nopony in particular, "This is alright by me."

When his laughter had ceased, he went back to thinking while he stroked Rarity's mane. Hoping to catch a glimpse of the Weather Patrol at work once more, Spike turned his eyes up to the sky. Celestia's sun hang far to the west, already beginning to tint the sky a light orange. 'Oh man, how long has it been? Twilight is going to kill me!'

Twilight.

Spike's eyes opened to the size of saucers and his scales seemed to lose a bit of their shine.

Twilight was waiting for him at the library.

His stomach felt like it had been dropped off an invisible cliff and the beating of his heart seemed far too distant.

Spike steadily began to panic.

Twilight was waiting for him at home while Rarity was sleeping on his lap. He had been kissing Twilight last night and he had been kissing Rarity earlier today.

Spike distractedly noted to himself that his right claw was shaking rather fervently, he did not notice that it was shaking atop Rarity's head.

His thoughts gradually shifted faster and faster, tumbling into a blur of questions inside his head. The more he thought, the more tremors shook his body. Rarity had fallen for him, and yet something felt out of place.

'Twilight.'

Just a few weeks ago Spike would have thrown an entire parade in Canterlot if Rarity had fallen for him, yet now he couldn't feel the same amount of happiness. He was happy, overjoyed in fact, but there was just something that burned inside the pit of his gut that wouldn't go away.

Maybe it was heartburn, too much quartz could do that do a dragon.

'Twilight.'

His thoughts danced back to the lavender mare, to his caretaker, to Twilight. He could feel electricity dance across his lips when he thought about her. He could remember how she had looked just before he closed his eyes and that electricity had traveled across his whole body; her eyes had closed and her mouth was open just enough for him to see the pink of her tongue below her teeth. A shudder went through his chest as his memories played themselves further and further into his minds eye.

'Why do I-'

The sight of Twilight in her little yellow dress, hoof made by Rarity for her birthday.

'Is this-'

The dress washing over the natural curves of her form as she took it off.

'This can't be right. Right?'

He had a crush on Rarity, he had always had a crush on her.

Right?

"Spike?"

Spike's body jolted upwards, his jaws snapping shut with an audible click. He looked down to face a concerned Rarity. The azure of her eyes seemed so gentle, so caring, almost like the sky that hung above them. She sat up and drew herself towards her suitor, trailing a hoof up his chest. "Spike, dear, you were shaking. are you alright?"

Spike stared blankly at her, his mouth working silently as if in search of a coherent answer. After sputtering out a few short sputtering noises he managed, "Sorry for waking you up, Rarity."

'Ever the gentleman', she thought with a smile before returning her gaze to him. She obviously made an impact on him based off of the childish shift he took towards her. Without a word, Rarity had drawn Spike to her chest, cooing and kissing his spines. His arms wrapped around her frame and the two drew themselves ever closer. Finally, after Rarity had felt she had quelled her dragon, she allowed Spike to draw away. He looked so very young when something was wrong with him. There was a sort of charm in his youth. He had grown so much in the few short years she had known him, but he could still be child who needed somepony to tell comfort him. "Come now, dear," she beckoned, raising his chin with a gentle hoof, "tell me what's gotten you so perturbed."

Spike stared upwards towards the alabaster mare before him, his eyes shifting to and fro as if searching for the proper words. "I", he started, trying desperately to avoid the soft shine her smile seemed to give. "You don't, don't know everything do you?" He asked quickly as he drew his face back to hers. Spike, the epitome of desperation, looked up to Rarity whose ears flicked almost automatically as she raised her brow.

She raised her hoof, trying to figure out a reply that would make sense next to a senseless question. Rarity paused, stared blankly at her manicured hoof for a moment before bringing it back up into the air before her, and let out a quick huff. "What?" Was all she could muster.

Spike roughly dragged his claw down the center of his face, grumbling out apologies and self abasing comments. He left his dull talons spread across his face, one taking vigil under his left eye. Rarity didn't know.

Twilight didn't know.

He was the only one who had gone through everything. Spike was at the center and he was being torn apart. He had to do something, something to clear the air, something to make all of this less confusing. "Rarity, you weren't my first kiss."

He said it more to the scenery than anything, he couldn't bring himself to face Rarity until she heard her sweet laughter, like the sound of teacups touching one another. He shot up, her muzzle was covered by her hoof and his face burned a deep crimson. She opened her eyes for a moment and closed them in a moment from a new torrent of laughter surfacing. Spike brought his claws to his chin, twiddling them as he turned his face downwards.

Rarity couldn't help her laughter, what her little dragon had said was just far too much for her to bear. He had looked old, almost ancient, when he had covered his cheeks. 'Have to remember to pinch those.' She knew she hadn't been his first kiss, that just sounded ludicrous. Spike was young and handsome, whatever filly or mare couldn't notice would have to be inherently blind. For all she knew it could have been her own sister; Sweetie had been showing an interest in boys for a while. The thought made her slowing laughter rise again. Imagine, a young filly having a crush on her older sibling’s prince; there was palpable drama. She, however, had been his first real kiss. She had to have been, the poor dear passed out immediately after it happened.

And here he was before her, looking as guilty as a puppy. The issue wasn't serious, but it was one that could move mountains to one as young as Spike. she reached out to him, placing a hoof on his cheek, and smiled. "Spike, dear," she cooed, "it's okay. Come now, tell me who it is."

Spike felt a jolt run through every scale on his body. In an instant something that had been lying in wait manifested itself in the center of his body. This wasn't okay, he knew it wouldn't be okay, something had to go wrong.

He tilted his head upwards, mouth open, and stopped.

