A Wash to Be Absolved

Chapters

And a Cock to be Sucked

And a Cock to be Sucked

A Wash to be Absolved
B_25

Rainbow Dash had been nothing beneath it all. Nothing but an actor compelled to that which garnered her attention. Yet everyone believed in the act. Amazed in every heroic deed, stunned in the beautiful sway of her mane, and awash in laughter at her wisecracks. She was bigger than life and it was too good to be true. She couldn't believe herself as more. But others could. And her view of herself lived within the stunned eyes of others.

The inclusions of others made a lie feel more real, believable, maybe even close to reality.

Until the dragon had caught her crying underneath a bridge one day.

Spike had found Rainbow Dash at her lowest and weakest, and would continue to do so, by chance or fate, perhaps the two the same, the time or place never needing to be the same. Her shoulders were less tense around him. Body feeling free and relaxed without a need for a struck chest or an air of confidence. Finally she confessed. The depth of her nothingness. All to the acceptance having been deeply craved.

He knew the state kept only to herself. The friend was able to be visited in weakness as his kindness removed fears of judgment. They talked and that was enough. Enough to make her life better. It all led, however, to a problem in such a state one faces.

The world saw Rainbow Dash as the greatness as she put on but, when the need to act ceased, the mare also ceased to be more around him. She was just herself and that wasn't much. Yet his kind and genuine words caused the mare to feel as though that was enough.

But Spike mostly saw at her lowest. Regardless of his acceptance, he never saw her, unlike the rest of the world, at her greatest. She wanted to prove to him it existed. She wanted to blow him away like she did the crowds. It felt like a bet. That she wasn't some crummy mare but a great thing that could touch the highest of heights. He knew of all that existed at her lowest. But he didn't experience that which was at her highest.

And out of everyone in the world.

Rainbow Dash felt the need to prove herself to him most of all.

Which led to the greatest mistake of them all.

Rainbow Dash peered over the edge of the ridge, gazing across the expanse of the canyon below, everything a faded orange, the land dried and dusty from the incessant sizzling of the sun overhead. Then came the breeze. Cool and refreshing and tickling the furs of her coat. Freedom contained within a feeling. One of the natural delights of the world.

“C'mon... c'mon... grab them...” Rainbow whipped her head to the voice, the dragon standing feet afar, caught in a forward bend, reaching for his feet for the shyness of a few inches. “C'mon! Five-second touch and you're done. Maybe three. Heck. B-Brush 'em and we can call a deal.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “You skipping out on stretching in the morning?”

“Hard to keep m-motivated when I don't have a voice to whip me.” His down-tilted head rested above his knees as it turned to glance up at her. “Though telling you that probably wasn't the best idea huh?”

Rainbow Dash chuckled in approaching his side, a wing striking his back, a pat forced to the extreme. He lurched from the contact and crashed forward. Lying on his stomach, he propped his chin on the dried land. His eyes glanced back at her. “Do me a favour and touch my feet?”

“Step on your feet?”

“Can you lightly step on my feet?”

“You want me to stomp on your feet?”

Spike rolled onto his back and threw himself into a sitting position. Tucking a knee to his chest, his claw rested on the top of his foot. He counted to five before standing up. Rainbow Dash looked at him with an arched eyebrow. “Do me a favour and don't tell Rainbow Dash I cheated?”

There was clicking from her teeth as she turned around, aware she was giving him a view, an eye cast back to see if he took the bait. The dragon stared at the back of her head instead. She was proud and annoyed simultaneously. She gestured a hoof to the gorge.

“Dunnooo!” Rainbow's voice rang the walls of the chasm below. “Our voices echo pretty loudly around here. Good chance she already heard you.” She turned around with the whole Ghastly Gorge looming behind her. “But tell you what! Race me back to the entrance and I'll smooth things out between the two of you.”

She held out her hoof to him.

He stepped forward with a quizzical raise of an eyebrow. “Promise?”

“Promise.” Rainbow smiled. “I've got your back.”

His claw took her hoof and at once came for the wish for it to never go. The contact was real. Slender digits sliding across the roundness of her hoof, squeezing it, the pressure desired again. There was something in being held that made the mare now more aware of herself.

Her hoof by itself was there to fulfill functions. But here. In being held by another. It felt like more. It was good enough to feel this good. All the dragon was doing was holding her foreleg. Yet that evoked that best sensation she'd ever felt from the thing.

And she tried to not whimper when it fell away.

“And I got your back as well,” Spike said with a chuckle that ended in a smirk, strolling past her a second afterward. He reached the edge of the ridge and lowered with his claws onto it. His wings flared from his back as he readied himself. “When I'm not smoking it of course.”

“Oh!” Rainbow Dash shook her head upward with a series of rising laughter. “Oh oh oh! It is so on dragon boy!” She took position next to him, chest down and rump up, wings flared and mane swept behind her ears. “You're off the hook if you win. But if I do? You'll be showing up at my home every morning just to stretch!”

“No morning breakfast afterward?”

Her narrowed and determined eyes flicked onto him, not betraying the grin of her lips, all enhanced in the slow shaking of her head. “No morning breakfast afterward.”

Spike's face twitched in pain. “Oh! Oh.” He cocked his head to let the pain fade away. “You're a cruel girl. Cruel one indeed Miss Rainbow Dash.” His eyes returned forward as he readied himself for the race. “Can't say this is a good bet one way or another for me.”

“Should have asked for more on your winning side.” Rainbow Dash hiked her tail a little higher than needed before kicking her muzzle down. The goggles strapped around her forehead slid and clasped over her eyes. Her grin to him was their final enhance before the accident. “Ready dragon boy?”

He smirked back. “Call it!”

Rainbow Dash smiled.

Three.

Two.

One.

He was getting ahead and she couldn't have that.

What was holding her back? Rainbow Dash didn't know as she pushed harder on aching wings. Muscles burned in a good way but teased the entry into the zone of no recovery. The flight was perfect. The turns into the curves of the valley accompanied by the pleasant winds across her frame despite her speed. The feeling of her mane blown behind was a wonder that allowed her to feel more alive. The feeling of being within the moment, the middle of an activity, allowing her to feel as though she had a life.

But the dragon was ahead. She caught the back of him again. Every start of the turn witnessed him entering the one waiting at the end. It killed her. Despite the previous teasing and the ability to bully him... the fact of being worse, in the field supposed to be her zone, did something to her soul for which there was no repair.

She had to win.

She had to be above him in some way.

Then an idea caught in the vast holes scattered across the turns of the gorge. Black and imposing but cutting through to the other side. Shortcuts. Dangerous ones possibly filled with dangerous beasts. But one could not be better than another without taking such risks.

Rainbow chuckled to herself and beat on dying wings to reach feet behind the dragon. Inhaling the best she could, the mare shouted, catching the turn of his head ahead. “Hey Spike!” His head turned enough for an emerald eye to glance back at her. Rainbow's hoof pointed to the upcoming entrance into the mountain. “I'll catch you doing stretches at the finish line!”

Immediately he slowed to the shaking of his head. “What? N-No! Rainbow Dash—“

As he entered the next turn.

The mare flew forward.

Into the hole leading inside the mountain, through the curves and turns of a tunnel, a dangerous route that would allow her to take the lead.

The winds ahead assisted in the feeling of being alive, and in spite of them, the dragon checked over his shoulder to the disappeared mare. His eyes clenched and fangs ground together in hatred of not knowing what to do.

Carry on with the race or go back to assist a friend?

The answer came easily as he twirled his body as the current carried him; the heavy beat of his wings broke his current momentum as he hovered still and, in their next slice through the air, he shot forward after the mare.

Wind tore into him as he reached the start of the turn and, with his left wing flapping hard, was shot into the entrance of the hole. Everything darkened as the air tasted like a swamp. Drilled bits soared through the ceiling and walls, the creations of the countless creatures born through here, some holes allowing light from outside.

And his draconic eyes narrowed to see through the darkness.

“Nnnghaaa!” echoed the voice from deep within the cavern, another following, fainter now, the cries stolen deeper than the last. “Nnnnhuuuuu! N-No no! Nuhha—ack!”

Spike lost his soul through the dropping of his jaw as stillness became him. Everything stopped as the sounds carried on. His empty stomach did him no favours; the wobbling of his vision costing him, nearly, the race. Weak was he and nothing was what he fuelled himself on.

Standing was a miracle for him.

Much less pushing himself this much.

It became easier when around another for he had something to maintain.

But now everything was flooding out through him.

Fuck that.

Spike curled his claw and clenched his stomach and swept away the haze of his brain. Willpower itself became his energy as it bounded from an unknown source. It flushed through veins lit aflame as lava replaced blood. He broke forward like a gunshot as the resulting clack swirled the winds left behind.

He dashed forward through the curves, turning before his eyes could know, leaving himself to instincts. Light filtered through in greater beams as he carried inside the depths of the mountain. The walls were smooth in their roundness, recently ground into, the beast responsible still breaking through the place.

Until the dragon came to the creature's cave.

He slowed as the tunnel opened to a vastness of an area, far and wide and towering to the ceiling of the place. Rocky pillars were scattered throughout the zone as they supported it all. Rainbow Dash flew between them, losing height on every flap—greatness looming behind it.

Dust and such rained from the ceiling due to the vibrations consuming the scene. Large was the worm and composed of rock it was. It reminded him of no dragon or snake, nothing comparing in size or roundness, the thing slithering forward, eyes at its front, a line around the curve, no other details to the thing.

It rocked the cave as it rumbled through it, the head of the beast rising high, its shadow cast over the blue speck, the girl looking up in time to see it crashing down. It broke into her, the contact enough to slap her into the ground—nothing more than a swatted fly.

Rainbow Dash rolled in a blur across the ground as the momentum tore through her. She slammed into the wall soon enough, bounced from the contact before hitting the ground again, a clap and a cloud of dust surrounding her frame. Weakened forelegs wobbled in pressing to the ground.

She fought to stand and couldn't.

The beast loomed over her as the line over its front opened. Such a slit couldn't have opened to a gaping cavern of a maw—but it did. Broad tongue and teeth like stalactites. It bore a dumbness of an expression and a terror to the stupidity of its hunger. Yet the worm looked at the fly with the intent to swallow.

Rainbow Dash looked up once more to see the beast coming down but, instead of being slurped by a worm—a purple bullet shot into its side. The creature flew right and crashed into the wall to the rumbling echoes of the cave. It whacked in place as its opened mouth struggled to close.

Her gaze flicked back to the bullet. Purple haze meshed into the form of a dragon again. He hovered on his back, barely in the air, his shoulder limp from its socket. Spike's head rolled around in pain as his claw fell on the slack bones.

Fidgeting to get it back in place.

“Nnngnhhmm!” His eyes burned alive as he lurched himself forward, hovering straightly as the beast returned. He glanced down at Rainbow to the annoyance of his expression. “W-What are you doing? Get out of here! I've got this.”

Rainbow blinked with an opened mouth as she stumbled to her hooves without knowing. There was a sway but she could keep in place. In stepping forward, it hurt, but all of it was manageable. She spotted the other hole leaving the cavern on the other side. That would be her escape.

