Heated Into Weakness

Heated Into Weakness
B_25

Twilight wished for a railing, something to clutch to support herself, unable to walk straight due to the sway in her hips. Thighs ground into each other to snuff the temperature between. She'd been thankful for the dress. The excuse to wear underwear. Yet the heat washed on and rolled off her easily.

Don't panic. Don't panic now. There is no reason to panic.

Around her loomed the dimness of the hall as it spanned forever ahead. Its exit was bathed in white from the light of the connecting room. Cameras already flashing with their snapping, echoing. Her foreleg wrapped around her belly as one of her eyes shut. She could blow any second.

It's just cameras, Twilight. Cameras! They're nothing to be scared about! You've fought villains! This is nothing! Just flashing thingies that print a picture of you afterward. Big deal! You've had photos taken of you all the time! Why is suddenly a CROWD of ponies... taking.... oh dear.

Twilight wobbled in place, and the lean of each diverted her balance. Forelegs crossed to catch her weight until she slunk into place. Chest pressed to the ground and rump held in the air. It'd been to cover the shame of her face.

Until the mare was well aware of the bobbing to her plot. How it waved left and right to the shifting of her flanks. That article between them had been stretched, digging into herself, coarse fabric, rubbing, in all the places that needed the attention.

There was an urge to shove a hoof back there.

And then.

"Twilight Sparkle will be with us shortly to answer questions on the soon-possibility of assuming Princess Celestia's and Luna's roles in governing Equestria!" That voice billowed from the end of the hall and shocked Twilight to her hooves. She shot up straightly, flinching into stillness, everything taut around her hindquarters. "I understand she will arrive momentarily! Please hold all questions until that point."

Her muzzle scrunched into itself, and her eyes tightened in needing to face her soon-to-be subjects. Yet, the heat between her legs held her back. It was impossible. Already soaked was she as heated tickles nipped at her fuzzier lips. Swollen and pulling for attention. Licks or thrusts of satisfaction.

Y-You need to face them! You need to overcome... w-whatever this is for the sake of Equestria! How do you think Princess Celestia would react to this? Unable to attend a basic press conference b-because you're l-l-leaking between the legs.

Her heart caught still.

Celestia! What WOULD Celestia think of this?! Would she be upset? Think she picked the wrong pony for the job? She's probably NEVER been through something like this before! I-If she ever learned about this.

The world was coming to an end. Everypony was about to learn Twilight's little secret. She was going to appear on that stage, and, at once, they were going to discover the horny mare underneath it. They would be curious about the wet spot at the back of her dress and the overall smell in the air.

The discord it would cause! The looks of ponies knowing that the replacement to their princess was going into such incompetent hooves! A mare unable to handle the affair of basic sexual urges. Never had there been a scandal in anything sexual related to Celestia. And now. Here was Twilight. Ready to break the image of what it meant to be a princess.

D-Don't lose yourself! They're expecting you! There's no way they'll know right away! M-Maybe you'll find a way to blame the smell on something else! Compose yourself. T-They won't know if you compose yourself well enough! O-Of course. You'll know all those photos were of you when you were wet underneath that dress b-b-b—

Twilight huffed and whimpered and laid her thickly rump on the ground. Two cheeks compressing and spreading with a tickle of them meshing into the sides of her bulging vulva. Her hoof inched back there. Pussy pleading to be teased. Rub one out. Allow the burning to end. Earn some composure to do the interview well.

I-I can't.

Her hoof went to her tail instead, stroking across it, needing to do so—or something else would be stroked instead. It helped calm her down. Usually, she'd go into an attack and, suddenly, the sensation of her tail being brushed would bring her back from that anxious place.

Spike's not here. He hasn't been here for a long time. Not since when Rarity and he got together and... stopped being together. Princess Celestia was able to rule without Luna for a thousand years. You n-need to become like that. S-So... stop t-thinking with your p-p-privates... and...

Twilight couldn't do it. She needed that external comfort. That assurance.

Then his voice floated into her ears.

"Public speaking? But you've already got that in the bag! Just pretend you're the greatest, and you know what you're talking about. Since you are the greatest, and know what you're talking about, you don't really have to pretend! But it makes it easier somehow."

Twilight stopped stroking her tail and looked to the end of the hall. Silence had come from there. Little creaks of wood to the occasional hoof step. They were ready. Which meant everyone was waiting on her; nervousness melted into lava as it pumped throughout her nerves.

"You shouldn't do it too much. But pretend to be whatever it is you need to be. Soon enough, you'll actually become that. Or something like that. Pretending to be more leads you onto the path of becoming more of that thing. Maybe it's because you're pretending to be something, you get the experience of being that thing, which then causes you not to pretend anymore? Something like that? I dunno."