He had seen this before; months ago with different circumstances, but he had seen it before. There was the same touch of silk, that comforting presence of her hoof somewhere on his face. Almost unconsciously, he blinked as slow as a cat would and allowed his cheek to brush a little into her touch. When he opened his eyes he saw her smile, that smile that had burned itself into his young mind, the smile she let show only to him. It wasn't the face she put on to deal with a customer, it even managed to be different from the satisfied happiness she felt when she spent time with her friends. It was pure, pure happiness.

That smile that was only for him, that's what made it okay. For all Spike cared, he could have been plummeting towards the earth again.

"It-" He stopped, the words locking in his throat again. "It was Twilight."

Rarity felt her whole body stop for a moment. Not twitch, not shake, stop. her heart, her mind, even the circles she trailed across Spike's cheek. Worry began to overtake her mind before she forced herself to be calm and collected. Spike was young, he wouldn't know the difference between a real kiss and something familial. She let out a sigh, one that she couldn't stop from shaking, and smiled once more at Spike. "Oh, my little Spikey-Wikey, it's okay. If you did something when you were-"

"Rarity, Twilight kissed me! Right before you did, Right before!" Spike shouted, tears welling up and spilling down his face. Rarity drew back from him, the volume in his voice was only matched by his desperation. "She kissed me and then you did and I just don't get it!" The tears were flowing unabated now, the dam had broken and the flood was coming. "I don't get it," his voice hitched. "Why don't I get it?" Spike buried his face in his claws and kept questioning himself until Rarity interjected. He could feel her hoof on him again, it was still as soft as ever; it quelled his shaking once again, but the tears still pooled in his hands.

"Tell me everything, start from the beginning and don't stop." Rarity's voice was cool, calculated; she was keeping herself as calm as possible despite the burning that she felt deep down inside her body.

She had figured out why Spike mentioned Twilight and she had a pretty good idea as to why the librarian reacted to her actions in such a callous manner. She would have a talk with Twilight later, for now Spike needed her.

Rarity patted Spike's scaly back, waiting for him to respond. Each second made the burning hotter, made her understand what it was. It was anger, anger she had felt since their first altercation that was slowly elevating into a smoldering fury. 'What kind of mare would take advantage of Spike like that?! What in Equestria was that lurid bookworm thinking? When I get my hooves on her-'

"Okay."

Rarity jumped out of her gradually descending thoughts at the voice that barely above a whisper. She looked down to see Spike still holding his face in his claws. She drew him towards her, her demeanor dropping a bit when Spike would refuse to meet her eyes.

Spike sighed and blew a puff of smoke from his nostrils before speaking. "I wanted to tell you a few days ago, I wanted to tell you for months, Rarity. I don't know why I couldn't. I guess I'm just a pansy or something." His shoulders shook with a quick laugh. Not one of happiness, but one that simply cannot be stopped. "But it was in there and I had to say it." He looked down again, "You really weren't supposed to hear me. Or maybe you were, I don't know, I think I was just really scared. I really tried to tell you, I really did, but I just couldn't."

Spike shifted in his seat, scratching the back of his head. "When I got home Twilight knew something was up, I swear, she knows everything about me." He chuckled again, there was happiness in this one and Rarity couldn't help but hear it. "I cried to her and told her what happened and then we looked at pictures together."

"Pictures?" Rarity asked, she didn't want to interrupt, but the story had taken a curious turn. When Spike looked up to her with a waxing smile she felt a sharp pang in her chest. He was feeling better and he had just barely started talking.

"Yeah, our old photo album, it helped a bit. When I woke up she was acting really flustered." Spike paused, deep in thought. "We almost kissed in the library," Rarity gritted her teeth, "but I remembered I was supposed to help you. She tried to stop me, didn't want me to get hurt or something, but I told her I'd be fine." He let out another sigh, looking at his claws as if they held the answer. "Then, then she really laid one on me." He brought his claw to his forehead. "She just told me, ‘Have fun at Rarity's, Spike, I'll be home for you when you need me’. So I ran to your place, and you know what happened there." Spike looked up to Rarity, eyes wide as saucers, "And do you know the worst part?"

Rarity made her voice calm and leaned closer towards Spike. "No, dear, what happened?"

"She was right there when I woke up. She told the truth." His voice hitched as fresh tears started to flow.

"She teleported me back to the boutique," Rarity blurted, unable to let Spike go unknowing of his caretakers actions.

"Wait, what? Why?!" Spike cried, looking up to Rarity with the utmost concern.

She closed her eyes and let a grin wash across her face. He still cared about her, that was good. "I implied what I had done and she overreacted."

"Implied?" Spike asked, a little incredulously. He knew Twilight could dissect a sentence and find out what somepony truly meant, but he didn't think she would make assumptions about anything.

"A lady does not kiss and tell, Spike. Continue," she said with a wave of her hoof.

"Oh", Spike blinked, remembering what he was supposed to be doing. "We went out to eat when I woke up, Twilight called it a date, but I—" Spike trailed off into an incomprehensible mumble. "Yeah," he said, admitting it to himself. "Yeah, it was a date. Twilight took me out on a date. Then I told her what happened at your place and she apologized." Spike paused again, taking his rendition of his experiences into account. "She apologized and kissed me again, she asked me to forgive her."

Spike hopped off the bench and looked up at Rarity; she was shocked by how serene he looked, how much serenity he seemed to absolutely exude. "I kissed back and forgave her." He spread his arms open and said, "And here we are."

Rarity stared at Spike, trying to take in all of the information, and he stared back. He felt better . . . not okay but he definitely felt better. 'Getting something off your chest can really help, I should tell Celestia that.'

Rarity stepped down from the bench and beckoned Spike to her side. "Spike, we're going to the library." The coldness in her voice had returned, Spike could practically feel it. His composure was replaced by worry in less than an instant.