Only the dragon wasn't coming.

She glanced up at him as she limped forward. “S-Spike? Why aren't you—“

“I'll catch up once I've dealt with this guy! Don't worry about me!” He swiped his good arm to the exit. “Now get out of here so I don't have to worry about you as well! Get out of here!” The beast turned from the wall in entering a lunge forward the dragon. Its gums shot beyond its limbs as the spongy surface clamped on the dragon's shoulder. “H-Ha! Cheeky little—“

Rainbow didn't hear the end of the sentence as she took flight, out of the cavern and through the tunnel, hearing the sounds of the outside through it. She tossed a glance behind and bid her time. The dragon would escape and catch up.

Surely.

Meanwhile in the cavern the dragon turned, shoulder caught between the gums of the shooting worm, its descent aimed for the ground. He tore free a claw into the gum to free himself. Growls reverberated from the beat as its sideways eyes focused center and on him.

Spike felt the wind crashing into his back as the beast was prepared to dive its face into the ground. It picked up greater speed which churned in the dragon's stomach. His claw tore further at the gums—only to brush at something hard.

In a second it set up. Smaller teeth breaking through the gums as they shot up like spears in a trap. Two broke the surface from above and below, through the scales and skin, the muscles and flesh of his shoulder. It locked into him, the beast whipping its front around, rag-dolling the dragon as it tore further into him.

Spike's head shot back as a scream billowed from his throat, blood splattering out from the pitch, unable to break the ride further deepening the tears in the spread of his shoulder muscles. It wasn't his intent that, as fire swirled within his chest, to unleash a stream into the maw of the beast.

The top and bottom of its head spread from the other, an intense peel backward, feeling as though it had split in two at the middle. It rolled in place as its mass rocked around, breaking into pillars and slamming into the wall.

Spike was thrown free without the strength to save him. His shoulder slammed into the ground first in an endless roll across it. He rose as he rolled and his back crashed into a wall, the force of impact sliding him up it, that was until he slid down. Sitting limply into the support, his vision darkened at the corners. Sounds came in echoes and reality became framed within a dream.

I-Is... s-she... s-s-safe...

The dragon pushed on the ground, slowly rising despite having nothing, weakness and blood loss ensuring he was empty. Yet he rose. In looking for her. He nearly came to stand until seeing the cavern was clear. Then with a sigh he fell back, a smirk and a chuckle, the flame within, able to save her, not sparked the same for him.

And he awaited the end.

“W-What are you doing you idiot!”

Spike's lazy head rolled on the wall and propped off it, eye blinking to catch her, seeing the collection of blurs of blue to his left. His eyes narrowed to see the face of Rainbow's muzzle. Concerned and scared and the brightest hue of pink he'd ever seen of her eyes. They'd been glossed over by wetness not before contemplated.

“Letting me go on ahead... you're a proper j-jerk for that.”

He laid against the wall limply, barely able to lift his head, as his next words were growled out. “R-Rainbow... get... out of here....”

“Not without—“

There was a crash and a cry and feelings of finality. His heavy eyelids struggled to open the haze of the scene. Vision swam into focus, slowly, everything concentrating into place. Feet before him laid the mare on her back with an impossibility atop her; the worm pressing into her, its mouth close, though now starting to open.

“Oh no... no you...” Spike sat on the wall proper in the sudden feeling of being watched. It wasn't the mare on her back with the expression of shock born seconds before death. Rather it was that dumb eye; a sphere of blackness set on him. “I'll make you pay... pay... pay with that eye of yours!”

He came alive. In every way possible he came alive. His husk pumped in shocks with violent surges of plump power. Fires barrelled throughout his flame and returned life to the severed nerves. His eyes had dimmed, losing their colour, though now, burned in their glow of the colour green.

Spike gazed down at his torn shoulder than to his broken one. He tucked his lips into his mouth and tore into the surface of the flesh with his fangs. He willed his torn shoulder, with the exposed muscles remaining, to lift his claw onto his other shoulder. Agony and adrenaline were a cocktail of terribleness as the taste of metal was forever on his tongue.

Lining the bone within back to its socket, the dragon summoned all he had, everything feeling he possessed, all that was evoked in seeing the face of his best friend facing death. How frozen she was. Battered was her body, gone were patches of her coat. Mane was missing and her body was a collection of scratches. Too terrified to move as tiny dots on the front of the worm exhaled foul steam across her body.

The dragon roared. Not Spike but the dragon within. The beast that lurked behind consciousnesses itself. His roar tore through the room and rocked the walls, the rage of a savage pitch—jerking frightfulness into the mare as her fear twitched Rainbow into looking at him.

Spike slammed the shoulder into the wall and roared far louder at the pain tunnelling through him. Without hint to his intent was how he barrelled forward, sprinting from a step, rolling his head around as the roar, something in him and not from him, continued to vibrate to him.

His mouth blew a jet of flame over the monster's head to stop it from flying up from the attack, the beat rising rather than lowering in its fear of heat. The dragon twirled as he ran in preparation for the next blast. His flame swept forward as he had done the same, shooting up smoke as he charged forward.

The beast lifted from the mare and rested itself forward, mouth opening to the charging dragon, ready for the prey to throw itself inside before sealing it shut. Its tongue plopped out onto the ground, an inch enough to catch the fool. It waited.

Until emerald sparks broke from the side.

The creature's eye saw it too late, the dragon twirling from the side, fist aflame, burning from the blood that lathered it. Before the worm could flick away, the fist crashed with an impact into its eye, diving deep, the final charge blasting the beast with a clap to fly into the air.

Spike fell into the downward swing as he rolled the ground, landing next to Rainbow, coughing blood onto her coat. The world around him dazed once more and it would not return. Needing to vomit but being unable, he kneeled, swaying in place, barely able to catch himself.

As dust rained from above.

The worm missing an eye whacked rapidly around the corner, breaking craters into the wall and smashing through pillars, the towering and polished stones falling, quickly shattering on breaking the ground.

“T-Time...” Spike hurled blood to the side as gravity flipped beneath his feet; the world, his world, losing its center as it lost itself to spinning. He reached right to the feeling of softness. Pulling it over his left shoulder, he stood, being on nothing, no ground or setting around him. “To leave...”

He ascended on broken wings as every flap was a snap of terribleness. He fell forward, trusting in a sense, support coming from his side. He tried looking left but seeing nothing. But he felt her though. The mare guiding the way, flapping her wings, feeling her pain.

Both of them managed to reach the tunnel leaving the cavern, the beast whacking and collapsing the zone behind. Sunlight and warmth flushed from ahead with a breeze of freedom caressing them. Mumbles filtered from the side. Something large loomed behind.

Spike was barely alive in seeing the end to the cave and feeling the beat ready to take him. Without knowing how well it would work, he turned, wrapping his arm around the girl. He brought them into a fall by breaking the outside. They fell and something slapped and smacked on him and suddenly nothing mattered anymore.

A shadow passed overhead, followed by a crash and the feeling of weight collecting in the distant rainfalls of rumbles pursuing... then nothing. His wings came back to life again, one flap than two, the crashing winds diminishing.

He pulled the mare into his chest and lost himself to the softness. Warmth and fur brushing into him. Its wiggling was adorable and the struggles were something he wanted to treasure forever. The sleekness of mane was faint in its burning scent of strawberries.

His wings slowed them.

Until the ground crashing into him stopped their fall.

Rainbow Dash had been rocked within the smoothness and couldn't right herself, feeling deeply curled into her body due to consistent pressure. She struggled against the blanket to find it heavier than most. Her eyes opened to a dim sky of lime. Scales flexed above from the weakness of breath from inside the chest.

“S-Spike?”

Rainbow Dash found a claw had been wrapped around her, but now, was relaxed in its hold. Slowly were the wiggles out of it, feeling the weight of his body, crawling out from it. She reached the side of him and pushed herself into freedom. Stumbling legs were the results, next was the cool breeze, there now a calm over the scene.

They were in the canyon still, deep into its depths, its ridges looming high above.

There'd been a presence afar.

Rainbow Dash looked forward only to stumble back, wobbling and unable to stop, shaking for the need of help. On the curve of the lofty walls of the valley was a body, the one of the titanic worm, looped onto itself, not having moved from its crash.

The beast that nearly got her.

Then her gaze jerked in repeated succession to the right. There laid the other body of the beast that saved her. Lying on his front with his back exposed. The bones of his wings, broken up and down, a collapsed bridge with blood seeping out through the scales.

Dripping into a puddle.

Rainbow held a hoof to her mouth and stumbled back at seeing the pool of blood underneath the dragon. Slickness caught to her as well. Looking down revealed her chest and legs and the underside of her barrel now red instead of blue. Her jaw twitched in places as jerks broke through her shoulders.

“Spike?”

The breeze rolled in.

“S-Spike? Please.”

The breeze whipped in its end.

“Please tell me you're still there.”

The gorge echoed her voice.

In the distance was the echo of beeps. Slow and rhythmical. In the abyss, they were the only sounds to exist. Going and going and if they were to stop then the darkness would take it all. Spike struggled to exist. To come into being. A desire, there, to open his eyes and become alive.

And he did so with a flash of white overtaking the abyss.

There was a fan overhead that swirled in the haze of white; sunlight slithered from the side and slowly warmed his scales. Railing lifted at his side to encase his frame within the bed. His glance tossed down and to the left. Two of them had been pressed together to hold his size.

“Damn it.” His voice croaked and his head rested into the pillow again. Everything in his mind pounded as the desire to vomit was present in his chest. All burned in a horribleness touching sensitivity the higher it reached in his body. “Still alive then.”

His eyes carried to the right to see dense wrapping of bandages over his shoulder. Despite its tightness, however, there was a gap in which the fabric dipped. There was a hole there. Flexed over by the roll. He could feel the burning nothingness there. Yet somehow it didn't feel real.

The rest of his body, however, didn't suffer as much; covered of course without other such dips. Everything pained and hurt and burned yet it all seemed temporary. Even his other shoulder, bones clicking as he rolled it, still felt it could be used.

And in looking over his shoulder was how he saw her.

Rainbow was a mess. Wrapped like he was with a bandage from back to belly and her wing forced to be pinned. She slumped back into the chair with a hoof on her cheek. The mare snored, rather cutely, with lines of drool leaking down her lips.

“Hey... hey!” Spike groaned her name, to the mare snoring once more, forcing him to roll onto his stomach. Limp was his body and hardly was there anything he could do. He wiggled close the railing with a huff. “Lazy mare. C'mon! Wake it.”

His body scooted across the sheet and his shoulder brushed the railing. Trusting in whatever strength remaining, he tossed his arm over the guard, resting on it, the talons of his claw swiping the mare's leg. Rainbow shivered upward with a yelp of surprise.

Until rose coloured eyes settled down on him.

“Spike?” Rainbow blinked as her body turned on the chair, nearly about to flee from the scene... until seeing him. She turned back at once with her body expanding in excitement. “Spike! You're alright! You didn't kick it! You didn't kick it!”