Twilight found a heart in that. In the way Spike's rambles sometimes found unexpected meaning. It was in his foolishness that the mare found wisdom for herself. Right now, she needed to be the girl that, while not the calibre of The Royal Sisters, was worthy of taking their place.

As she was.

A lie she would have to sell them.

She began to saunter out from the dimness of the hall, slowly but surely, her weak spine, pushing out and up, barely holding the form of one proud and strong. Her heartbeat was felt in her step as a nerve felt pinched every time. Everything felt manageable, though. The ability to hold herself together for a moment before collapsing afterward for an hour.

It was in this fashion she left the darkness of the hall, where she had been safe, and into the light, the immediacy of flashes greeting her into the room. The wooden podium had doors on its sides with guards suited below the platform.

So long as she did not turn or move, eyes closed and steam exhaled, Twilight would be alright. That was until her eyes opened to the scene of the room. Rows of seats spanning the conference housed reporters and citizens and royalty alike.

And most bore a change of expression after the princess had entered. Twilight looked to the sides to see the windows had been left open. Sizzling coming from the sky beyond as the sun seemed closer than the clouds. Down below were the ponies. Most with their muzzles up. Snouts sniffing to the peculiarities of a smell.

Rich and musky.

Twilight froze. Mouth open and chest unable to repress the beating of her heart. The aroma was of her, and of that, she was sure. Unsated lust set to bust her reputation as a princess. Humiliation captured for the papers and the redness of her expression perfect for the countless mocked paintings—and quotes—that would follow this moment.

She stepped forward to offer a lie. Tide over the crowd, somehow, to an explanation. Nothing of the sort was needed, however, as stallions turned their muzzles to the accompanying mare. Eyebrows rising everywhere. All set on each other, shame racing to them, none daring to place a glare on the princess.

For none would expect it to come from her.

And with that, and with a racing heart, Princess Twilight Sparkle spoke, without a stutter and solid shoulder, to start the conference. Inside. She trembled. Outside though, she sold an air of coolness and, coming to bask in that herself, felt herself more at ease.

"C'mon... please... please!"

Water cascaded down her form as she stood on both legs, one foreleg pressed into the wall to support herself. Her slick mane clung to the curve of her shoulder and the same true to her back. Steam whispered upward as a hoof stroked down between her legs.

Twilight whimpered and shut her eyes from behind densely wet bangs. Her hoof ground into her clit and drew all the little circles it could please. But it wasn't enough. Never enough to hit that mark. Inside she was contracting. Bounding tighter in that sensitive need to be spread.

Another hopeless cry escaped her lips at the idea of such a thing. Nearly broken into tears as this part of her was something left unexplored. She'd never been that close with a boy. Rarely had a fantasy of thick and round thing filling her special place entered her mind. It didn't seem like her.

"...enough..." Twilight sighed and cried and leaned her forehead into the wall. Tears burned the corners of her eyes in joining the streams of water pouring through her. Weakness became her. "No more of this. I don't want any more of this. Please... just... just go away!"

Her head launched off the wall to shout those last words. They thundered as anger powered them. Yet their leaving only made her weaker. Her forehead slammed back into the place in needing the support again.

Teasing and pleasing had ceased to be enough. No amount of toys could hit the desired joy. It wasn't enough to stroke herself. To rub her belly in all the places and work downward. The stallions in those magazines didn't hit the mark. No spicy story lent from Rarity charging an allure that made her want more. All her usual sources of pleasure had become depleted.

She wanted to finish and be done with this orgasm but, no matter what she did, could not bring it on. The water continued to pour, and she hated herself forevermore. Even in closing her eyes, that conference came to mind. Answering questions as the room baked in her musk. Photos of her delivering a speech hiding the state she was in underneath it all.

Twilight opened her eyes and breathed through her mouth. She panted. Not knowing what else to do. Lazily her gaze settled on the handle, and she turned that with a hoof. She stood in the steam, still weak—but feeling clean.

There'd been cause to look over her back to her rump. The subtle development of her flanks as they became globes of lavender. Bubbly and jiggly and sensitive to the lightest sensation. They were a constant tease in wanting to be played with. Touched and kneaded and pried. Snaking back a hoof to one, she hugged the mass, the heated squish mounting into her wrist. Pulling away her arm allowed the soft weight to fly into its sister, smacking as the two wobbled from the impact, bouncing, a quiver and jiggle, until steadying.