"What?! Why are we—"

"I'm going to have a talk with your guardian, Spike. There are some issues that need to be resolved." With that she began making her way towards the setting sun. Her eyes were set forward and she would not turn her head even as Spike questioned and fretted at her side. There were issues to resolve and she was going to resolve them.

Spike eventually gave up on persuading Rarity from talking to Twilight, he knew it was the worst possible thing that could happen. Panic and paranoia was back, increasing tenfold as he saw the library looming before him. Rarity told him to stay inside, he barely heard her.

She stepped inside the grand oak as dignified as she could ever be and closed the door, leaving Spike alone in the light of the setting sun.

Briefly, he muttered to himself, "This won't end well."

Spike sat on the small step of his home and began to wait.

Somewhere in the distance, he could hear birds chirping and the market drawing to a close.

Chapter Eleven: Inevitable

The sun was setting.

The sun was setting and it was so invariably beautiful it almost looked like the sky had been painted on. The fringes of the east had already begun to soak up the deep violets—purple, really, that was starting to become a really common color, lately—of dusk, spreading them as thin as possible to mix with the tinges of crimson that held steadfast in the shadow of the clouds that stretched their vaporous bodies across the glittering atmosphere. Cirrus clouds.

Each was a glowing gradient of bright orange to a deep red reminiscent of oil brush strokes that fringed out just enough on the edges to make it look all the more real, all the more like a fabricated still upon canvas. Everything: the clouds; colors; even the light, it was all being pulled in by the sun, riding off like an old Wild West hero.

The market had let its hustle and bustle die out; everypony had everything they needed to furnish their homes and feed themselves.

Even the birds were quiet alongside cicadas and nature itself. It seemed that every living creature had quieted itself for this moment, this perfect, magical moment in which all of nature was in the flux of day and night.

"This won't end well."

While birds chirruped, a few clouds dispersed as a clumsy gray pegasus flew through them, two ponies walked by talking about the merits of science versus magic.

While the perfection was broken, Spike hadn't even noticed it when it lay all around him. He stared off into space, hunkered down in the same position he had taken not minutes before Rarity had entered his home. Stay there, that's what she had said and he had obeyed. The door latched like it would with anypony walking into the library and Spike stared down at his open claws as if they held the answer to some auspicious question he hadn't yet found.

"This won't end well." He had been repeating it like a mantra, over and over again. At this point, Spike couldn't tell whether or not he was actually speaking out loud. In the end it didn't matter, the dragon was far too lost in his own thoughts to recognize anything outside of his claws. His fingers were outstretched, shivering a bit as his heart pumped blood throughout his body.

Spike sighed and let his face fall into the welcoming embrace of his cold palms.

He didn't cry, didn't scream or moan, all he did was repeat a slightly different mantra.

"This really won't end well." It wouldn't end well and he knew it. Spike could hear it in his voice and in the muffled voices that were starting to rise through the door or an open window somewhere in the library. They're yelling, he thought, or one of them is. I wonder who. He sighed again, bits of steam catching on the scales of his palms. They were fighting—fighting over him—and it was his fault. Rarity had said yes, a dream come true, and then there was Twilight, something he didn't quite understand yet.

The thought crossed his mind that Twilight didn't really understand either and he chuckled. Spike started to picture Twilight jotting down notes and writing hypothesis about her actions, it wasn't long before he had a vision of Rarity turning into a complete drama queen about hearing him.

He thought about Rarity.

He thought about Twilight.

It wouldn't end well, but there was plenty of dark corners to find a little humor in; that was something he was good at. Twilight called me a, what was it again? Cyclist? Sickle? Cynic? Yeah, a cynic.

His mood was starting to brighten, not enough to be a ray of hope but just enough to make a baby dragon start to listen to the world around him. He looked upwards to the dusk, finally leaving his palms, and let out a stream of emerald flame. It was slow, sustained like a tender kiss. His body glowed beneath it like an actor under a spotlight.

The fire sputtered out when a loud yell permeated the thick walls of his home. Spike jumped to his feet, fear and anticipation taking control of his movements. He couldn't recognize enough words - an expletive or two - but he could recognize Twilight's voice.

"Oh man", Spike said as his spines drooped, "Twi's pissed." The moment the words left his mouth he clapped his claws over his jaw, realizing he had just cursed . A childish part of him began worrying about Twilight's rule against swearing before another yell brought him out of his trance.

Spike ran for the door, letting his fear fall to the ground below him.

He had to help.

He wasn't sure who he had to help, but he ran nonetheless. Spike would have to take a side and he knew it, beneath the pit of worry in his heart he knew it.

When the door began to open Spike thought about a long forgotten tin pot.

The colt in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.

That was the first sentence on the very first page of a novel that was now going completely ignored. Next to it, Twilight Sparkle sat with her head resting on her crossed forelegs. Her brow was furrowed and her horn was alight, tracing small strings of magic in the air to form words and diagrams. Probabilities and contingents glowed around her, each going ignored as well despite all their organizational help.

"I-I love him", Twilight muttered into her hooves. Her eyes closed slowly upon hearing the inescapable fact for what she considered as the nth time. There she was being a mathematician again, she had actually formed a written and testable function to measure an increase in heart rate and body temperature every time she admitted it to herself. N, or x, representing the number of times I admit my feelings and Y representing my elevated reaction. Twilight sighed and shivered. Her breath was hot, her cheeks, flushed, and she couldn't stop swallowing; every scientific analysis and cheap romance story she had read all pointed to the same conclusion.

She looked up to the window, worry returning as she saw the orange tinge to the sky. Spike and Rarity had been gone at least an hour by now.

