A Lesson in Surreptition

Spike sighed as he walked out of the doors of Sugar Cube Corner. The gem covered cupcake in his taloned fingers somehow not looking as appetizing as he had hoped. Puberty: it was something Spike thought was very bad.

It ought be noted for the sake of those less acquainted with dragon biology that pony and dragons are quite different. Scales that look like skin and fire breath - along with wings, eyes that could see sixty percent better in darkness, and the whole egg laying thing - were not the only things that set a dragon apart from ponies, and Spike was suffering deeply from this.

Ponies, by and large hit puberty at roughly thirteen years of age. Some hit it late, other can hit a second wave, but by and large the awkward dies off shortly thereafter - at least so it is to be hoped. Dragons, however, are very different.

At thirteen a dragon experiences mental changes similar to puberty, though on a much more subdued scale and with no real physical changes. By the age of seventeen, however, dragons hit their first real puberty. A being that lives on a scale of centuries and grows to enormous sizes could scarcely be expected to only hit puberty once, after all.

Reference material to all of this is scarce - most of it coming from one Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike - but it usually plays out towards dragons hitting five different sorts of puberty throughout their life time. First at seventeen or so, next at fifty, next at one hundred and fifty, then at three hundred, a particularly tough one at three hundred and seventy, and then the last - when a dragon becomes its full and ultimate self - at about five hundred years.

Spike was a late bloomer.

He was eighteen and getting hit hard.

His experiences in the previous year with getting hit by the enormous power greed has over a dragon's biology hadn't helped anything, and had only been a font of anxiety. When biological puberty came knocking, he freaked out. He was still actively freaking out to be fair, just on a longer timescale and at a lower boil.

Now his eyes were opened to the sexiness that his younger mind had hidden from him. What had once been curiosity at what mares hid under their clothes on par with wandering what you might get for your birthday, he now lusted - a very dangerous thing for a dragon to do. Lust, after all, is just sexual greed - or so Spike had been told and had believed. Suddenly everypony was either hot or not and he was his only arbiter in the matter.

His thoughts were both interrupted and amplified when three young, blooming fillies ran up to him. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were each attractive in their own way - and, worse yet, within his age range. At least they all dressed in more modest ways than their sisters... or whatever Scootaloo and Rainbow were - he never was sure.

He gripped his cupcake hard as they ran up to him all smiles - unaware of their bouncing boobs. Sure, they were small - except in the case of Sweetie - but they were still very there and calling his attention. The internal engine that was his sex drive never truly stopped being revved these days, but the three Crusaders tested how revved it could really get.

"Spike! Hey!" Apple Bloom shouted out, even though she was only a few stride lengths away. Spike fought back the blush as best he could, relying on his natural color to hide it the rest of the way. "Hey, have you seen our sisters? We've looked all around and haven't seen 'em anywhere."

It was at this point that a fork in the road was made. Such things happen in our daily lives at many points we may rarely fully realize. There was a world where Spike lied and said he hadn't. The sisters would meet later that evening and the world would keep on spinning on towards where it ought to have. At the same time, however, Spike was a rather honest individual who was also being hard pressed by three sets of knockers right in front of him that played in harmony to the bodies that still floated about his hind brain.

"Y-yeah." Spike stammered out. He already hated himself since he knew it would mean going back with them. "Yeah, t-they're at the library with Twilight having a... 'mare's night'. B-but we shouldn't bother them, they wanted their alone time!" He tried lamely. There was always hope that it'd work - and it had in about seven different universes. He simply had the misfortune of being in one of the countless sextillions that it didn't.

"Mare's night, huh?" Sweetie asked, looking at her compadres. "Well, we're mares!" She said, as if just realizing that they, in fact, were mares and not something else. A good thing to know to be sure. "Let's go!"

"B-but, their alone time!" Spike tried again, his nerves shaking profoundly.

"Yeah yeah, mares say we want space, but usually we're just checking to see if you care." Scootaloo waved him off. "Besides, we have to get these assignments done for tomorrow. I doubt they want us to fail our projects."