It pleased her. It was a hint to that which she wanted. Playing with her ass to the power it possessed was a spark to pleasure that could lead to more. But a frown had found her lips. Never would she have cared for her rump long ago. Much less use it to win over some boy.

A boy?

Twilight blinked at that development. It made sense. Part of the reason for having a nice derriere was to attract a member of the opposite sex. Heat really was internal motivation to have a kid. But Twilight shook her head. Both of those were far further than she ever hoped to go.

But right now... the fantasy of being with another... someone to be back there... it drove her bottom lip to be bit. Even as her forelegs clopped onto the porcelain of the tub, her eyes focused on her behind, wiggling it a later, watching how the bubbly cheeks rubbed and ground into the other. It was like a wave. While she didn't get a great kick out of it, Twilight sensed the potential of getting a lot out of that.

N-No! What is wrong with you! Thinking that far ahead AGAIN! Why are you...

Twilight sighed and stumbled and smacked down on her rump in the tub. So much thinking and feeling that it had depleted her. Barely anything remained in the tank, and problems kept the same. She was looking for more. That much was sure. Though it shamed her to think that, really, her desire was to be pinned down and fucked and be done with it.

And she was too mentally drained to be shamed by that notion.

There came a knock at the door.

"Twilight?"

Twilight roused from herself at the sound. She dipped into the tub, and seconds later, her muzzle cutely peeked out from its rim. Of course, her ass was backed into the other side due to the shortness of the space. "U-Um... yes!"

"I'm back home again today." That voice. One of a male. Soft and comforting as it was reassuring. It hadn't been heard in quite some time. "We ended up being ahead of schedule in finishing the harvest. Don't think I'll be able to find work for a few days. So please don't be scared if you catch me in the halls."

Twilight rose out of the tub with a huff as all thoughts of dangers were beyond her. "Spike... you do know you live here, right?"

There'd been the shuffling of footsteps outside the door. "I mean, well, yeah. O-Of course. J-Just not around like I usually am. Not sure if you got used to having the castle to yourself or whatever." He coughed and quickly carried on. "I've got dinner going on in the kitchen. You going to sleep after that shower? I can leave you some left-overs."

Twilight stepped over the rim of the tub and floated a towel over her barrel. It patted her dry as she walked to the mirror and sink. She turned her muzzle, examining what peeked out from below the drenched bangs. "N-No. I can be there right after this. H-Haven't seen you in a while." She looked over her shoulder to the door. "We should catch up!"

"Alright... yeah, cool!" There'd been soft chuckles barely strong to make themselves heard. "It should be fun! I saw you in the papers I picked up while leaving work." The next bout of laughter was louder as his voice quieted in turning away from the door. "You must have been constipated or something because you looked liked it in that photo they had of you."

Shivered rocked Twilight's spine upward as she yelped into a little jump. She pranced around to face the door as jitters fumbled with her hooves. "W-Was it only you who thought that?"

"Hey! How'd ya know that?" His footsteps had stopped fading from the door. "Couple of the guys I worked with said they couldn't tell. Seemed obvious to me. But everyone else called me crazy."

Twilight exhaled her tension and, in that lightness, rolled her eyes in playful mock. "That's because you are crazy, Spike."

"You know that too?"

Twilight's smirk shot right as her eyes dashed left. "I know everything about you."

Another chuckle from him. More relaxed. The feeling of strangers becoming friends again. "Guess that's what I get for telling my best friend everything. Oh well. I'll be in the kitchen. No rush or anything."

Soon his footsteps disappeared into the hall, and the mare was left to feel happy. Finally free of the turmoil that'd killed her these last few. It was strange to think how easily she could transition back into her usual self. Granted, it was only because Spike had come back, that that familiarity had helped her.

And the burning that cast fires to the furs of her vulva was still there.

Twilight turned around at that. Seeing her backside in the glass to the plump lips that peeked out from her flanks. She was hungry down there. Folds apart and her clit out. It was a bit tamer now... if only in getting used to the constant arousal.

Dinner with Spike would be more challenging, but...

But...

But Twilight blinked. Already another surge of allure had pulsated through her. Her eyes widened in the horribleness of the thought with a heartbeat belonging to one obese. Tips of hooves coming to tap incessantly on the tiles of the floor.

N-No Twilight. You can't. Something like that isn't right.

But was it really so terrible? Her hooves tittered on the ground at the faintest glimpse into the fantasy. Neck pinned into the bed by a claw as mighty hips backed into the volume of her backside? Ass and pussy, those needy things, now utterly exposed, waiting on him alone?