It's not stealing if he comes willingly.

Twilight cringed, Rarity's departing message had been hanging in her head ever since she had tried to start reading. "I was just trying to tell a joke," she mumbled into her hooves.

She huffed and stood up, stretching the pins and needles out of her legs before clambering atop her bed. As she stared out the window the ethereal glow of the setting sun painted her in a new coat of deep amber.

She thought about her actions—about Rarity—and what she had done. Most importantly, she thought about Spike. There wasn't a single specific in her mind, there was only her dragon.

Twilight Sparkle sat facing west and thinking of Spike as a soft smile played on her lips. In that moment, she, and everything around her, was perfect.

"I love you, Spike."

The birds began to chirp, the central market drew to its final close, and a lone figure sneezed on the library's porch.

And then the door opened.

She told him to stay there and doubted whether or not he had actually heard.

In less than three days she had overheard a confession of long withheld love, fallen in love herself, and had found herself in the middle of a love triangle. The novels she read made it so much more glamorous than it actually was; the burning jealousy and need to claim what she held as hers.

Two years, two years! Rarity had picked up on it soon after Spike and his rather interfering guardian had made their arrival into her life. It was just puppy love at first, something she could humor and take flattery from, yet it had soon evolved into love. Love, imagine it! A young drake like Spike falling for her after so long, and he had kept quiet about it for so long.

Then Twilight came along.

Twilight, that was right, was why Rarity was stepping into her so called friend's home. There was an issue that needed to be resolved.

The door latched behind her and she peered around the open room. The spines of a legion of books faced her, but there was no sign of the unicorn she had been searching for. She had drawn in a breath and was about to call out when the clamor of hooves hitting wood came to her ears. Rarity looked up to the carved stairs to see a pair of lavender hooves descending into her sights.

Twilight looked down to the first level, smiling and trying not to trip over herself as she made her way down the stairs. She caught a glimpse of white and her smile dropped. "Rarity?" She asked, confusion blatantly overtaking her. "What are you doing here? Where's Spike?"

Where's Spike? Goodness, she doesn't know a thing about subtlety, does she? "That", Rarity replied coldly, "is precisely why I'm here, Twilight." She motioned for her to come forward. "We need to talk."

Twilight, unaware of the conflict, trotted towards her friend with a tinge of worry in her heart. Rarity was upset, that much she could tell, but she didn't have enough data to properly form any theory on what she could do. "What do you mean? Is Spike okay? Did you two-"

"Don't be coy with me, Miss Sparkle."

Miss Sparkle? Twilight stopped in her tracks, her right hoof resting in the air in a frozen step. She looked at Rarity and shivered, her face was calm but her eyes were aflame with cold fire. And her voice, it made her recoil as if she had been slapped. "Rarity, what are you talking about?"

Rarity gritted her teeth and took a step towards the librarian. "Need a review, do we, darling?" Her words were laced with contempt, burning rhetoric that Twilight couldn't help but fear; however the word "darling" seemed to ooze a venom that could almost be tasted.

Rarity couldn't believe Twilight was trying to play innocent, knowing full well of the situation and what she had done. "Let's see, after knowing how Spike felt you've taken advantage of him multiple times, forcefully thrown me across town with magic, and meddled in affairs that aren't your own." Rarity could see the realization starting to dawn on Twilight's face and continued, raising her voice along the way. "Don't you think that's a little off putting?" Rarity took another step forward. "Molesting poor little Spike like that?"

Twilight had felt a shapeless cloud grow inside her body and spread out when Rarity had called her out. Spike must have told her. She had done nothing aside from listen, letting herself be berated until she heard the sting of Rarity's accusation. "Molesting?" Her question came out a whisper.

"And another thing, what kind of mare tries to—"

"Molesting?!" Rarity visibly recoiled, a good bit of her steam dropping off somewhere it couldn't be retrieved. "How dare you, Rarity, how dare you?!"

"Twilight, calm down." She tried to speak sternly, but couldn't find a tone that sounded convincing enough. The reaction before her wasn't what she had foreseen. Rarity had expected a little backlash, but nothing like this, nothing so passionate from a bookworm.

"No, Rarity, I am not calming down." Twilight's voice was cold, filled with an underlying anger that had quickly reached its boiling point. "You of all ponies have the sheer gall to accuse me of that, of taking advantage of Spike?" She advanced on Rarity as a timberwolf would advance upon an opposing beast, "Let me give you a recapitulation of your own, Rarity. Spike came home and cried to me, cried. Do you understand? And I comforted him. You brought him to me unconscious, that was your fault if you've forgotten, and I took care of him yet again. He comes home from you, battered and exhausted and for the past two years I have done nothing but take care of him after you've gotten your snooty little hooves on him!" There was no stopping her now, Twilight couldn't really stop the anger from spilling out and wouldn't if she had the choice.

Twilight felt intrinsic pings of magic sparking in her fur as she advanced. She pulled in another mouthful of air, readying a new barrage, when something hard cracked against her snout. It moved her face down and to the left a little bit and there was a distinct feel of something hot pouring onto her lips. She brought a shaky hoof to her snout and dabbed at it. For a moment Twilight didn't understand why her fur had turned red, then she could hear Rarity yelling at her, calling her something along the lines of an accusatory harlot or something, and everything clicked.

She had been slapped.

Rarity had slapped her.

Her nose was bleeding.

"Get out."

Rarity's face coiled in a sneer of contempt. "Oh no! I am not taking my leave just because you want me to, you violent little—"

"GET OUT!" Twilight roared, her eyes filling with a burning light. Arcs of uncontrolled magic snapped across her body.

Rarity, frozen in pure fear, began to remember just how she had gotten her cutie mark.