“Only my ass got kicked and—OOOOF!” Spike rolled onto his back after being tackled by the mare, feeling forelegs wrapping around his neck, a body of fluff and warmth collapsing onto his own. “Ack! C-Check that. It's about to be kicked again.”

“You dork! Do you...” Rainbow clenched her eyes shut and snuggled into the crook beneath his jaw, needing to be close and afar from him, needing his comfort and seeking to avoid his attention. Though his strength was gone, he was able to flick his arm over her barrel, his full weight resting on it. “I was worried, Spike, so worried that you... nhemm.”

Spike frowned. He fought his claw to go up. Stroke that prismatic mane to make everything okay. But he couldn't. Everything he had was out of him now. Truly he was a prisoner into himself and forced into stillness.

“Wanna catch me on everything that happened?” Spike allowed his head to fall deeper into the pillow, staring at the ceiling, his digits stroking spots of Rainbow's fur. It brought him comfort. Ponies became like cats as he got bigger. “I recall there being a race... then you being an idiot and taking a shortcut... some gigantic worm... collapsing cave... hey did we live a Daring Do novel?”

“Spike! You.... nnnghaa!” Rainbow snuggled deeper into his throat in the attempt to become one as well as disappear from his view completely. “Why aren't you more... something about this! We nearly died! You nearly died! Your wings are broken and your arm is torn and—“

“And give it a while and I'll largely be back to normal.” He didn't care for the pain or the damage or such things. It didn't bother him. Annoyances they were without being anything more. Anyone else would have cried or been thrown into shock. Maybe hatred at the mare or gratitude for being alive. Rather he was still here. That was it. “But promise me you won't do something like that again? The heck got into you in the first place?”

“I was... was... auuagh!”

“You know you're really bad at using words when you're emotional.” Spike chuckled as that was what he found humour in. Was there something wrong with his senses? Something wrong with him? What was it exactly someone in his spot, alike to him, was supposed to do? “There really wasn't a downside for you if I won that race.”

“It wasn't about that you idiot!” Rainbow pulled out from underneath his chin to cast her fiery gaze at him. Seeing her seriousness was when the same was evoked within him. Her scowl and burning eyes searing through even his scales. “That was me being an idiot! Of wanting to... to...” She clenched her eyes and shook her head as her face prepared to take a hit. “Yell at me already! Blame me for everything that happened! Get mad about your wings and your arm! Throw me out of your room! Do something already!”

Spike blinked with a stupid expression as his head tilted to the side. “Why would I do any of that?”

“Why! Why! You have to be the greatest idiot I've met in my life!” Rainbow's snout smashed into his, coming to grind into place, the burning in her eyes demanding a sort of punishment from him. “I caused this! Look at you! Do you even know what kind of state you are in? Or how I caused all of this by being an idiot?”

Spike narrowed his eyes. “So are we taking turns on who is being an idiot or is it a joint effort kind of thing?”

Rainbow exhaled steam through her nose and dropped her head in response. “You're hopeless.”

“Thought that was a common understanding from the beginning.” Spike exhaled and looked down as well as whatever he was doing wasn't right. At least it wasn't right to her. He searched within the faded senses of his soul, looking for the right thing to do. “But I guess... I guess I don't care. You did something stupid and dumb and you didn't expect it to turn out that way; helping you was the right thing to do in that.”

Spike blew a heavy breath through his lips, feeling her muzzle rise, but not doing the same to meet it. “I don't really care what happens to me. Me? I'm just kinda here. If I go... I go. I didn't have too many thoughts back in that cavern—just like how I don't have too many now.”

His eyes passed over her muzzle in their upward flick, to the ceiling, where they settled and remained. “I don't really have any hatred or anger or anything for you. Didn't feel much of anything once I came back. Only that I was... still here.”

He smirked for whatever reason as a threat of a tear sizzled at the corner of his eye. “That's all there is to it.”

Rainbow would have said something more...

...had the doctor not come to the door.

It'd taken a month or so for him to get discharged, countless visits from his friends and even a few princesses, ones thankful for his existence coming to ensure he knew that fact. Everything seemed like a dream in the acts done for these ponies. Helping Applejack through a tough farm season to aiding Luna through handling the nightmares she witnessed without break.

It'd been his inclination to assist others. There wasn't a greater reason why. Most of the time it was without a reward and he didn't do to be considered good. All of it was distant to tell the truth. Only that in helping most, there was a feeling that was right, the process of the duty evoking something within his husk, the act of being around others casting the image of actually having a life.

But it never lasted. He went from friend to friend to assist but those acts were self-contained. It's the reason he went from friend to friend to help as there wasn't much of a need more to keep around someone without a problem to solve. In doing he felt free. Simply being around was a cause of death that decomposed his husk.

Then the friends came flushing back. The ones he helped seeing him over and over. They made the time easier. Talking about whatever and laughing about memories. There were jokes about the event itself followed by a profound speech of how much the dragon meant to them.

And Spike couldn't help but feel they were talking about another dragon.

He'd become a confused creature after growing up from being a goofy kid.

These ponies talked about him. What he was to them. His actions and what they had meant to others. They placed meaning and value into all of the above. That he was something beyond his usual state of nothing. It never felt real. But he nodded and smiled and kept forever thankful to their words.

Each one miniature explosions of life fading immediately after their sparks.

And then the dragon was sent home.

“Spiiike! These are your morning pills!””

Spike groaned as he stumbled through the hall, passing the open door to his bathroom seconds before, the mare in there already in a flare. He stopped and groaned and leaned himself onto the wall. He yelled back over his shoulder. “So?”

“So you're supposed to take them in the morning!”

His face scrunched into himself. “Isn't tomorrow morning still morning?”

“Don't be playing games with me mister!” Twilight peeked out from the frame of the door, a magical aura hovering before her face, the collection of pills cast in the air. The bubble flew toward him and his sore shoulders lowered even more. “You're not out of the woodworks with all of this yet! There's still a chance that you can... you can...”

Spike died a little more on the inside without knowing how that was possible. There was nothing within. Yet the demonstration of Twilight's feelings had sparked a batch of his own. Faint and barely felt. Were they even his? Or the spread of Twilight coming into him?

He closed his eyes and shook his head and held out his claw—to wince and groan from being a moron. Instead his lips parted and the medication flew in. Swallowing without water was a feat not many others could perform.

“Feeling better now?”

Twilight winced at the remark and stepped back. Her eyes found the floor as she compressed into herself. Sensitivity was the topic and the air which pained her to continue. “You're not the one that's supposed to be asking that. You shouldn't even be out of bed! Why are you... why don't you...”

Spike inhaled and exhaled a breath heavier than any before. His body seemed to gain life in being around others. His soul alit and personality evoked. Put into a situation to say and do the right things; being alone meant being nothing.

Unless there was something to do of course.

“Sorry Twilight.” He said those words because he was supposed to and to the surprise that he meant them. His head turned away as the weight of awkwardness grew the more he focused on her. “I shouldn't have made you worry like that. Just not used to it is all.”

Both of them blinked at those words.

But Twilight spoke first. “What do you mean?”

“N-Nothing bad of course! Just that you tend to leave me to my thing unless I have something going on.” He swallowed and hoped there was truth somewhere in that. “Now that you're actually following the process on this—just not used to it is all!”

Twilight looked at him in a way that couldn't be explained. It killed him. Disintegrating the embers that remained. It was an expression of shock. Guilt in tandem with sadness. The desire to speak but without a point to use. Needing confirmation or consolation or something from another.

“I-I suppose that makes sense.” Twilight turned away to missing his claw reaching for her, one that immediately fell, too weak to keep out. Rather she strolled without a word, and he was too much of a coward to offer himself.

The air was wrong and neither dared to make it right.

Until the girl stopped further down the hall.

“Spike?”

He jolted out from himself. “Y-Yeah?”

“Me... the girls... even the princesses... we all care for you.” The back of her head was visible, lowering in every word, unable to possess the strength to remain rigid in speaking the truth. Or perhaps it was because it wasn't that she struggled so much in presenting this apparent reality. “It may not feel like it. Maybe we're all not so close anymore. But I do think about you. You do pop in my head.”

Twilight swallowed. “Although... it's only now and again.”

“And I think... that's the way it's meant to be Twilight.” Spike blinked in looking down at his limp arm, the one swung toward her before, now pinched in the nerves to the feeling of blood freezing. It wouldn't move without a reason to fuel it. “I think about you too. All the girls. Whenever a problem or something reminds me of them. I think I care for them too. But never anything more than that.”

There was no reason for his arm to move. It hung limply and without cause. Yet there was an urge to lift it. Curl his digits. Clench and pump or do something with it. The dragon craved a reason for it. He did not know why this was the case. “We're all so busy with our own things. But I believe we all think about each other. Maybe not enough to do something about it. But maybe... if something were to happen... that would change.”

Twilight lifted her head to be able to turn it. And she did so to look at him. Gazing over from over her shoulder. “It's our natural tendency to assume others will make the first move.”

And to move on if others don't desire the same thing.

Spike mentally recoiled in that thought.

Everything was still and silent for a moment.

“Hey Twilight?”

“Yes Spike?”

“Sorry for being weird back there.”

“It's okay... hey Spike?”

“Yeah?”

“Is everything okay with you?”

Spike's mouth opened but no amount of words could collect the collection of his feelings. There simply was too much. It wasn't a dislike of wanting to share all the woes that composed himself. But rather what was there was too thick, too big, too dense to be resolved in a single conversation.

There was no small way of coming into it.

Rather it was a block meant to be chipped away at.

And from his senses... Twilight wasn't the one for it... or any other in his life.

Due to something on his part.

Or his lack of finding the right one for it.

“No.” Spike slowly shook his head. “But I think I'll find my way eventually.”

“Do you need help?”

He should have nodded.

But shook his head instead.

“I think I'll be able to accept that eventually as well.”

Days on the inside sent him insane. It wasn't his place to stay in the same place. Resting into himself meant slowly disappearing into nothingness. One empty on the inside goes looking to be filled with that which resides outside. Different lands and various tasks to multiple treks. Doing and exploring offered Spike something.

But there wasn't much he could do now.

“Are you reeeeeally sure you're okay watching him?”

“You kidding? Already got blown off from the Wonderbolts for the next few weeks because of this.” Their voices were muffled through the walls of the bathroom. The dragon groaned before the sink. His tail wrapped around his toothbrush, as tightly as it could, yet the grip was loose. Brushing was a pain. Twilight brushing his teeth for him was even more so. “Go on and do princess things. Just don't let Starlight blow up anything this time.”

“Why do you think I'm tagging along?”

“Hey! That was ONE time! And it wasn't even my fault! It was—“

“It was the series of excuses you're about to vomit out of that muzzle of yours.” The sway of her mane could be heard as that level of banter allowed one to easily imagine the motions coming with it. “I get it. Wasn't your fault. This that and whatever the heck. We've all heard it before.”

“Like how we all heard you nearly killed Spike in wanting to show off?”

“Starlight!”