Twilight tittered in fear of such a thing as such prospects had never occurred to her. She looked back at her cunt, how it closed before opening, wanting something to be inside of it. Pained laughter escaped her as the desires of a usual mare never before were her own.

Except for now.

Is it because I'm becoming more of an alicorn I'm wanting all of these things? But I've... I've never had such fantasies before. I want them. Want them, if only to make this feeling go away. B-But actually going THROUGH this. I-It doesn't seem right. I want to do it... but I don't ACTUALLY want to do it.

Once more, she was a mess.

Spike had watched the food sizzle without suppressing a need to sigh. He looked around the kitchen as it was bathed in a strange familiarity. It was like being in a friend's home. Knowing where everything is and allowed to it all. But never possessing that feeling of anything being his own.

Maybe I should look for a place to rent. Something cheap and on the outskirts of town. Should have more than enough saved up for that. Maybe I could find some independent work? Something that only relies on me? Worth thinking about.

Hoofsteps clopped from behind, and the dragon endured the urge to stand up straight. He peeked an eye over his shoulder at feeling the form enter the kitchen. At once, his gasp caught inside his heart as only a choke flew from his throat. He repeatedly blinked in not expecting to see the damp beauty.

Twilight had strolled into the kitchen with a look of mild annoyance. She'd barely dried herself before leaving the bathroom. Her mane draped over her face with an eye hidden behind thick locks. The princess gave Celestia a run for her bits—without knowing.

Her muzzle peered over at him at the feeling of being looked at and, in that same motion, he returned his attention to the pan. Flicking his hips and doing the same to it. Lowering the temperature via a turn of the dial in reaching the desired shade on the food within. His claw was sent to the back of his neck to scratch.

"Sorry for barging in like this again." He stopped all the heaters and tasked his claws in removing his aprons. Relief came in able to provide a meal for the mare. Doing anything at all to avoid a feeling of uselessness. "Already thought about grabbing a place on the outskirts and thinking of a way to make bits from there. Worse case is I end up on the farm again. Or some other third thing."

There came an annoyed huff. He knew the kind. The one summoned because of someone causing matters to be more dramatic than they needed to be. He always felt dreadful because of that sigh. But there was nothing he could do in feeling like a tag-along in the mare's life. "Spike. This is your home. You can stay as long as you like."

His eyes winced for him as he turned to hang his apron on the wall. "I know I know. Just something about it doesn't seem right."

"It doesn't make a difference if you decide to live here or not." That jolted him with a cut able to slice through scales. Twilight must have realized the horribleness of her phrasing, for, in turning around, he saw her hooves wobbling before her face. "N-Not that you don't make a difference! Because of course you do! You're Spike!"

Twilight's forelegs dropped on the table and her shoulders with it. "Just that in terms of costing and convenience and everything else—you don't make any negative impact. This castle was meant to house more than one pony." She sighed. "And it's been pretty lonely since Starlight left."

Spike arched an eyebrow and pushed his lips left. "You haven't found a boy-toy yet?"

Had this been a few years ago, the mare would have cried and screamed, his name to four 'i's', to a blush and his chuckling apologies. However, because of their closeness, easily, the game was on. "But I thought that's why you ended up coming back."

Twilight propped her chin with a hoof and leaned her elbow on the table, leaning forward, a confident expression in knowing he couldn't follow through. His eyes dropped, and a chuckle escaped him. "Alright. You win. I've got nothing to say back to that."

The expectation had been for a gloat but, instead, the princess retreated back into herself. Muzzle dipped, and cheeks blushed. Something overcame her in an instant that caused her chest to puff a little much. Spike wanted to speak. But he knew a vent would come eventually.

He just wasn't expecting it as he turned and assembled the plates.

"Hey... Spike?"

He blinked and nodded and started using the wooden spoon to bring the pasta onto the waiting saucers. Once done, he reached for the shimmering sauce, a creamy delight, the scent of fresh tomatoes. "Yeah, Twilight?"

"What's the furthest you've ever gone with a mare?"

There wasn't a question that could hit the dragon harder as he leapt as though his tail had just been stepped on. He landed to a pounding heart and shaking claws that caused the sauce to stir into itself. He set it down and struggled for a breath. Laying a claw on his chest and forcing out an answer. “Dear Celestia Twilight! You can't just ask something like that! It's... it's..."

"O-Oh! I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean... well, that is to say..."

Spike clenched his eyes. Already he was making things hard for her. An outburst at a simple question that most stallions wouldn't have flinched at. Easily he hated himself—quickly working to lessen it. "No, no. Y-You're fine. Just... wasn't expecting to hear something like that."