"Twilight!"

They both heard the door open and turned towards the outburst. Spike was standing in the doorway for a few seconds before rushing between the two mares. He frantically looked between them, babbling their names and disorganized please of concern.

Rarity looked down at him and felt a string yank somewhere in her chest. She couldn't get him on her side, not here and definitely not like this, but she could make a good exit. She huffed and turned her face to the door, trotting out in the most dignified way she could manage atop her shaking legs. "Spike!" She called without turning, knowing at least he was listening. "I will remain at the boutique."

With that she made her exit, slamming the door with a thrust of magic.

Spike and Twilight stared at the door in disbelief, neither of them spoke for a full minute until Twilight took the initiative to try and lighten the mood. "Well that escalated quickly," she sighed as she dabbed at her dripping nose. She felt her hoof be pushed away and saw Spike dabbing at her muzzle with a sheet of discarded paper. He wouldn't meet her eyes, but she could tell he was worried nonetheless. That made her feel a little better.

"Twilight, what happened?" Spike finally looked up at Twilight, his eyes wide and pleading like a foal near Hearth's Warming Day.

Twilight sighed and smiled down at her dragon. It wasn't fake, but it definitely let pain shine through, Spike's little shiver said that well enough. "I don't know, I don't think it's over though." She smiled again and kissed Spike's head just to the right of his spines. "Thanks for helping me with that, Spike. I love you." Twilight sat back on her haunches and patted the floor next to her, smiling right at her blushing assistant despite the throbbing pain in her nose.

"Come on, we need to talk."

Without a word, Spike stepped forward and leaned on Twilight as her foreleg pulled him closer to her body.

Outside, the sun had finally set.

Chapter Twelve: Twilight

Something small can, and usually does, symbolize something much greater. Flags for empires, banners for soldiers, these are often symbols of war. Sometimes they are symbols for peace, prosperity, unity, brotherhood.

A bit is smaller than a hoof, and yet enough bits could buy a city. But what is a bit? A chunk of a glittery ore that grows in the soil? It is a rock, a shiny rock, granted, but a rock nonetheless. Ponies work their whole lives for these chunks, these bits. They work for gems, bits, trophies, and medals, forgetting that at one point everything they ever wanted was just an unformed clump in the mud.

However, ponies do work for other things. Happiness, belonging, love; they strive for these above all. These things have symbols, but they do not have a cast mold for what they are. In that, their beauty is found.

What is happiness? Some say a smiling face. Some say it is money, mares, stallions, carriages, land, property, houses, castles, books, gems, dresses; some say it is simply happiness.

To her, happiness is her friends. Happiness is her studies. Happiness is an A on a report, any report, be they old or new. Happiness is a knight in a tin pot, a family photo where she first felt how smooth his cheeks were; happiness is all the years she had spent with him.

Happiness was knowing why she was always content when he was around. Always at her side, more knight than assistant.

Happiness was loving him.

True happiness was finally understanding, knowing that she loved him.

Her nose wasn't bleeding anymore, he had stopped that.

Remember to thank him for that again.

She couldn't breath through her nose too well, that and she tasted blood. Contingencies like that couldn't be too attractive.

Twilight looked down at her dragon and he looked back at her.

"Spike?"

"Yeah?" He asked a little too eagerly, he was still worried and it showed. Twilight, however, just looked at him, a little worried herself.

Her foreleg encircled him tighter and she smiled. When he grinned just the tiniest bit, she started laughing.

"What? Twilight?" Spike began to fidget in his caretaker's embrace, half of him wanting to join in and half of him convinced Twilight's brain had finally been knocked loose.

"I", a fit of laughter broke her speech, just knowing she was about to talk and had interrupted herself made it all the more funny. "I completely forgot what I was going to say."

Twilight sprayed air between her lips and fell into laughter again.

Spike didn't want to, really didn't feel that this was the time for it, but he couldn't help it; he laughed too. He had put his face in his claw to try and stop himself, to try and be the cynical voice of reason. That only made it worse. Soon enough they were both laughing like idiots.

There was something nice in that, that moment of idiocy.

Happiness.

The duo calmed down and the laughter subsided as it always does, eventually they had returned to their previous pose. Twilight had here foreleg around Spike and Spike's arms were pushed awkwardly into his torso in accordance to the embrace. Twilight sighed and then spoke. "I know you think all of this started a few days ago."

"What?" Spike asked, completely taken off guard by the question. He must have done something funny, because he had made Twilight chuckle again. Why she was laughing and smiling at a time like confused him beyond belief. It wasn't as if anything funny had happened lately. Everything seemed to be kind of broken, like everything was being torn apart between the two ponies he cared more than anything for, and here he was, right at the middle of it all.

Shining Armor once told him that soldiers sometimes laugh during the calm before the storm, unable to find any other output for the nervous energy that took over their bodies. Was this that? Was this the calm before the storm, that fight being just a prologue for what was to come?

"You're so cute."

"Huh?!" There it was again, the sensation that he'd had his feet kicked out from under him.

"I mean it, you've got that look on your face that just screams 'confusion'." Twilight smiled and gave Spike's head a quick pat. "It's nice, you know? You're confused, but you don't lose your head like I do."

"Twilight, what are you talking about?"

Her smile dropped when the question hit her. It was soon replaced with a demure smile. She removed her foreleg from his body, enjoying his intimate presence all the same.

Twilight turned to look down at him, ready to say it. It would be real this time, she knew it and so would he.