Spike froze and the loosening of his tail released the toothbrush. It fell and clattered into the sink. He blinked and looked to the door. There were creaks from shifting hoofsteps and at once he ran the tap. Going on like nothing happened while paying attention to the conversation.

“I-I'm sorry! I-I-I didn't mean to take it that far! Just heard—“

“And you heard right.” There was nothing for a while before the sound of words returned. “Don't worry about it. You two should get going. Last train doesn't wait for long.”

“Rainbow Dash.”

“Just get going—please?”

Silence followed by hoofsteps that faded into the distance until silence returned. Spike sent the spade of his tail into the sink as he looked at the door. It wasn't often he was the subject of conversation. Much less used to serve a winning point. He existed in the outside world; someone that others spoke about sometimes.

And that was strange to experience.

It seemed he was always talking about others and rarely about himself. To have that reversed now, due to the context of the accident, it evoked... something within. It wouldn't last for long. He would heal and the memory would seal. But being a constant topic as of late did something for him.

The next morning came with a feeling the previous ones lacked. None else was in the home except for him and the stranger. Where did Rainbow Dash sleep? He did not know. Somewhere else in the castle she was here, doing something, whatever a usual mare did. How did she kill time in a place like this? Part of him wanted to know for reasons beyond boredom.

The dragon ended up breaking into the hall with his shoulder to the wall, resting into it, shambling toward the kitchen. It was slow. Painful. Everything alleviated if he used the crutches and wheelchair provided. Yet he refused to rely on tools.

There isn't much to me. So why not use them? I have nothing to prove. Is it the pain? The challenge? No. It's none of those things. He reached the end of the hall as the walls converged into a frame; smoke wafted through the opening of the kitchen. Why do I think so much anyway? Because I find the problems interesting? Because it's the only way I become interesting to myself—nope. Nah. You've gone too far dude.

It was a battle through a castle to push from the wall, a stumble to the frame, crashing into it, resting on the arch and gazing through it. The kitchen bathed in steam though it faded in the coming seconds. Before the stove, stood the mare, leaned over it, coughing, dressed cutely in a pink apron.

Spike blinked. “Rainbow Dash?”

“Huh?” Her head turned to him to a widening expression, eyes and eyebrows, lips and cheeks, everything shocked in being seen like this. Even her heartbeat was louder than the sizzle of eggs in the pan. “O-Oh! Spike! Uh. M-Morning to you!”

The dragon weakly joined a pair of digits and rose them to his eyebrow—firing them off from there. He groaned and winced from the act though it was worth the effort. “And morning to you as well commander.”

Rainbow's cheeks flushed the softest pink. “C-Commander?”

“It was either commander or newspaper-delivery pony.” Spike bounced his head to the juggling of those options within it. “No one really says morning to you anymore. Except for those two. Figured delivery was a little too insulting. But commander hit all the marks.”

“Cuz I'm a Wonderbolt?”

“Mostly that yeah.” Spike pushed off from the arch into the kitchen, stumbling a few steps, clenching his stomach to steady his momentum; Rainbow came toward him but stopped at the raising of his claw. With a frown she turned around. “How is that going anyway? Spitfire didn't give you too much shit for cashing in a few weeks of sick days?”

Rainbow's muzzle dove for the plastic spatula resting on the pan, coming to a stop, seconds before, a prismatic mane drifting over her eyes. Her shoulder slumped as her forehooves rested on the edge of the stove. The apron didn't cover her backside beyond a pink strap. Her hindquarters flexed in shifting around. “She... didn't have a problem with that.”

Spike caught the cue as he crashed into the chair before the table, a slow transfer of himself onto it, feeling like an old pony in getting up or sitting down in any regard whatsoever. He thanked dragon lifespans for greatly delaying such a fate. “But it's Spitfire. Always finds a point in something you do. What did she call you out for this time?”

“T-The usual.”

“You showing off your battle scars again?”

“Got a cute mark on my tummy that looks kinda sick.”

“Pfft.”

“H-Hey! What's wrong with that?”

“Nothing!” Spike bit his lip in coming to cover them with a claw. Most of his spewing laughter was caught. Some, however, gushed between the gaps between his digits. “Just you're too perfect when you talk like that is all.”

“What's wrong with calling a scar cute or my stomach a tummy huh?”

“Nothing at all!” The claw dropped and he fell back in the chair. Usually he sat weirdly, on a leg or leaning forward Now, however, he needed the full sport of whatever the external world could offer him. It was nice taking the weight off as something else took it for him. “Wish you were that way around others more. Feels like a shame I'm the only one that gets to see you as, well, you in that regard.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled in biting the handle between her teeth. “I hwave maw mowments arouwnd owthers.”

“That you do.” Spike heavily exhaled. “Always nice to do things for their satisfaction than to impress someone else.” His face became heavy and his eyebrow skyrocketed despite it. “And I have no clue why I said that.”

“Bwcause wer weird.”

Spike bunched his lips and was forced to accept. “Can't deny that now, can I?”

Where had this character come from? These smooth words and seamless transitions? It was awkward but didn't breach any boundaries. He felt like someone. With things to feel and subjects to speak. Why was it that all of this faded the second he became alone?

Thoughts of himself went away in seeing her legs ceasing to do a shake. It was the case whenever Dash was behind the pan. Stepping left and right, viewing the cooking from multiple angles, failing the meal’s preparation no matter the one. Yet there was no dance to her today.

Only stillness to the plumpness of her booty.

“What did Spitfire say to you?”

“Nothing important.”

“It's important to me.”

Rainbow spat the plastic into the pan as she checked him from over her shoulder again. “Why?”

“Because I care for you.” The words were genuine and true and yet they didn't feel good enough. Complexion meant added depth while simplicity was understood for yet another platitude. “Even if it's nothing, I seem to be interested in everything that happens in your life. Maybe it's because I lack my own.”

“You have plenty going on with you.”

“Nothing that I find interesting.”

Her eyes narrowed and her lips did the same. Rainbow Dash returned to the pan, a nudge of the snout to the handle, dispensing the heat around, the burnt smell, proof, of a wasted effort. With a growl of a sigh was how the mare spoke next. “You're like my number-one fans—except you get the full story to everything.”

“I've always preferred unabridged.”

Rainbow stopped nudging the pan as the back of her head kept to him. “You don't wish to change that though? To, y'know, see me like everyone else does?”

“Not really.” His limp claw rose to massage his jaw, a palm brushed over rubbery and protruding scales, a darker green, the closest a dragon came to facial hair. “Because then I would be like everyone else to you. What we have is the closest I'll have to feeling special in some way.”

Gasps of giggles escaped Rainbow. “But I already thought you were special in the head.”

“Because I'm as gifted as Twilight?”

“Gifted in some way alright.” Rainbow laughed some more, the genuine kind, a horrible sort, a laugh that hated the source of its origins. Her body pushed harder from the stove as a hoof settled on her fluffy chest. That which was exposed through the bandages anyway. “Sorry sorry. Couldn't help myself. Y'know how I get with that.”

“No worries.” Spike started to grin in his retribution. “You can pay me back in telling me whatever Spitfire said to you.”

“But what about back to seeing me like everyone else? Are you sure that isn't better? I mean getting to see me in the awesomeness that all do?” Rainbow rested her hoof onto the stove and rested on it. “Because like, I'm a hero and stuff, right? Celebrity and attractive mare and pretty much me.”

She shuffled in place in not enjoying the zone those words had led her to. “'Course it sounds horrible putting myself in that light. But that's the light most see me in. That's why my fans and stuff like me so much. Because they see all that coolness I'm able to pull off.”

“And if you don't cool the heat on that pan the metal will be melting soon.”

“C-Crud!” Her forelegs clattered across the edge to the front of the stove, fidgeting with the dial, the larger scale ones still difficult for hooves to work on. The heat went from high to low though that fact didn't matter much anymore. “Knew I'd gotten something wrong!”

Spike's expression narrowed unto itself.

Gotten a lot more wrong than that sister.

Spike decided to follow through on the question while the mare struggled with the most likely brown-burnt eggs. “And the answer is still no. Getting to see you as larger than life is cool. Meeting you is like going to a show where you're amazed and immersed for a while.”

“B-But that's the experience I want ponies to have of me most of the time! That makes me, like, special and stuff.” Rainbow's face leaped from itself in seeing the charred smoke undulating from the pan. Unable to stretch her wings from their bandaged bindings, she instead waved a hoof over the pan, leaning her muzzle in close as well, blowing out through her lips in a comical fashion. “Darn the eggs! They were your breakfast! You were supposed to have them in bed too!”

Spike was laughing at the table, painfully so, nearly coughing up a lung in doing so. He would have slapped a knee if his arm was able or if his thigh could take it. The hacking was enough to sell his enjoyment of the present situation.

“Hey hey! Totally not funny!” Rainbow Dash curved in a turn away from the stove, pouting at him as her hoof continued swatting the steam. She'd at least taken off the heat—but forgotten what came after that. “These eggs were a way of winning some points from you! Damn it!”

“And what other guy has the p-privilege—“ Spike hacked another chuckle as his breathing returned “—of having the great Rainbow Dash try to save burnt eggs she planned to bring him for bed? That's the kind of special I prefer anyhow.”

He finished that with tilting his chin to the pan. “And you still need to take that off from the heat. Else you're never winning that battle with that smoke.”

“Right right; on it.” She pushed the pan to the side and the sizzling ceased from inside. Her head lowered and she exhaled. Something was still playing on her. It wasn't often her body language was more down than up. “But... but are you sure you wouldn't prefer me as a show? Something you dress up and go out to and get in a crowd to experience.” Her eyes clenched at that and a hoof laid atop them. “Damn it; am I talking myself up again?”

Spike chuckled as he laid more in his seat and thought about it. There wasn't much in common to him and the mare. Besides finding her crying that day, providing a shoulder for it, seeking kindness for the one unkind to herself. It was that dynamic allowing them to grow close. It was the sole reason. But was there anything around it that could help it?

“I imagine... feeling like an event... is pretty rad.” The back of his head leaned atop the top of the chair. He gazed to the ceiling to see the last of the smoke dissipating. Within the faint clouds, though, he saw a little more. “I wasn't much to shake a stick at before all of this began. Ponies didn't really talk about me. Never really celebrated when I go anywhere—unlike the rest of the girls.”

He coughed and did so again and almost was thrown forward to allow the hacking a safe passage out from him. But he took the thickness of the coughing to keep that way. It's as though he needed this position to access deeper inside himself. “Break your body and get dubbed a hero and suddenly you're famous. The ride back home had ponies cheering for me on the streets. Got a crisp letter from Celestia on the matter. Few newspaper articles—ones you're probably not a fan of.”

Spike could hear the roll of her eyes. “T-Tell me about it.”

“But I... I also know it isn't going to last.” Spike's mouth kept open seconds after that, caught into a reflection of itself. It closed to swallow before opening once more. “It'll fade like every other heroic event. Others will stop treating me like I'm special over time. And everything will go back to normal. So it doesn't seem wise to seek that feeling to be my life. Especially when it only lasts for the length of a show.”