He quickly scooped the sauce with the spoon, coming to spread it on both meals, before returning it, picking up the two, and turning to the table. Twilight sat with a muzzle turned. Her eye flicked on him as a blush washed underneath it. "Much less from somepony like you."

Her eye shot down to the table and closed a little at that.

Think I can borrow some rope from Applejack. Pretty sure she's got a spare bucket she wouldn't mind missing for a bit. Nowhere really good in the castle I could hang from. Maybe Rarity wouldn't mind if I used her boutique one final time?

"Sorry." Spike looked down as he slid the plate her way. He was still so damn awkward with stuff like this. Being around Twilight usually brought out the best in him. The most relaxed version. She was like a mirror for one never had to pretend to a reflection. "I didn't mean it like that. I... know what ponies used to say."

Twilight focused on the meal, though her eyes weren’t seeing the food. Rather she was caught inside of herself, those mental webbings she couldn't cut down alone, which needed kinds words of a friend to be with. "Do you... think I'm still like that? In a way, at least?"

"In... trying to be a virgin?" Spike shook his head violently for how tasteless that statement was. "You should never be considering that comes from a stallion who would say such a thing. You're a princess now. You should be beyond caring for what a jerk of a colt said."

Twilight's muzzle pointed down more. "But he was a normal stallion. A lot of them from back in Canterlot were. What they thought..."

"It didn't matter what they thought because they were only thinking of you from the perspective of them." He winced at saying a line, for, as it was true, someone far better, with experience and status on the subject, to be the one to comfort the mare with it. "Back then, your focus was on studying and impressing a princess. Dating wasn't your scene. Neither was friend-making."

Twilight never stopped looking between her legs as her muzzle swung in place. "But I was wrong about friends, wasn't I? If it weren't for Princess Celestia—"

"If it wasn't for Princess Celestia, deciding it was time to give you a nudge, knowing you well, then yes—maybe you wouldn't have enjoyed friends as you have." Spike nodded and laid a claw on his chest. "But you still would have had me. I would have never left you until you outgrew me."

But his eye shut on placing the focus on him again. He shook his head and at once took the seat. Twilight's head needed to lift, and it had to be done herself. He didn't want to compliment her endlessly or throw out something fake for the sake of seeing a smile.

His voice pressed in the flow of words that felt the littlest bit correct. "But Celestia knew you well enough to do what she did then. You shouldn't care about those stallions because they didn't know you well enough. You need someone to know what you're wanting overall. A friend would hear you out on that, tell you what they think... then help in what way they can."

Twilight's muzzle inched up. "Would you help me in whatever way you could?"

"Of course I would."

"No matter what?"

"Unless I thought you were making a mistake... I would probably advise you against it... then make that mistake with you." He scratched at his jaw to the growing of facial scales. Rugged in not being shaved due to the chaos of the last few days. "And for what I think? That you're more focused on becoming the princess to take over for the sisters than you are in testing the waters of the dating scene."

Twilight would retreat into herself again, but Spike grinned, already expecting this.

"But I know that, if you wanted some guy, you'd knock him dead."

Wind must have blown in the kitchen as Twilight's mane blew back as her muzzle lifted again. Finally she was facing the dragon, and a feeling of happiness was on him. It was the tired kind. Gladness for making someone else happy as the efforts to do so drained him. But it was worth it in the end.

He might have failed Rarity.

But rarely did he do so for Twilight.

If only because the demands of the mares were different.

"Spike? There's something I need to tell you... about today."

Twilight exhaled heavier than she meant to in telling the story. Cheeks coloured pink and doubling so in seeing the dragon's do the same. He listened throughout in not offering shame. Asked a few awkward questions to understand the matter better. They ate dinner without eating much of it.

"I guess.... I guess I'm sorry you have to go through all that." Spike was blinking as he had said that, across on the other side of the table, coming to cross his arms behind his head. He looked in processing all that had been said. "Though I guess that also answers a few questions I've always had."

Twilight blinked as her heart raced, and she leaned forward with an incredulous look. "And those are?"

Spike shook his head to show none had to do with her... problems. "Well. You never hear of a sex scandal with the sisters. Nobles are always caught in each other's beds. Yet nothing sexual has come up about them. I thought, maybe, that aspect of them shuts off once they get their wings or something."

That was stupid. Enough to squint the eyes really tight and call forward a harmless insult. But air caught in Twilight's lungs in refusing to make a mistake. Instead, her voice came in gentler. "That's absurd, though... isn't it?"

His gaze passed onto her for a moment, and, at once, they smitten her. Kind and bright and direct. Their glow was dimmed. Previous pains diminishing the life that once burned within them. His eyes were becoming more narrowed, focused even, ground from the harshness of life.