Twilight closed her eyes and steeled herself. "Spike, I love you. I really do, and not in the way I think I'm supposed to; but I really don't care what I'm supposed to feel in accordance to common Equestrian morals." She opened her eyes to look at her assistant; he was stock still, locked in the same position, but listening to her as intently as he ever had. She smiled and continued, eyes never leaving his. "I know you think this all started a few days ago, the way I've been acting, but that's just when this catastrophe started to bloom.

"That's kind of ironic though, you know? The fact that I would only start feeling like this just days before you finally charmed Rarity?" Twilight sighed, still smiling. Spike had his mouth open and she gently nudged it close with the tip of her hoof. "That's wrong though. I've been wrong a lot lately, primarily about instances related to our current plight." She chuckled, "I blame you for that, handsome."

A blush crept onto Spike's face at the sound of Twilight's praise. It was honest, true, genuine; there wasn't a single way to take her words as anything but infallible truth.

"Remember back in Canterlot, there was that new guard that always hung around the library or our hall and called it 'his post'?"

"Uh, yeah?" Spike questioned, not understanding Twilight's disorganized ramble. "He stared at your flank a lot." Twilight let out a groan of disdain in response to his statement.

"Don't remind me, he was a total creep." Twilight gave her hoof a wave and shook her head, "Let's get back on topic lest I completely descend into talking about an old irritant.

"After about three weeks of him being a guard he started to hit on me, not casual flirting, but hitting on me in what was possibly the densest way possible. I ignored him, he didn't like that too much; so, one day, he just up and confronts me. He had the gall to ask me what my 'deal' was and accused me of being a lesbian, in a relationship with Celestia no less!"

"And where was I when all of this happened?" Spike asked, dubiously.

"He never came by if you were near me", Twilight replied, a bit too quickly. "Absolutely terrified of dragons."

"I was napping, huh?"

"Don't ruin the charm."

The two chuckled again, this time with genuine mirth, before Twilight continued. "I reported him and I like to think he got thrown in a snow globe or something crazy like that." The unicorn let out another groan, "Or sent to the sun, he really was unpleasant.

"There were colts after him, and before; White Lightning was a little nice back in Magic Kindergarten, but I'm getting off topic. I will admit that some of them were charming, I actually went on a date or two if I could manage to keep everypony else in the dark about it."

"Why?"

"Why what?" Twilight asked, glancing down at her faithful assistant.

"Why didn't you ever tell anypony, or me? Before today I had no idea you went on a date, like, ever." Spike held his arms out to his sides, waiting for an answer.

"Spike", Twilight deadpanned, "I was a single bookworm with married parents. If they ever even heard me talk about the colt they would try to get me betrothed on the spot; well, mom would."

"Oh."

"Can I get back on topic now?"

"Yeah, sure, you go on right ahead, Twi." Spike shook his head, genuinely wondering if he knew Mrs. Velvet as well as he thought he did.

"My point is that I could never actually get interested in a colt at all. For a while I was kind of worried as the spare research I did only served to drive me further up the wall; a few pages into Freud and I started to get paranoid I was in love with my brother!" Twilight turned to Spike and let out another stream of laughter, amazed by how far an adolescent dragons' jaw could physically drop. "I was just paranoid, Spike." She waited for his confirming, silent nod before continuing, "However, after those few weird weekends at home, I came to a more rational conclusion. I theorized that I didn't need a colt or a special somepony; back then, I already had everypony I needed. I had my B.B.B.F.F., my teacher, my parents, and I had you." Twilight leaned her head onto her assistants', letting the two of them fall to the floor in a sweet embrace, "Most of all, I had you. I had someone who never judged me and always went along with whatever experiment I had planned. I really didn't need anyone else."

Spike, for the last few sentences of Twilight's speech, had tried to reply, to interrupt, but found he couldn't do anything but listen. Now, after the two had fallen, he'd drawn himself up against his guardian. Was it right? Was this whole situation right, was it even okay?

He didn't have the proper answers to his own questions anymore, all he had were ideas that couldn't be properly put together.

Twilight loved him and he loved her dearly as well.

Rarity loved him, and he loved her.

Right? That's the way it goes, right? I love Rarity.

Right?

Twilight closed her eyes, pressing her muzzled onto her dragon's head. "I really didn't. That's why I don't think this entire situation started here in Ponyville, I think it started back in Canterlot.

"Do you remember that little notebook we used to write in?" She asked, going on before Spike could respond, "I don't really expect you to remember all of it, you were pretty young when we had it, but there was this message-"

"I love you, Twilight."

A heavy silence expanded throughout the library before Twilight dared to speak. "What?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"That, you know, that's what the message said. Right?" Spike replied, shakily.

"Oh", Twilight sighed. "Yeah, yeah, that's what it said." She shook her head, trying to abate the burning rush of blood that had filled her cheeks. "Spike", she sat up, bringing him with her, "I need to ask you a serious question. Got it?"

"I", he paused, more than a little surprised at the determination he saw in Twilight's demeanor, "yeah, I got it."

"Good", she turned her eyes towards the shelves as if the words in the books could piece together everything she needed to say. She turned back to Spike, closed her eyes, and asked, "Spike, do you love Rarity?"

"W-what? I", Spike started to stammer, feeling the distinct sensation of plummeting off a cliff.

"Because, if you do, if you really love her, I'll stop." She clenched her eyes and continued, "I'll stop, okay? I'll stop and everything can just go back to normal, okay? Okay? It won't be the first time and I'll", her breath hitched, "I'll understand. I'll understand and I'll just stop, okay? I'll, I'll..."

Twilight stopped speaking anything recognizable after she trailed off, she couldn't even open her eyes; couldn't make a sound above a gentle gasp.

All she could do was cry. She heard the clicking of claws against wood and the clanging cacophony of kitchenware being tossed about before she felt her face being lifted.

"Twi, come on, don't worry."