Rainbow's hooves clopped on the floor above, coming to him, but in a few steps. “Ponies won't forget this, Spike.”

“How many times are you thanked for saving Canterlot from Changelings nowadays?”

“M-Maybe you're right in that regard.” Even though it couldn't be seen, it was felt, the mare standing taller. Not for her sake in defence of her ego. But rather the courage to be and speak more for the sake of another. “Maybe ponies ditch some facts after some time passes. But maybe it builds up too? Like you think someone's a hero because of all the heroic things they do.”

Spike chuckled from the chair. “And so the events stack in the perceptions of others?”

“Fancy way of putting it,” Rainbow said while turning her head, “but sure! Ponies may forget what you did for me, but it proves something about your character, a kind of feeling that will keep with those ponies. Something changes from the event even after the hype dies down.”

Spike laughed in coming to lean forward. Once more he was hacking, evoking sadness to Rainbow's expression, though the pain, seconds later, was lightened as the dragon was doing so in mirth. “Oh Rainbow Dash. Sometimes you're too smart for me!”

“That an—“

“C-Compliment I assure you.” Spike held up a claw and did so with less pain, a cause for it, an instinctual one. Though it fell into his lap the second next. “And how I feel about you is the same. Ponies dress up and go to a show and get amazed by you and it's an experience unlike any other. But no matter the show—ponies want to go back home after a while.”

His chest spasmed and filled with something, thickness collecting in his lungs, the feeling to get the goo out becoming desperate. Placing a claw on a pec, he grabbed the spot, disillusioned that would somehow help. “Which is something I don't like about you.”

Rainbow stepped forward but danced back on that phrase. Her bright face had been lifted but now lowered at those words. It shrunk into itself, wanting to speak, the pain across her prettiness like a sacred crime. “W-Whuh do y-you mean by that?”

“B-Because you come in and you dazzle ponies for an immense high for a while,” Spike coughed in trio and closed his eyes in the speech, feeling a rising in his throat, bloated and sticky was the substance. “Then everyone leaves and you're alone until the next fix. Until the next gathering of friends or whatnot allows you to be THE Rainbow Dash again. And the time between those events is cruel.”

His eye cracked open to spot the mare before him now. Her foreleg rose and rested on his lap; her wingtips reaching out to collect a napkin. Bringing it to his lips, her lips fought through wobbles to smile at him. “Stop talking Spike. You're hurting yourself. Get it out.”

But he shook his head. “Having you burn my eggs is a better show than any Wonderbolts performance.”

“Oh shut up.”

Her smile no longer wobbled.

Spike hacked freely into the presented napkin, a mix of everything out from his lips, the rich substance rolled on the white. It was with a few more hacks—followed by wheezing—that his claw batted for the mare to go away. He laid back, fighting to breathe, it was forever harder to inflate his lungs.

What had he just gone on about? Those thoughts worried him more than the lack of oxygen barely able to enter him. Had he said the right things? Or had he spoken wrongly? Were those words true? He couldn't be sure.

Were they genuine?

Of that he was sure.

His head was tilted up but his eyes rolled down to spot the mare standing at his side. Blue and petite with strands of the rainbow cast over the adorableness of her muzzle. It seemed scrunched into itself with rosy eyes cast aside in subtle humiliation. She was perfect like this. Far greater, to him, than the smirk put on at the height of performance.

“Spike?”

He'd been looking so deeply at her that, all this time, she'd been speaking to him. “Y-Yeah?”

“When's... the last time you had a bath?”

He blinked as he looked down at his armpits. Everything smelled terrible though he assumed that to be the state of himself as of late. He narrowed his eyes at the mare who stepped away. Maybe that turn of the head was for another reason. “I would lift my armpits to find out, but—“

“But you don't want to drop a bomb in the kitchen? I'm thankful to you.”

“Like those burnt eggs taste any better!”

“Hey! There's always next time.”

“To get it right? You'll need me by your side for that.”

“Oh hush. You'll need to be at my side to even stand.”

“If I had my cane—“

“The one you never use?”

“Maybe this will give me a reason to use it.”

“You'd rather use a cane than rely on this body of awesomeness for support?”

“Could little you even hold me?”

“Cradle you in my arms and show you the world.”

“We could try now if you would like.”

“Let's wait until you can leave the castle first.”

Both of them shared a laugh. He a little less to prevent the risk of death. They enjoyed it though. That he knew. How they could go from depth to fun in less than a second. What they had was still incomplete. But being able to laugh and return to normal, taking these psychological bits one at a time, was exactly the kind of relationship he needed.

Relationship?

“But seriously.” Rainbow narrowed her eyes and tilted her head away. “Why kick bathing again? Aren't you the type to shower for an hour or something?”

“Exactly my problem.” Spike nodded. “Can't really stand for an hour.”

“Don't give me that—you can get a chair or seat or something.”

“Rainbow Dash I can hardly brush my teeth nowadays.” His gaze flicked to his shoulders, forcing them both up, one reaching a few inches for a few seconds. Then it fell. His tail rose to his side and curled to show the tightness it lacked. “Undoing all my bandages and washing and then doing it all back up. Forget it. Tried it twice and never again. I'll keep the stink for now.”

“Can't Twilight wash you?”

“I am so not having Twilight or Starlight wash me.”

“And what's wrong with that!?” Rainbow flung her foreleg through the air. “Aren't you always helping them? The three of you are already closer than close! What's the big deal in having one of them wash you?” Her hoof clopped on contact with the ground as an eye scrunched up as well. “Didn't you do the same for Twilight one time? When her magic stopped working for one reason or another?”

“It's different.”

“Different how?” Rainbow tilted her chin up at that. “Don't tell me you're like Applejack with that. Always wanting to help others but never wanting help for yourself. C'mon you're better than that.”

Spike squeezed his eyes without them closing as he was forced to look down. Why the hesitation? Was he fearful of being touched? Not really. It'd been a long time since he cared about how he looked. Rather it was the service of someone doing something for him that he took issue with.

Issues he never knew he had in the times he was by himself. “It's deeper than that Rainbow. I'm not too good for others' help. In fact I probably desperately need it. It's just that... I'm not deserving of it.”

“Deserving?” Rainbow nearly spat the word. “Where did you get that bull from? Of course you're deserving! You're Spike!”

She'd said his name as though it meant something more. He blinked at hearing it. Rainbow Dash brought images of greatness. Applejack and the spirit of hardworking. Fluttershy to softness and kindness. They're names that meant something more outside of themselves.

And he hadn't been aware his name had meant something more.

“But I won't push you on something you're not open to talking about,” Rainbow followed as she lowered in place, compressing into herself, not wanting to force the matter. She was there for him. This had been unexpected. The dragon expected his help to Rainbow to be one-sided. Not because she was selfish. Rather it due to her being something and he being nothing. The former had problems to maintain itself while the latter was there only to assist. “But you should really wash. Not because of the smell. But those cuts and wounds and—“

Spike shook his head as his claw reached to the top of the chair, a tight and shaky grip, pushing on it, a flush of pain through the bone of his shoulder, all born from the borne to stand by himself. “T-They'll be fine. Don't worry about them. That's just... extra stuff.”

“That's not just extra stuff and you know it! How can you be like this? Aren't you more worried about yourself? What is it about you that's got you like this?” Rainbow raced toward him as her side pressed into his hip, assisting him, wrapping a foreleg around his waist. “Do you think the worst of it is over? Or that you're invincible and all this crud for others? Is it because you're a dragon you can forget about most risks? You wouldn't have lived through what happened if you weren't—“

“To be honest with you, on most days, I forget I'm even a dragon.” Spike's legs wobbled to the point of buckling, his willpower fighting, to bring them as close to still as possible. His body was shaking and he couldn't stop it. He needed to if he wanted to stand straight. But that goal never came. “I'm just someone t-that's here Dash. Nothing more. W-Whatever happens, happens, and I—“

“And you are so full of crud! Do you even see your hypocrisy at this point? You talk about being nothing, and yet, you refuse to be bathed by a mare of all things.” Rainbow shook her head and rose higher on him, a need as his body faltered, the force to stand straight zapping the energy to stand at all. “How can you be nothing but take issue with such a thing? And you were someone back there—weren't you? Joking and laughing and just... l-living!”

Spike found the muzzle soon nuzzling into his arm, a force wiggling into the space between it and his side, her snout opening the way for the rest of her head to slide through. His arm came to rest around her neck as the mare took hold of him. “T-There's m-more to you than you think. Just have to c-come out of yourself more. None else will think to do if they don't know what's going on—what more there is deep inside of you.”

“But those... those feelings of living.” Spike exhaled heavily as he looked down at his side, seeing the face of the mare there. She looked up to him, pissed and determined, both for his sake. “They only happen when I'm around others. It's like the time between events. It's just—“

“It just sounds like I have to burn more eggs for you after my shows are done.” Rainbow had a breath stolen in closing her eyes and groaning aloud. She was struggling in rolling a boulder up a hill. And the strength in her muscles was finite. “Now c'mon! I can't hold you forever.”

“So much for cradling me next.”

“The b-bathtub... can do so... f-f-for me!”

Spike hadn't been expecting for them to reach the bathroom, his claw opening the door as she thrust them through, a few steps—stumbles really—until reaching the stool before the tub. Largest one in the house and procured for him alone. It never went used. The dragon hated baths.

“Oh dear Celestia, my back!” Rainbow had thrust him onto the seat and backed at once, now free without the immense weight, coming to stand to flex her spine out. She arched it, kinks and cracks being popped. The sigh of relief was sweet. “I was worried I'd never be able to stand straight again! That weight! How much of that is muscle and how much of that is fat?”

Spike gripped the underside of the stool as it was barren of back support. He did his best to not fall back. The offer to do so, though, was certainty tempting. “Does fat over muscle count toward being positive?”

“In your dreams.” Rainbow's forelegs crashed into the ground as she glanced over at him. “Moment you're back in shape, we're putting you in even greater shape, copy?” She walked over to him and presented her back. Slowly rising onto her other legs, she wrapped her forelegs around his waist. “I don't get you on that by the way.” She huffed in taking his weight, the immensity returned, though the pressure... enjoyable in a way. “Why the... need for... self-improvement... if you... don't!... even feel like you have a self?”

Spike pressed a claw into her back, harder than he would have liked, wanting to push less but not being strong enough. That in and of itself was the reason there. Though it reached a bit deeper than that. “B-Because I only feel s-something when I'm helping others. Better I am... better I can do that. P-Plus it allowed me to keep talking to you.”

“O-Oh? H-H-Have a crush... do ya?” Rainbow groaned in ducking forward, leaving her forelegs from his waist to his leg, helping it lift, high, over the rim of the tub. Getting his other over was torture. Thankfully his claw on the tub released some of the weight from her. “Nnnghhaa! Oh oh! I'll have to keep that in mind.”

Spike chuckled as squeaks came from beneath him. His body slid into the tub, slowly, allowing gravity to do all the work. Soon he was lying back in it, hating the feeling, returned to the state of being a useless kid. “S-Sure. We can call it that.”