There was a bit of a cynic in the dragon.

But it was always buried underneath his love for jokes and gags and comic books and a thousand other things. Doing something, always, caught in a high of life. Yet that fire seemed to shrink. His kindness and innocent energy were still there. But it was decreasing. And rather quickly.

"Just because something is absurd doesn't mean it's not worth considering—either for a truth that has been missed, or the contemplation for how someone could arrive at such a thought, which allows for greater empathy." His talon wagged in the air as the words had been recited. He grinned to the point of a cheeky snarl. "Your words. But I agree. Those sisters have sex appeal keeping on for decades."

Annnnd his cheekiness and being an inch away from the point was still there. It was that playful annoyance that she enjoyed. Reason to get mock-mad and complain or smack him on the shoulder or any of those things. Those little signs her dragon was still inside that adult. "Spiiike."

"Been waiting a little while to hear that line again." He chuckled and leaned back in his seat, able to relax and raise his arms, the smell, though, of his scales entering the air. Little musk, masculine enough, to draw a suppressed-whimper from her. "But still. It's heat season, and yet, the sisters seem cool. Either they've found a way to deal with those urges—or they pay some guard really well throughout the ages."

"Spike!"

"What! Come on now! That one was legit!" His arms dropped to cross over his chest and, seeing those forearms rest against it, the mare wobbled into herself. Sleek scales over thick muscles. It all retained the slenderness that suited the lizard. "Now, if I said they had been paying him well in the bedroom. Then! Then you could make a case."

"Spiiike!'

"C'mon! I was using that as an example—you can't use that against me."

Twilight groaned and laughed and wanted to do the two at the same time. Both wanting to compress into herself and expand into the fullness of the seat. He was teasing her. Mood ruined from that conference, now returned, due to a good time with an old friend. "This is hopeless."

"Hey, hey! You can't be the mare saying that." Spike leaned onto the table and crossed his arms on it, expression concerned, the genuine kind she never had to doubt. Politics was a complex game, and body language was her least favourite form of reading. Yet, everything with the dragon was simple. Simple, as it was all genuine. Such was the case in dealing with 'beasts'. "You're the leader everypony looks to when everything falls apart. Raise your chin now. You're Twilight Sparkle. Who puts out the world when it's on fire?"

Twilight blushed and smiled and couldn't look the dragon in the face. Instead, she looked to the side in keeping her muzzle straight. Nearly she was like a puppy in playing this game. "I do."

"Who has saved Luna from Nightmare Moon?"

"My friends and I."

"Who always tries to find the best solution to a problem instead of the one best for her?"

"Me."

"And who, in being sheer awesomeness, was given wings for it?"

"This mare!" Even though it was childish, this spoon-feeding to her ego, she needed it, no matter how easily she could be mocked, as being fully accepting of it made her vulnerable. But the full support of the dragon restored her soul to its whole spirit. "This bookworm turned princess!"

"That's right!" His elbow pounded on the table as he flexed out his claw, and she slapped it at once, the sound ringing out, that final inflation to confidence despite the awkwardness of the previous conversation. Two absurd creatures, living the life of such, getting on swimmingly. "That's my mare!"

Twilight froze. Stung at that line. She blushed and kept in her seat as the dragon continued to cheer. It'd been a line heard many times. The dragon didn't mean anything different about it. But there'd been meaning in his words.

That this mare was his.

Course Spike didn't mean it like that. Encouraging her had been his goal. Yet the other meaning to those words, of belonging to him, for whatever reason, pumped her heart with something else. It hadn't been the first time these feelings rose.

Twilight sat back in her seat and fiddled with her hooves, blushing, knowing the dragon would take this for her happiness of the moment. But really, it was in what he had said. Who else would be here, at this moment, and go through this with her? Her friends would help, but they had their own lives, and couldn't always be there for the dark moments of the night.

Yet Spike was always there.

A frown stole her.

Or. At least. He used to be, that was, before Rarity had finally taken him away.

But he came back... on a day like this much less... could that...

"But as for the matter of what to do? Can't exactly be drawing everyone to check out your rump—I mean, they'll already be doing that, so they don't need an extra reason to look at what's between those flanks."

"Spiiike! You're horrible."

"What? You don't like me talking about your body?"

Twilight opened her mouth and then shut it. Her eyes flicked left and right as the weight of a blush had pushed down on her snout. Internal conflict began. Pride in being her own pony versus the rush she felt in being sexually complimented—something, not done, throughout her life. "I... well. I-I should be putting up some kind of fight, shouldn't I?"