"Yes! I mean no! I mean... I... fine..." Spike muttered, letting out a great sigh of reluctance. There was no way to spin this that didn't end with a scolding coming his way - one he didn't need from a pony that seemed to be dangling goodies unwittingly in front of a hungry dragon. He could only hope that somehow this would all end well.

It would, but he didn't know that.

Spike knocked on the door of the library, already kicking himself for interrupting whatever it was that he was interrupting. Sure, none of the sisters would want their little siblings to fail their assignments, but having a pleasant evening cancelled was no good. Hopefully Spike would be able to just huddle in a corner with Mare Mysterious while the CMC did their assignment and just blend into the background.

A second longer than he expected later, the door creaked open, revealing Twilight's head peaking out through the gap. Spike couldn't help but notice that the one shoulder he could see didn't seem to have clothing on it. It didn't have to mean much, but it was just... not something he was in particular need of seeing.

"Spike, we really do need the evening alone, not just a few hours." Twilight said in an understanding voice that held no malice. It was good that that was the case, seeing as Spike was already feeling wretched.

"Y-yeah, I know, but I got... roped into this." He said lamely, not sure how else to express it as he pointed to the three fillies behind him that then took center stage.

"Hi, Twilight, Spike said our sisters were visiting you and Ms Cheerilee gave us an assignment that we need them for." Sweetie Belle said as she pushed forward with her friends. Twilight blinked at her for a second, still smiling as she tried to do the math in her head as to why they shouldn't do it now.

"Couldn't you... do it later, girls?" She asked, though it certainly sounded more like pleading in Spike's ears. With Twilight there was a fine line for these things, but even so he had learned the fine points of how to read Twilight like a book - appropriate considering who she was.

"It's due tomorrow!" Scootaloo chimed in. "Can you believe she assigns it one day and calls for it the next?" Twilight, for one, didn't. Especially since Twilight and Cheerilee had had a thorough discussion on the mare's lesson plan - more so because Twilight wanted to learn how she managed to teach all the colts and fillies of Ponyville when Twilight had trouble controlling a small group of them.

Her doubts in this situation were well founded. The Crusaders knew as well as anypony that Cheerliee always gave assignments with more than enough time to complete them. It was true that it was due tomorrow. It also so happened that it had been assigned well over a week prior and had been mentioned at the end of each day since. It also so happened that the Crusaders had been busy of late. With what could be summarized with 'stuff and things'.

"Alright, well, the girls and I are in the middle of something." Twilight tried once more.

"It'll only take a minute! We just need to ask them some questions about their 'jobs'." Apple Bloom said, proving to Twilight the futility of getting them to go away. The alicorn sighed, looking back into the library. A glint in her eye a second later told Spike that she had come to an idea.

"One moment, I'll go check with them." Twilight announced, closing the door and moving inside. The four of them waited, not sure what to make of this. The sounds of conversation could be heard faintly through the door, though somehow it felt more distant than just the inside of the library.

A short while later the four of them were entering the library. Spike blinked, feeling... something. A second ago he felt he was still outside the library, but now was inside lacking any memory of Twilight letting them in. She must have, and he must have said something to her - because he had been preparing a joke - but everything between being outside and then in was a blank.

Twilight and her friends were all about the room. It was on odd set up for whatever 'mare time' was, but none of the four were about to judge. Who knew what they were up to. After all, it wasn't the only thing to judge them on. They all seemed... flushed? No, that wasn't right. They seemed completely normal, and yet a tiny voice whispered in their ears that there was something up with the four mares in the room. Something that they could quite put their finger on.

Spike's ear twitched as something... or was it nothing? It twitched as a sound wasn't made and a response wasn't given. For a second he saw shimmer of something off, but it passed before he could truly grasp it. He sighed and just grabbed his comic.

Without another thought about it, he plopped into an odd chair he didn't quite recognize and began reading. The story was truly enthralling. Something tickled his hindbrain as he went on reading, but something always seemed to want to come up as he read his comics.