Rainbow nudged her muzzle up at that. She went to the other side of the tub, turning the dial, a flush of water streaming from the tap. It started slowly before starting to grow. Steam and the like rose as well. “Guess we'll ditch my attempt at that. How come you enlisted to work out with me anyhow?”

Spike thought for a reason and, at once, thought it to be cliche. “Guess I didn't want to see you alone for too long?”

“What? No way.” Rainbow shook her head as she looked at the bottles lined at the thickest corners of the tub. Her wing lifted one catching her eye. Its top lifted and presented to her snout, she sniffed, a light moan in doing so. “You're not that much of the sap; what really was the reason?”

Spike thought about it and found more so that to be it. “That's really it Dash.”

Rainbow sauntered to the side of the tub and turned the bottle, a stream of pink pouring from it, splashing and dissipating into the rising water. She looked at him dumbfounded. Coming to his side to undo the bandages rolled around him. “Y'know I'm not that hopeless right? Don't need you at my side at every waking second.”

“Of course.” Spike coughed in lifting an arm, feeling the smoothness of fur brushing underneath it. She held his weight as her teeth went for the pins holding the fabrics as tightly as they did. “But it seemed like you needed a friend you could talk one on one with about things. We didn't normally do things together. Only thing that made sense was to ask you for training—with all the side benefits that came from that.”

“Like checking out my flanks?”

“I was thinking more so along the lines of becoming stronger and healthier and getting out more,” Spike rolled out the list with a groan as fire etched across his raised arm. It'd been kept up a few seconds too long. “But yeah. Guess you could toss that in as well.”

“So you are a normal boy in some regards then.” Rainbow's muzzle pulled out from his arm and, as it floated up, possessed multiple pins between her teeth. She pulled over the stool with a steel bucket on it. Metal clattered in being dropped in metal. “Can't say I've heard you crack jokes at stuff like that. Much less rambled off about how great Rarity is.”

“When that side of the world loses interest in you,” Spike said in dropping his arm into the tub, “you lose that interest in yourself.”

“Heh.” Rainbow came back to lightly bite at the edge of his bandage, pulling on it, feeling the bundle unfurl. She yanked her neck to the side and stepped back as well. The dirtied material curled off the dragon, covered in red and brown, its smell unpleasant. “Guess we're alike on that one. The world treats me as a stunning knockout. But I don't really feel that way.”

Spike chuckled in sinking deeper into the tub, the back of his neck resting on the rim, a blow of air once he was done. “That was the one thing the world got right about you Dash. You really are beautiful. Or pretty at least.”

“Prettier than Rarity?”

“Different kind of pretty.”

“Cop-out.”

“I speak the truth your honour.”

“Pfft. I'd love to see a court case about this.”

“This seems like something you'd put me on the stand for.”

“I just might, Spike, I just might.”

It didn't take long for the tub to fill or for the dragon to be removed of his accessories. Rainbow had gone quiet in taking off his bandages. Guilt arose in seeing the swollen marks and the smells trapped underneath. But disgust wasn't the expression on her cute face. Rather it was guilt.

Powerful feelings arose in the dragon as he laid in the tub. The wanting to do something but the not knowing of what. It wasn't like him to be washed by another. Much less in a tub and like a bath. Yet he'd taken this hit for her.

So maybe she would do the same in return?

“Hey Rainbow? Can I ask you a question... and you answer it this time?”

Rainbow was at his side and above, looming up high, a luffa strapped around the wrist of her foreleg. Her wing squeezed a bottle onto it as her other foreleg rested on the polished rim of white. She flinched at the wordage. “Still haven't dropped the Spitfire thing have ya?”

Was this pushing too hard or not pushing hard enough? Would she open to anyone else about this stuff or was it locked only to him? Spike prayed of the mare finding someone better to share herself with. Yet she found him and went searching for no other. He needed to become better at all of this for her sake.

At least until someone else showed themselves.

“I won't judge you.” Spike threw his arm onto the side of the tub to its smoothness rubbing into his scales. Some of them flared at the pressure at burning spots across him. Yet he restrained the pain to keep through with this. “Hard for me to lord anything over you when I'm needing you to scrub me clean. Take a photo if you like. Equal blackmail opportunity.”

Rainbow's face suddenly became sad and tired though her lips kept to a hopeful smile. “Believe it or not, Spike, you still hold more power in that regard. You already know what Spitfire talked to me about. It was you.”

Spike winced. Rainbow sauntered behind him, wrapping her forelegs around his throat, pushing up into his chin, forcing his head to rest into the fluff of her chest. Voluminous was the tuft and thick was its furs. A puffy paradise he could happily die inside. “Like that slip Starlight made?”

“Along those lines—figured you heard that.” Rainbow's chest pressed deeper into him as she leaned over his head and to the right, lowering the scrub onto his shoulder, reaching across his right arm, scrubbing the collected filth and such off the scales. “Spitfire went more in-depth with it though. Nothing I could fight her on. She gave me the lashing I expected from you.”

Spike didn't like that. In fact he wanted to fight that. But speaking out because a friend got hurt by some words never did right in the end. It was always a matter of finding out what was said and how correct it was to say it exactly like that. “Hope she wasn't saying it for my sake then. Let me guess. Spitfire talked about the dangers that kind of attitude could do to harm the Wonderbolts?”

“Something along those lines yeah.” Buds from the scrub exploded across his scales, the coolness accompanied in a feeling of cleanliness, the nastiness coating the feeling of his body dissipating. “Apparently I've got the need to show off. No surprise there. But this was the first time it reached the point of being a means to wound the team. Much less one of us needing to be saved by a dragon.”

“Don't take that too much to heart.” Forelegs wrapped around his arm lifted from its underside, rising from the rim and into the tub, a flush of shimmering warmth across his scales, the dirt now dislodged floating out across the limb. “We're all being saved or saving others in different ways. Can't always expect it to be one way.”

“Wonderbolts are supposed to be the best of the best for a reason.”

“And you'll get there eventually.” Now came the cause for a blush in having the mare lean fully over his face, her wings propped into the outer surface of the tub for support, moving her hooves in the water to rub his arm. Light splashes sang in the steamy room. “You'd never let this happen during a mission. I can't even recall the last time you felt the need to show off like that—much less with me.”

The hooves rubbing across his arm stopped and, at once, the dragon felt sad in feeling so. Something about them had been magical. Round and large and yet precise across him. They covered more than they meant to and gratitude arose from that. Those hooves on him caused his body to feel different to himself.

“Why did you do it anyway?” It was harder to speak with a face submerged in fluff, though it comforted him, the softness and warmth in them all. “You already know you don't need to put on a show for me. So why take that risk? What were you trying to prove?”

He could feel Rainbow's eyes closing. The way her chest expanded from the heaviness of her breath. There was a shiver, a tremble maybe, in whatever weight had struck her next. She resumed her work, raising his arm from the water, returning it to the rim as the sleekness of his purple had finally returned.

“Y'know... I was thinkin' about that for a while there... why I thought it was so dang important to put on a show for you then.” Her voice choked with sadness though she carried on with the work. Her barrel dipped to the side of his face, trimmed fur down it, his frill pinned by her softness. Her hooves worked together on his other arm, pushing across it before pulling back, working into the scales, lightly, working with the sore muscles underneath. “Must have thought about it every day while you were at the hospital. I don't know why it's the case. But ever since that day after the bridge... I've cared less about what ponies think of me.”

Spike continued to listen as the face of the mare appeared at his side, focused on her work, turning over his arm, lightly to scrub at his wrist. The tense muscles were pushed into, rubbed around into release, the lack of tension flooding relief through his system. “Because of what I said?”

“No you silly.” Rainbow dropped onto him fully, chest to shoulder, fluff working back and forth, softness brushing smoothness, her body rubbing into his. The broadness of her hooves focused on the soreness of his elbow, its inner-curve, lightening the pressure around the bone. “It's what you did. Sure I still care about putting on a show. But not so much... of what others come to think of me.”

Spike scrunched his face as the mare leaned further over his arm, examining it thoroughly, tilting her head at spots catching her attention. Her hooves joined together and pushed on such areas, lightly but gaining pressure, the extent dictated by the pleasure of his sounds. He moaned in an elongated whimper as sweetness pleased through him.

“You've seen me at my worst. Saw me cry and all that. Yet you treated me the same.” Her snout snuggled into his palm, which opened in response, her wingtips reaching to the area. They wrapped tightly on one, softness cast over bone, squeezing over his length, the pressure applied over, shooting up and then lessening down, all to relax the muscle beneath. “I don't have to sweat coming to you with anything. Needing to word it right or not look like a wimp. It's something.. I... I needed more than I would like to admit. But I guess that brings about its own problem.”

Spike went to ask but moaned instead. Wiggles breaking out through his spine at the utter pleasure flushing from his digits. Stiff and locked with bone encased into itself. Yet the curled tips of her wing, clenching and then releasing, pulling up for a crack before pushing down and rolling around, it all spreading comfort to places forgetting the sensation.

“It's nice to have everypony accept me as great. They never have to see the stuff that makes me... well, that makes me come crying to you.” His thumb was pulled up, harder than expected, but the kink of stiffness, popping at the levitation, drove his hips into a shaking unable to be contained. “But you usually only see me at my weakest or worst or whatever. And I guess I was okay with that. B-But a part of me lately, d-dunno, w-w-wants you to see me as more. To know and recognize that great part of me exists on top of that worse crud.”

Impossibility arose in trying to comfort the mare. Not when the pulling of joints led to bubbling euphoria travelling across bones normally sore. Terribleness clung to him forever. This was the first time his soul and more felt at peace, in love with itself, succumbing to the goodness one such as himself wasn't meant to feel.

“Of course I already know that.” Spike groaned a moan in fighting through the haziness of it all. Somehow transportation to paradise occurred as the steam in the scene obscured everything into a heavenly haze. “Already viewed you higher than clouds. N-Never expected you to be like everyone else in some respects. That you would come down to the ground—and land next to me out of anyone.”

Rainbow laughed once in returning to his back. Straddling the tub once more, she gripped the sides of his head with hooves. Foamy were they in swirling in circles across the scales, pushing in and spreading around, lightening the scales tighter than needed. “You were the one to find me dork.”

“And I keep finding you during a roaring crowd as you perform yet another sonic rainboom to save a friend.” The dragon chuckled and felt it go longer in his head as it bobbed left and right in the rhythm of a dancing snake. Light pops beneath the frills as his jaw ground in a tease of locking into a greater place. “Problem is you don't see my face amid the thousands there.”

The hooves stopped as they reached the back of his jaw on either side. Laughter was swift from above. The genuine kind. One carrying out weight in every chuckle. Smooth was her breath afterwards. “You always went to my shows?”

“Course I did.” Spike smirked though he found trouble in the roughness found in his jaw. “I still love being amazed by you on the stage. Just as much as I like hanging with you after the show. But I always love you best when you're natural in your greatness—like giving a massage that's out of this world without knowing.”