She looked up and felt her tears fall ever harder.

There, right in front of her face, was Spike clad in a tin pot.

He really doesn't need a cape and a lance.

Twilight sighed and smiled, letting her tears cry themselves out. She would be okay, she knew she would. She would always have Spike, nothing could change that; not Rarity, not the princesses, not anything. "Spike", she whispered, "do you love her?"

"I", he stopped, feeling his heart expand inside his chest. "I."

Come on, say it! You love her, right? You do! You came to Ponyville and saw her and she was beautiful. Sure it was a crush, but then it became love. Right? You confessed, she confessed, that's love! You tried for two years and you got it!

Right?

Right?

"I don't know." He let out a massive breath and shook his head. "Twilight, I don't know", he whispered. "Why don't I know?" Twilight's light giggle brought his eyes from the floor and back up to her.

"You can most likely blame me for that, handsome." She pointed a hoof towards the door and smiled. "You've got to go talk to Rarity."

"What?! Twilight, I never said-"

"I know", she said, wrapping Spike in a caring hug. "I know you're not sure, but I can't allow you to have only one perspective. I love you, but you're unsure of yourself." Twilight planted a kiss on Spike's scaly forehead, bringing a blush to both of their cheeks. "Go, okay?" She gently pleaded, urging him towards the door. "Just know that I'll understand no matter what you choose, okay? No matter what, I'll always be here for you; I'll always love you, Spike. So don't worry.

"Oh", she chuckled before pressing her lips to his. "Thanks for helping me with my nose, Spike", she whispered.

"Twilight, I-"

"Go."

She pointed her hoof at the door, smiling. Spike stared between her and the door, torn over his choices.

A knight does as a lady wishes.

Spike steeled himself and stepped through the door and walked out into the night air. The heavy, oaken barrier swung shut behind him; off in the distance, he could see the lights of Carousel Boutique.

Chapter Thirteen: Everything Will Be Alright

Diminutive flames had replaced the incandescent glow of electric lighting. The light now danced and crawled about as the softest of gusts stirred the fires, turning the walls into moving pieces of art. Three rooms were lit, the entryway, a hallway, and the dining room; candles lined the floor and shelves in an ornate trail of stars, ready to lead him along.

Everything else was dark, all but three rooms of Carousel Boutique wreathed in darkness. She didn't need them, not a one. She'd already prepared everything, salads, gem cakes, wine, and herself.

Everything was to perfection, not a seam out of place. Violet silk clung to every curve of her body with emerald stitches trailing hither and to all across the fabric like sparks in a purple void. Her mane flowed along with her movements, flecks of emerald dust scattered through the waves and curls that would shine brighter than anything in the sky when the candlelight caught them. Shades of lightest cyan had been brushed upon her eyelids, a subtle cerise had smoothed itself over her supple lips, and her eyes; oh her eyes, how proud of them she was, how they shone.

Everything had led up to this moment. The months of pining, the shared adventures, the growing emotions, and so much turmoil. And yet, the years themselves didn't matter as much as a few singular days and experiences did. A fashion show, a fall to their death, a piece of jewelry wrought from a snack; all before one week of a struggle between herself and a mare she had once called friend.

Rarity sighed and her body shook in excitement, she knew what she was doing, knew she wanted this, knew that he wanted and deserved it. Spike would be hers, she would be his, and everything would be okay. Nothing would ever be the same, and Twilight might hate her, but she knew in her heart everything would calm down eventually. Everything always did in Ponyville.

She would be his, that part wouldn't leave her. She shivered again at the thought and found herself getting lost in fantasy.

Spike would come in, perhaps a little scared, but she could handle that. They would sit, they would chat, then they would truly talk to each other. They would bare the feelings they had at the park bench all over again. They would kiss as they had beneath the magnolias , only now it would be as lovers. She could already feel the nervous roaming claws and his awkwardly dancing tongue. His, his- oh she couldn't even think straight. Her eyes fluttered open and she glanced up the stairs, up towards her bedroom.

Rarity bit her lip and jumped when she heard the knock. She had taken a step forward when the knob began to turn. So bold for a distraught knight. She righted herself and smiled, waiting for him to be revealed.

Everything would be beautiful, if only her legs would stop shaking.

Three blocks between him and his destination, between Spike and Carousel Boutique.

He took his first step and immediately began to shake. He knew this was bad, knew it was from the very beginning. Rarity had hit Twilight, he had kissed Rarity, Twilight had kissed him; not a bit of it made sense anymore.

There was a feeling deep in his gut, the kind of no gravity floating feeling he got when he would fall from a high place, or when Twilight would yell at him. His claws were shaking, even as he brought them in front of his face and told them to just stop they kept moving. Nothing would calm them, not even wrapping them inside one another.

Two blocks between Spike and Carousel Boutique.

He wanted to look back, wanted to turn back, but he knew there was no point. There was no going back to just having a crush, no going back to Twilight just acting like whatever she used to be to him.

If I look back I am lost. He'd read that in one of Twilight's books once, something about a throne or something.

He shook his head, trying to physically toss the clutter from his mind.

He loved them both, he knew he loved them, but didn't know how. He'd pined for Rarity for so long, and he'd finally gotten her! But there was Twilight, there had always been Twilight. She loved him, there was no getting around that.

There was no getting around any of this. He couldn't run, there was no cave to hide in, no gems to quell his churning stomach.

One block.

It was coming, oh goddess it was coming and there was nothing to stop it. He looked and looked and looked and there were so many outcomes, so many endings, each with something that made them hurt. Rarity hating him, Twilight hating him, Spike hating himself, everyone just crying; he didn't want it like that, he didn't want it the way it was. He didn't want it like this now!