"Not if it were me." Spike glanced up to the ceiling in scratching his chin. Delicate were the beginning features on his face. Little things coming together to make him handsome. "If I had an ass like that and someone complimented it? I'd just say 'I know" and give 'em a wink."

"Guuuahh!"

Her muzzle slammed onto the table.

"Want me to stop?"

Her face squeezed into itself as it rubbed into the wood. "N-No. Secretly I like it. Just... don't let Spike know."

"I do my best to let him know he walks a delicate line with that." The mirth from his voice had faded as seriousness rose in his tone. Her muzzle squeaked in inching up to see his face turning away. Weight had overtaken his shoulders. "You are rocking, though, Twilight, as you are beautiful in all aspects. It's nice when you can find someone special to tease all those things with. I promise I'll knock it off when you find the right guy... if you're even looking for him."

Twilight sighed and fell back into her chair, coming to slump into it, going slack in all regards. "I'm just looking for an answer to this first."

There should have been another joke. Another push for a whine and a laugh from Twilight to zap her from the mood. Yet the response to above was sigh. Slow and long and powerful in its weight. Groaning of afar wood told of the dragon slumped like her.

We always took after each other in the ways that mattered... didn't we? Mhmm. What other friend could enter your life at the point of sheer absurdity and decide to sit shoulder to shoulder with her? That actually sounds rather nice about now. Underneath the covers of a warm bed with a scent and the air... dang it.

"I feel like this is going to be as awkward as the birds and the bees conversation we had when we were younger," Spike started without hitching for breath, "but I figured we should rule all of this stuff out now. I take it... that long shower didn't help?"

Twilight's eyes clenched tighter than security at a prison with forehooves falling over her head like steel bars. "You could tell?"

He winced. "Don't exactly need to be a detective on that one. You take showers instead of baths due to time saved. You only take a bath when you really need one. Even then, you find them uncomfortable."

Twilight's head turned underneath her forelegs.

"You shower every day, but you do a set routine on a particular day." Spike's rattling returned him to a state of an assistant, one following a process and its logic which, in any other context, would be creepy. "I know because I used to buy and stock everything. Depending on the day, on average, you take a set time."

Twilight groaned. "But how does that tell you—"

"Five minutes means you're soaking in the warm water, and it's only five minutes because, after that point, the water starts to cool after you've cracked it close to max." Spike slumped forward in his chair and laid his chin on crossed arms. He seemed more swept with the deduction than the nature of the subject. "You magically warm the water after that because you need to finish something else off. The water doesn't change much in sound when you shower except when it crashes when you're washing your mane. When that happens twice, though."

Twilight's snout bunched into itself as she rolled it into the table. "Oh, Celestia. You've known all this time?"

"Hold up now." Spike's head rose from the table, and he dropped it on a propped claw. "I'm not a total creep. It's just things you notice after living together for a while. I never thought much more about it. Times that worried me were beyond the twenty-minute mark."

Her eyes blinked open in looking across the wood of the table to him. "Huh? But why?"

His eyes became downcast. "Because it meant something was wrong. Really wrong. Enough for you to stay in the shower that long." He sighed another horrible sigh. "You do your best thinking in there. That means even that wasn't enough. Figured that was the case when I came back today—why I asked if you wanted to sleep or not."

Twilight's face plopped back into the table. "That's very considerate of you."

"Feels like telling you all of that, though, has removed all my considerism."

Muffled was her voice. "That's not even a word."

"But a certain horny princess could make it a word."

Another muffled whimper. "Oooooh nooo... what if that's what they print!"

Twilight lifted from the table and threw back in her seat with the back on her head on its rest. Looking to the ceiling, she spread her hooves to the air, the holding of a sprawling tangling. "How they label my era of ruling! The Horny Princess!”

Her eyes flicked down to see the dragon's lips pushing to the left while his gaze kept on her. "Gotta admit it's a bit of a title."

"Spike!"

"What? It's a princess, so you know she's beautiful, but she's also horny too, so that means—"

"That means you're getting banished to the moon if you finish that sentence."

Spike leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, and looked up and to the side. Thinking about something for a second. Then his gaze flicked back to her. "Want to finish it for me?"

Twilight couldn't suppress the tug that pulled on the corner of her lips. "Are you reeeally sure you want me to finish the sentence of banishing you to the moon? Didn't even have a chance to say how many years."

"How many years could you go without me?"

Her mouth opened but no words were produced.

Twilight couldn't even joke about a subject like that. "Zero."

"Just how do you live without me?"

"Been wondering that more and more as of late."