“So you love me best when I'm not trying? Hehe.” Those hooves on the backs of his jaw ground into them, rolling to a series of clicking, waiting for the right sound before stopping. Pushing came. Pressure cracking the jaw back into its lock. “There we go! Felt that it was a bit slack.”

Whimpers broke freely as delight barrelled through him. It tittered through broken legs twitching as if his body needed to remind them of being alive. Pleasure concentrated in his centre. Building and compounding in a shape of density throbbing with the building and tingly power.

“That should be your head, shoulders, and arms taken care of.” Rainbow Dash appeared at the side of the tub while rolling an arm. “Really putting me to work here. You need to learn to take care of yourself better Spike. It's good to feel the burn when you work out. But there's nothing wrong with feeling good from a nice massage as well. Everything helps the system.”

“Y-You...” Spike melted into the back of the tub as it bore his weight for a new reason. “Have made a client out of me.”

“Is that so? Dragon that doesn't like to be washed by his friends is okay with me getting my hooves all over him?”

“I-It's different if it's with you.”

“Oh? And why's that champ?”

Spike opened his mouth to realize he fucked up. An exhale escaped and not much else. His head turned away in shame for the feeling of feeling good had caused more of him to be the same. Where was his woe? The troubles from before? Everything seemed like a distant memory in being in this heaven with this blue angel.

“Do me a favour and give me your leg here.”

He complied as his leg broke the surface of the water. Rainbow leaned in and hugged it, raising it to the rim, resting it across the length, exposing most of the thigh as the foot hung off. Droplets pelted the floor from afar. Hooves broke into the thigh, feeling around it, searching for nuggets of muscles tenser than others.

“Hey Spike?” Rainbow's snout pushed into the density of this thigh, its shape and girth preserved through the inactivity. Her face was hidden away from him. “Think you could answer a question for me?”

His chin submerged into the water as did most of his face, attempting to hide away, feeling good then feeling guilty for it. “Can d-do my best.”

“Back then... when you came back for me... you never backed down.” Her snout brushed a rough spot forcing him to twitch from the jerk of pain. In finding the swell, her hooves backed into its curve, working into it, very lightly, meshing it around seconds at a time. “You dislocated your shoulder and got back into the fight. Then had your other bitten into as that thing rocked you around. You never stopped fighting.”

“Because your life was on the line,” his voice came through gritted teeth as the hooves spread the density of horribleness bundled inside his leg. “Nothing would get in my way. I don't care what happens to me. I'll take a-anything so long as it makes you alright.”

“What about yourself then?” Shock erupted at forcing the focus onto him. In the distance was her face, turned to him, determined with a feeling drooping from it. How she looked at him, feeling so tired, so sad, in thought of something relating to him. “W-When you sent me on ahead... y-you said... you said you'd catch up. B-But you didn't. I had to come back! A-And when I did. W-What I s-saw...”

Spike clenched an eye and turned his head and wished for the world to end. “It knocked me down for the count. You saw me get back up. So what are you—“

“But you wouldn't have! Had I not run back, had you not seen me there watching... what would have happened Spike?” Jabs broke into the wound and the dragon howled in pain from his leg, unable to hide what she caused, her shoulders and anger and expression dropping from it. “I saw you there. How you jerked up to fight... then laid back in relief. You looked so ready to buy it there. Able to save me the second after you saw me... but not willing to expend the same to save yourself.”

Spike fidgeted in the tub, water splashing from the movement, the only sound in the room. “What do you want me to say Dash?”

“That you would have done something! That you were about to get up!” Rainbow Dash shook her head as the tips of rainbow mane dipped into the waters. They floated as she hovered there. “Then you spoke to me at the hospital. That you were just still here. Like dying didn't mean all that much.”

“I don't want to die,” the dragon returned in keeping with the heightened feeling of the room, “but I also don't care if I live. Don't know when it happened. But I'm just someone that's here. That does stuff he's supposed to do.”

Rainbow's muzzle lifted from the water to glare at him, through whatever shield he was holding, seeking to burn through apathy. “Don't give me that. So what? Spent your whole life working for Twilight that you don't have a mind of your own? Nothing you want or feel for yourself?”

He leaned forward the best he could, the tub squeaking from the movement, groans instead of moans from him once more. “Isn't that the case? I haven't wanted much beyond it. Few comics books and games to kill whatever free time I have. But I'm always helping others! That's the only thing that feels right.”

Rainbow kept silent, hatefully, to allow his expression.

“I can't tell you when it happened! Whenever I made this switch.” Spike closed his eyes and shook his head, repressing the need to exhale steam, enough in the room already. “Whatever Twilight's side or stance, I was on it, whatever she wanted or needed, I helped her get. I've spent my whole life assisting her. Even in disconnecting from that, I help others, because what else is a dragon like me to do?”

His eyes opened as he fell back onto the slope of the wall. “I don't want anything. I'm just here to serve another day. I'm nothing if I'm not around others. It's only in helping them I get a feeling of doing something, of being someone, coming to somehow matter. I have to be doing something. Or else I'm nothing.”

Wisps of smoke flew through his lips. “And nothing seeks to return to nothing eventually. I'm just here. Nothing more. Here until I'm not anymore. I'll gladly rise for your sake. But in the cave, given the chance for it all to end... part of me took the offer.”

What came next was unexpected. Splash like a cannonball to a collection of blue between his legs. Wet fur rose from the water; its mane wetly draped over its face. Rainbow shook her head, stepping forward, caught in the same pool as him.

“You're not like that.” Rainbow rose in the tub, over the water, the pelting of droplets from her barrel. “Do you know how it makes me feel to hear you say stuff like that? My friend is willing to give himself up in a cave because of my mistake. You don't have to be anything more for you to matter to me. You already do. Being you.”

Spike glared up at her. “That's only because I helped you! Failing that—“

“Failing what? So all those conversations and jokes and gags we did—were they all for you to help me?” Rainbow strode toward him, towering still, needing the height to lord over the one usually beyond reach. “Those kind words and the way you phrase things. Only done to make me feel better. Didn't believe in them yourself.”

“C-Course I did! I wouldn't sprout some hollow stuff to make you feel better!”

“Exactly! You wouldn't because your character doesn't allow you to do it.” Rainbow jabbed a hoof into his chest, lightly, mindful of the wound healing over. “You might not have given me trouble for the accident but I sure as Celestia know you have no trouble giving Twilight or Applejack beef when they've got or done something wrong. Didn't you reprimand Twilight for how she treated someone even though both sides didn't take too much of an issue for it?”

“So what?”

“And didn't you force Applejack off the farm, against all of her wishes, because she was trying to work on a wounded leg?”

“What does this have to do with anything?”

“Because it proves you are your own dragon! That you have thoughts and feelings of your own! You don't mindlessly help others.” Rainbow finished her words in wrapping her forelegs around his neck, crashing into his chest, fluff meshing into scales, softness brushing across smoothness. “You couldn't be nothing if you have so much to say or do. You're so alive around others because you allow yourself to be. You forget all that crud holding you back, allowing yourself to just... be.”

Spike sighed and rolled his eyes and found he couldn't be angry; the weakness of his arm, finding the strength to raise, did so to cross over the back of the mare. She snuggled into him, wet fluff something to die for. “I still feel like I'm only here. Sometimes that feeling goes away. But I...”

“But you go looking for reasons to make you feel alive.” Rainbow nuzzled into the crook of his neck, resting on his body, its broadness, the subtle muscles a pleasure. Feeling him everything cooed her into peace. “Helping others and indulging in me and keeping busy. All of those allow you to feel real. But you already are real. Just as you are. Nothing more. Whenever you're around me.”

Spike felt the mare pull out from underneath him, muzzle appearing below his chin, rising, with obvious intent. She whispered with half-lidded eyes. “I didn't want the guy I liked to only know me at my worst... and that's why I did what I did.”

The dragon gulped in feeling the wet softness across him.

“And you're convinced you're simply here with not much more...”

He inched forward without knowing why.

“So tell me, dragon, if this kiss makes us both feel like more—if it makes us feel alive.”

Her lips pressed into his, small and supple things, concentrated into greatness plunged into him. He desired to claim them. Taking them between his own, kissing, devouring their shape, the flavour on them, how little furs tickled across his scales.

Life flushed through his system. Feeling his arms and scales and legs for the first time again. It hurt. Greatly was he in pain. But the mare, her greatness, it distracted him from it, her being and her body a comfort. Their lips broke away as their panting muzzle remained inches apart.

“So... how about it... Spike...” Rainbow never floated away in waiting for him. “Are you truly nothing? Or... are you someone.... wanting something?”

The dragon fell forward, taking her once more, the claw on her barrel exploring around. Touching everything set him in the crave. The curve of her frame, the dense coat, locked with water, strands floating on the surface. Long mane like a waterfall over her face. The kiss deepened as both tingled in delight.

Rainbow pulled back to wipe a hoof across her lips, coming to grin, wading back in the water. She sat with a splash going out. Her tail floated behind and she whipped her mane to the side of her head. “Been waiting for you to make the first move on that forever. But I guess you have trouble going after things you want for yourself, huh?”

Spike panted as he leaned, alive and adjusting to that fact, the world brighter, coloured in detail, a vividness to it all. He saw steam for the first time. How it thickened and swirled and lazily floated in the room. Polished tiles existed below, lines between them, rich in black.

Then he looked back to the mare. “Dash? You sure that—“

“Yes." Rainbow grinned and nudged her head to the other side of the tub. “Now get your other leg up there. We haven't finished with you yet. I saw how you were like with my hooves before.”

Spike swallowed and nodded and complied. Lifting his leg onto the tub and leaving himself spread. Rainbow stuck out her tongue at him, tips of mane nearly touching it, the girl turning to focus on his thigh. Her plot surfaced out of the water, round and plump, lithe to the rest of her proportions, tail cast over her special place. Strands clung to her cheeks as they shifted around, little wobbles to waves pushed out, a pleasure to look at.

Like the pleasure flooding from his thigh.

“There! Got it! Keep still for a moment and...” Spike's head shot back at the hooves resting on his legs, collecting at the sides of muscles before pushing together, working up the tightness as it dropped into looseness, the knots undone, aching previously suffered through, now removed at its source. “Don't like how you feel here though. Kinda dense. Need to smooth that out.”

Spike's head rolled from the rim of the tub, barely able to look forward, through the steam billowing from the water to the mare in the distance. She lifted out from the water, leaning over the curve of his leg, dancing in place, a sway to her derriere, flanks rubbing into each other, grinding, a tease that was tucked between them.

Then his claw furled into itself at the other stroke of pleasure. Surfaces of hooves glossing over scales, each pass sinking deeper, rolling the hardness of the surface, melting it, the pressure, harder, in working with muscles gone to goo. Euphoria was swift through him, reaching his center, solidifying into his source, one that peeked out of his body, comforted by warm water—teased by coolness in breaking the surface.

“Was wondering when that was going to happen.”

Spike blinked open an eye to see the mare turned to him, bottom still presented, tail swept aside to reveal the darkened fuzz of her vulva. Thick and long and looking heavy. Opened at the bottom, gleaming thing of pink, winking out, sensing him. “H-How... but...”