Not once, not once did he ever want anything to be this way, he just wanted a mare to notice him.

He got what he wanted, that was the irony that he could never fail to notice. Heck, two beautiful mares had taken a shine to him. Two of the mares he loved the most in the world. The two mares he knew cared more for him than anypony else.

The two mares he loved more than anything, and now they were all caught up in something his young mind just didn't want to be a part of.

He looked at his ever shaking claws and sighed. "This won't end well."

Carousel Boutique loomed before him.

He could see a soft light glowing behind the windows and thought he could smell something delicious wafting from beneath the door.

It wouldn't end well, no matter what was inside. No matter what he did it wouldn't end well. No matter what Rarity, Twilight, or anyone did, it wouldn't be okay.

He reached up and turned the knob with a shaking claw and stepped inside.

This won't end well.

Twilight smiled when she watched him go, she smiled even as a few more tears made their way down her face. She'd left her heart in his hands willingly and now she had to wait.

"No matter what happens", she said,"no matter what happens I will be here or him when he comes back." Twilight looked out the window, waiting for her dragon to come back.

"Please come home safe, Spike."

The door opened and Spike could smell perfume and food, his stomach rumbled and he gave it a smack.

"Fashionably late, are we?"

Spike looked up and gasped. There, right in front of him, was Rarity. Everything about her was absolutely perfect, her outfit, her makeup, everything.

So why did he still feel awful?

"I, uh, yeah I guess." He trailed off, trying to avoid eye contact with Rarity.

She chuckled and shut the door with a quick telekinetic push and turned around. "Come on", she cooed, walking away with a pronounced sway in her hips. She knew Spike would notice, young men always noticed.

A quick look back punctuated with a kiss to the air proved it, she had him. It wasn't as if she was leading him on, oh no, she was bringing him to a gift; and far away from that other influence that had been hurting him so much. She led him effortlessly into the dining room and patted the violet cushion she'd laid out for him. As Spike sat down Rarity let her lips brush past one of his frills.

He shuddered and it felt so good to know that she had caused it. "I see you've dressed casually." She cooed, taking her place at the cushion across from him, smiling confidently.

Spike looked at the food before him and felt nothing for the food he'd seen before only in his dreams. "Yeah, I couldn't, um, couldn't really expect this." He shrugged and looked towards Rarity, the knot in his gut tightening the more he stared.

"Not hungry?" Rarity asked with obvious concern. She'd cooked it special for him and he wasn't eating it, something had to be wrong. Spike had opened his mouth to speak as she stepped towards him. "Are you alright, Spikey?"

That name, that little nickname he used to jump for joy at hearing, that name brought more pain than a kick from a member of the Apple family. Spike clenched his eyes, fighting back tears that threatened to emerge. "No."

"Spike, I-"

"No", he interrupted, "it's not okay, it hasn't been okay." He grimaced and opened his eyes, staring right up at Rarity in a sudden surge of anger. "Everything's been going crazy!" He stood up, planting his palm against the table. "Nothing is okay! It won't will be ever again!"

"Spike."

He turned towards the table and threw his arms out wide. "I never even dreamed this would actually happen! I, I never wanted-"

"Spike, please."

"No, Rarity no, it isn't okay, it's just not-"

Spike fell silent against the kiss, that comforted Rarity a little. As she pulled away she could see the shock plainly on his face, even now it was cute. "Calm down, okay?" She whispered, affectionately petting his head.

"Rarity-" Another kiss shut him up. This one was stronger, more deliberate. Rarity wanted this, wanted Spike, wanted the night she had planned.

And yet, the moment she let her tongue brush against his smooth lips, he pushed her away.

Rarity opened her eyes and stared. Spike was crying and she felt like she was falling through the skies.

"I love you!" Spike shouted, tears streaming down his face. "I love you, but I can't take it! It's too much and I can't, I can't", he trailed off and pushed his face into his open palms.

Rarity moved towards him and he ran away.

In a blur he was in the hallway, soon enough she heard her door swing open.

Rarity immediately ran after, stopping at her open doorway to see an empty night.

What had she done wrong?

He had to run, had to get away. Spike couldn't handle it, couldn't handle the kiss, couldn't handle the way things were. He wanted to go back, wanted to go to Moon Dancer's birthday party, wanted to have eaten his fire ruby, wanted to have never gone to dinner with Twilight.

Carousel Boutique was one block behind him.

He wanted to be home.

The library was a block and half away.

He just wanted everything to be alright.
` One block.

He wanted to crawl in his basket and sleep, he wanted this to be a dream.

The door swung open and there was Twilight.

She had been drafting a letter when the door slammed open. If Twilight hadn't turned Spike might have hurt her. She wrapped her forelegs protectively around him, peppering his head with soft kisses and frantically spouting reassurances.

She learned what he'd done between sobs.

She didn't feel triumph, didn't feel like she'd won Spike. All that mattered was that he was crying in her arms. She'd put her own feelings out of the picture, she'd promised him that much. All she could do now was comfort him, all she could do was hold him and whisper anything sweet she had.

Eventually he had shed all his tears and they sat in silence.

"Twilight?"

"Yes, Spike?"

"It, it's not going to be okay is it?"

Twilight was silent, in all reality she didn't have an answer. She simply hugged him tighter and whispered, "I don't know."

All of Ponyville was silent by ten as it always was. Candles in a dress shop were blown out and the electric lanterns in a library were switched off.

The element of Generosity picked up a bottled of red wine and began to guzzle it down.

A dragons slept in the embrace of a mare that loved him.

The element of Magic closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

Nothing would be okay, not for a while. For now everything had been torn apart and there was no telling whether it would come back together. Despite all of this the sun would still rise in the morning,