Apple Bloom did her best to concentrate as she asked her sister her questions. Something in her periphery caught her attention, and yet whenever her eyes flicked towards it it wasn't there. Something in her sister's disposition seemed... off in a way, and yet as soon as she tried to think in that way she couldn't figure out why she had had such thoughts.

Occasionally the air would seem to shimmer for the three crusaders as they asked their sisters. Sweetie, having finished her questions was having a particularly hard time understanding. She could hear Rarity encouraging her, giving her direction and instruction that she'd definitely take to heart, and yet for the life of her it was a clear as mud. She understood at some level, but the part of her that could think in words was having no luck in the understanding department.

Scootaloo was also falling prey to this to a certain degree. As she had entered something had been heard, and yet it hadn't - it was really weird. The entire time since had been in a sort of haze - and not just because she got to spend time with Rainbow Dash. She wasn't having trouble concentrating, but as their interview went on - and the world continued to refuse to come into focus - she couldn't help but feel that there was something she was missing.

The three of them that were actively trying to pay attention - unlike Spike who was content to read - all noticed it. Spike would've continued to notice it beyond when he had first entered had he not set about reading, but what might've been wasn't the point. Or maybe it was in a different version of this story.

As the night progressed the world seemed to flicker and shimmer like a poorly made reflection on moving water. Flashes of... something... no, of something they could all on occasion could place. Out of the corner of their ears they heard moans and groans of... well, the thing that went bump in the night. They each, at some point, thought they saw their sisters with... others. Mostly stallions that they thought for sure they could recognize when they were actually visible.

Scootaloo felt sensations she could've only imagined before in those brief glimpses. The feeling of something somewhere she rarely played with. It was amazing! or at least that was what she would've thought had she the ability to do so clearly and consistently. As such, some... force? Something was forcing her not to notice and to not notice she wasn't noticing after a moment.

Much the same was true for Sweetie, who was still learning, but wasn't sure what. Sensations filled small parts, and what visions peaked through were hard to decipher. When words occasionally punched through before being thrown back out of her mind she could've sworn they were instructions of a kind she had never received before.

Apple Bloom, for her part, was in a state. Her conversation with her sister after the assignment, not to dissimilar to her usual after work conversations, had... shifted. It was odd to say the least. Responses, questions, statements, and more were lost in a haze - as if from one moment to the next they had switched from actually talking to speaking in a dream. Words were muddled, meaning lost itself, and sometimes she swore she could see her sister a lot closer than she had ever seen her.

Each of them felt it, and yet couldn't feel it. The hidden sensations and emotions that worked just at the edge. The feeling of heat, of... of pleasure. It was there, but only in short glances. A quick peak soon forgotten. They might've thought, had those visions stuck around long enough to be thought on, that they might've had stints of daydreaming. Very odd daydreaming for Apple Bloom and Sweetie, but daydreams none the less.

Spike, however, didn't try and notice anything. He was content to read and read. The new issue of Mare Mysterious was good enough to absorb almost every stray strand of attention. His mind would occasionally itch with sensations that it forced upon him. His draconic mind, ever resilient - though not wholly resistant - against mind altering magic, was pinging something that he wasn't supposed to notice, but even so he shrugged and read. He didn't even need to sit while reading it. He could read it however he liked.

As he went on, something happened - likely a fantasy taking over. He couldn't help but imagine himself fucking Twilight - a thought that would've repulsed him usually but somehow was just beyond him to remove. He began to imagine dirty talking the alicorn. Saying things he'd never actually say.

"You like that, Bitchlight‽" He asked ferociously, his latent draconic instincts pushing him to extremes he'd never had gone to in real life. The fantasy felt so good, so true. It was wonderful! He couldn't even focus on what he was reading, but it was good practice to act consumed in it.

The world somehow became fuzzier and warmer as he came. He came! He could feel it as plain as day! He didn't stop though, the power of a dragon to keep going for days pulling him through. He felt thirsty at points, but in the end he just kept fucking. His biology took over and shut down everything that wasn't involved in fucking - or at least that was the fantasy. It was amazing!