“Seen you take a few peeks at this thing.” Rainbow slapped her flanks to the voluminous jostle of the twins, each wobbling into the other before smacking away, the pair settling as jiggles rippled across their slope. “Even back then I knew it might be the thing I needed to hook you. Y'know, in case winning some stupid race turned out not being enough.”

Spike looked down to avoid further shame, though finding another cause for it in the process, the top of his cock above the water. It throbbed, flicking around, teased by the heat without anything wrapped around it. How it sensed another in the bath and craved to be with them.

“Never seen a dragon's version of their thing before though.” Rainbow turned and crashed into the water, submerging until it reached her chest, swimming toward him, the attention placed on his standing attraction. “Different from a stallion. Though it kinda looks cooler. It's got a shape that's rad.”

Spike opened his mouth as the mare had lowered herself to him again. Her hoof splashed out from the water, coming over his tip, crashing into it, a violent throb in response. He flicked into her without meaning. The wall of her hoof caught every hit with mirth. “R-Rainbow...”

“Don't you sweat anything now big guy.” She looked up to him with a hopeful smile, one genuine and real, not brought in needing to tell herself stuff. Rather her worries had ended in their kiss as it promised a future of infinitely more. “I messed up in that cave. Wanting you to see me at my best for once—and nearly getting you killed for it. I want to pay you back for that.”

Her hooves found the sides of his shaft and started working up, summoning electricity from inside, the fact of having his dick touched causing him to nearly blow there. But his stomach clenched as the mare worked at him. The aching within now building, pleasure compounding, tingly sensitivity torturing him to something.

The sounds to come were light splashes. Brought from the forearms falling deeper into the water then intended. Blue cheeks coloured pink in seeing how far low the rod could go. How it thickened, frills at its sides, a smoothness of pink, heating into her soles, a furnace her body wanted to get more of.

“Hmm.” Rainbow yanked back her hooves and left the cock to throb around, a lurch from the dragon, his arm nearly grabbing her—fighting the pain of being brought so high only to be slammed down. “Now this won't do. We need to get you clean.”

Her muzzle cast a shadow on his head, everything around it darkened over, the veil of her mane denying light. Opening her mouth with a lick at her lips, her blush grew, that muzzle dropping, over his shape, taking it into the tightness of her maw. Quickly she bobbed down him with a tongue swirling around, tickles of unending pleasure, making his hips jerk in response. Thrust after thrust to shove more of himself down her.

Rainbow looked up at him with silent eyes that somehow spoke to him. That questioning look if he was able to take more. Trusting in his body to lead him to the high that was nigh, he weakly threw his claw onto her head, nearly claiming its whole into his hold, sinking his weight onto it.

Holding her down as he thrust up, over and over, each flick sending his tip deeper into her throat. It touched her back, caressed by silky walls, the smoothest velvet, warm, clingy, squeezing into him in every push in.

And he went, fucking her through, the expanding of heat pushing out from inside his cock. But he shook his head in feeling the coming of an explosion. Arm pulled away and hips forced to stay. The mare grinned at him with a mouth still full of cock. Lifting, it popping out from her mouth, a hoof set at its underside to ensure it kept still.

“R-Rainbow?”

“Yes Spike?”

“What are you doing?”

“Helping you while enjoying myself.”

Rainbow's forelegs shot over his shoulders to the brim of the tub, squeaking as they rested there, the back of her legs passing over his torso to sink in the water next to it. She straightened herself, looking down to get her aim right—shivering at feeling his head lined up with her lips. Straddling him allowed her to look down at his muzzle.

Slowly she descended on him, thickness at once filling her, spreading her folds to take him whole. Her tightness clenched at sensing him, the ridges of his bottom, soft and like plastic, tensing her sensitivity into intrinsically clamping. It took a few seconds for her plot to crash onto his hips, the density of flanks meshing, flattening like dough, over the spread of his waist.

“You don't have to worry about this. You're still pretty weak from your recovery. Just do what you can.” Rainbow leaned forward to kiss him, stealing him from above, loving the taste of his lips surrendering to her. He flicked into her bottom, taking what he could, wanting more, needing it, unable to follow through the savagery needed to please them. “Mmmhmm. Let me take care of you at once. Without you having to be anything more, I want you exactly like this, so I can ride you, please you, do everything I can for you. You're not just here.” She took him into a kiss. “Rather you're my Spike.”

Rainbow lifted her hips and fell on him again, straddling him, left and right, teasing the fullness that was inside of her. How it smoothly went around with a pleasure in teasing him into a bend. One of his claws clamped onto her flank, kneading the tush, the dough of blue, squeezing through, the gaps between his digits. Fat and fluff with a coating over it all. It pleased them both immensely.

They didn't need much more to get off. Rather the soft splashing at her dropping creating the wave to compose the scene. Her pussy clenched around him, on him, deeper flick in going down to bury him further inside. He was huge. She could feel a faint definition through her tummy. Riding and riding him, flying up and falling, rocking back and forth, a shift side to side, milking the heated thickness buried within her crotch.

It took a little more, through their kiss, before his legs fell in a cross over her back. Locking her there as he thrust into her, she the same to him, the high coming alight, as the two, deepening their kiss, moaned the syllables of the other's name.

Of the cock throbbing within her, forcing out her walls, spreading them, to take more of him. How violently came the flicks of his dick, threatening around inside of her, the smacks everything she craved to feel. Everything burning, needing a weight to press against it, his cock hard into those areas, its burning impressing into the warmth. How it managed to be hotter than inside of her. Her legs craving to always keep him inside. Better than any heated or vibrating toy.

Then came the release. Ropes of white, creamy and steamy, spreading on her walls, burning them—convulsing them into release. She clamped hard and felt thunder roll through her. Thighs closing as much as they could as everything leaked out of her. Never before had she felt so full. The connection to the tired dragon, him still inside of her, his face looking down, tired eyes upon her, his muzzle, panting, in becoming something more thanks to her.

They didn't say much after that bath, the two leaving it, sometime later, equally as weak as the other. In their weakness, they fell into the other, which supported them both, as they went out through the door, to his room, where the dragon, or the mare, would have to be alone no more.

Author's Note

I wonder if there will ever come a time where I do not write a story strangely. It's usually of the impression to the author, on recently completing a story, to feel as though it's shit. Multiple issues reveal themselves through the process. One staggers through them to the end, often looking around, seeing if anyone else saw you fall.

Regardless you carry on with the acquired failings to do better on them next time.

And now the origin of where authors get their ideas.

Skeeter the Lurker had been so kind as to provide me with a copy of Red Dead 2 and, for the last few weeks, that's where all my Steam activity has seen me. Riding and side-questing instead of rushing through the plot like on my first rundown.

I'd decided to actually go into an inn and rent a room, and in so doing, noticed another option for a bath. Finding it strange, I pressed 'A,' heading into the tub and washing off. Seconds in following the prompts to wash Arthur off, there was a prompt, money for extra aid, a woman to help scrub you up.

An NPC comes and assists in cleaning you. Hands diving a little too deep into the water and rubbing across arms and legs and from point A to point B on your shoulders. You can do idle chatter as this happens. Nothing too reveal. Shit you can quickly forget about.

But the concept struck. Something about being cleaned by another clapped in my head. At once the desire came for an idea. Next day saw me on a stream playing Deep Rock solo. I was talking to the gang in wanting to write a story, in which, Spike gets washed by a mare.

Why would the dragon, most likely against someone touching his body, now later in his years, ever be washed by another? Most likely because he's in a state where he can't do it himself. Stories are usually improved in adding more conflict. Who would have the most issue in washing him?

Her name was Rainbow Dash.

Why would Rainbow Dash wash Spike?

Because she's the one that got him hurt.

In the explosion of that previous line came the plot with a line ready to be settled across the premise. I'll save you the process of the full backstory this round. Rather I'd like to focus on what I got wrong on this story.

First is the exposition dump at the start. Do not think that I think of them inherently being a crime. They have their uses and can be done well or for a purpose in which they exclusively accomplish. Most of my stories are discovery written. What I try to do, then, to discover what the plot is about, is have the first paragraph—or so—hint at everything that is to come.

It presents the characters and the problem with a sense of theme cast over it.

Successful instance of this is the opening to Devour Me, Darling below.

Rarity was forced to bite into her hoof, groaning instead of moaning, detesting the times it seeped into her mind. Fantasies were her casualties when taken to self-love in her bedroom. Her hoof had worked its wonders into her clit, the other teasing the slit between her folds, touching and prying, all the proof that she was trying.

And then the dirty little fantasy came into play.

“Nouhoo...” Rarity bucked her hips in wanting the hooves to come back again, but she held them back, not wanting to provide service to the mental scene.

The reason why it's largely successful here—and I reference my previous work for it's exactly that which I'm trying to learn from and improve—due to how seamless it is with the story. It is presently happening. The scope is large at the start, suggesting the scale of it all, before narrowing into Rarity by the second paragraph.

Writing is about trying everything to see what works or doesn't work or, at the very least, what works and doesn't work for you. I tried something new with the above to find an appeal for it. In this story, I was more on the nose, the narrator speaking outright, seeing how the exposition, presented as such, intermixed with the rest of the story.

And it didn't go so well.

It feels clunky and strange and out of place. There is a bit of meta with it used at the end of the story—but that meta doesn't do anything. Rather it's a reference without anything else. It won't appear again in my works. But I'm glad to have tried it.

Better to do and fail and be sure than to endlessly think and wonder without coming inches closer to an answer.

The second failing of this story is the lack of theme and the failing of my usual format. My stories tend to follow the same plot-line and beats and, while it worked well in the past, the repeating of that formula is starting to show its rust in these latest works.

Rainbow Dash's problem is that the world sees her as great, however, she has none to go with her worse stuff to. This changes in meeting Spike. He always sees her worse and is supportive. However, like the rest of the world, she would like him to see her at her best, if once, to show that it exists.

And proving that nearly gets him killed.

Spike is a dragon that is here instead of living. He nearly allows himself to die to be done with it all for he can't find a great reason to fight for himself. Even on coming back to life, no great shock befalls him. Rather the fact that he's still here.

Which kills the people around him in numerous ways.

We have the problem, dear readers, but do we have the answers? Stories tend to be moral arguments, after all, philosophy acted out, what happens if we do X and Y and Z. Theme takes those problems, answering them, with a satisfying resolution.

Hence the issue of this story, in which the characters get together, though in that, not feeling resolved in the problems that plagued them before. It leads into sex with the final images the closest we have to a theme.

Two characters, weak, falling into the other but, in that, finding balance in the contact, allowing them to return to the bedroom. Maybe if my headspace was better cleaned I could have whipped something better up.

But the first story out of retirement is bound to be rusty as all hell. It's good for me to see and know these flaws so I can do better on them next time. It's in keeping with the process we improve. Nothing is learned in straying away. Rather we must endure and enjoy to the fullest and allow our doubts to further refine our work.

...at least Spike actually got laid in this story.

~ Yr. Pal, B ~