That sombre tone had caught the dragon. Their jests were a bit off due to the time apart. Even though he was so willing to tease, no matter what, he always had her back. No matter the insecurity or the problem, he would be there. It's why he could joke about such things in the first place.

Assurance of another.

"So long showers aren't the trick, and all the stuff underneath the bed doesn't do the job, right?"

Twilight smiled and rolled the side of her head on the table. Looking at the dragon sideways caused her mane to fall over an eye. Too drained from it all to throw a fuss about phrasing. "Nothing works, Spike. Nothing! No toy or spell or steamy novel! It's... it's never been this bad before."

Spike looked down in thought, and there was a flickering to his eyes. They widened before narrowing. Caught on something. "I don't recall this being an issue before either. Heat gets a bit stronger the older you get. Yet," he looked at her, "this started once you started getting bigger, right?"

Twilight nodded. This amounted to her cheek rubbing back and forth, adorably, on the table. They were puffed due to her pouting. Eyes gleaming with the starting of water. “It's different too. I always thought I could get along by myself. It didn't really bother me that I didn't have a stallion throughout my life."

Spike met this retort in placing both claws on his chest, over his heart, one atop the other, to stop the bleeding. "Sorry. Don't mind me. Just dealing with a stab to the male pride."

"You're a male?" Twilight asked with a flurry of blinks. "Wait. You have pride?"

Gunshots of magic shot the dragon back in the chair. He was now limp, at the scene of a crime. "Not anymore. Both of them are dead, thanks to you. Thanks, Twilight."

Twilight chuckled. "Oh, hush. You know what I mean. I always thought I would be okay in doing without that aspect of my life." She hummed sweetly to herself, and her eyes closed a little. "Maybe it would be nice to have. But I didn't need it. Not when I had the girls and you in my life. All I had to do was keep on with the stuff that counts."

"And now?"

"Now? I don't know Spike." Twilight huffed and rolled onto her chin. "Before all the usual methods worked in dealing with this. Now I'm not so sure anything would work. It's not even a matter of being, y-y'know... h-h-horny. It's..."

Twilight's breathing hitched.

"Slow it down now." Spike pushed back in his chair and rose and came around the table, settling on a knee next to her, a quick hug to her side. It sparked anxiety. Smells and scents below not thoroughly washed away. Yet the dragon's embrace was too warm, too tight, too loving for her to care. "You don't have to rush in telling me this. Take your time. I'm your friend."

Twilight couldn't pull herself together, yet that did not matter. Claws wrapped around the purple mesh and pulled her to his chest in a collected state. Allowing her to rest into the smoothness of muscle and the sleekness of scales. The solidarity of it all was comforting.

"In through the nose and out through the mouth. You already know the tempo." Spike's claw brushed through her mane, slowly and with care, in the way that drew hums. Twilight took a few to compose herself. It wasn't often she could fall apart. "See? There you go. You know how to count."

Twilight chuckled. "Thanks, Spike."

"Anytime."

Does he mean that? Of course he does.

Will he always be able to do it?

Doubtful.

"But the heat is different this season. It's no longer enough to tend to below." Shaking her head across his chest caused smooth scales to brush across her soft fur in a contact that was bliss. "R-Rather... it wants someone. It needs someone.”

Spike's head lifted from above, although he did not stop stroking hers, as he was forced to look elsewhere. His shoulders dropped as too did a sigh from his lips. "I'm... sorry to hear that. I-I think? I can't really be too sure." He swallowed and looked down at her. "Do you crave to be with someone for a long time?"

Her head shook against him again. "N-Not really. I s-still don't desire to have someone like that in my life." She chuckled in sliding her cheek up to his pec so she could look up to his face so high above. "Not while I still have you in it. But I still need someone to help with... that kind of stuff."

Her shoulders dropped in slumping more into him. "Does that make me a terrible mare?"

Spike blinked and shook his head and yet looked away all the same. "I don't think so. I mean. One night stands are a thing—aren't they?" He winced at that question as it led to a possible answer. "Have you... thought about that at all? Finding a stallion to help you?"

"Do you think—"

"I think all you would have to do is ask, and you would have a long line of throbbing stallions."

Twilight clenched an eye at that. "Augh. Was that a compliment?"

"A compliment as far away from being a compliment that a compliment can be."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Gross."

"Doesn't make it any less true."

Groans. "It still wouldn't work."

Twilight huffed in pulling out from his arms and sitting properly on her chair. Looking down at her half-eaten food and thinking it over. Footsteps sounded from her side as the dragon returned to his side of the table. She thought more about it. "Maybe I could attract anyone—which feels weird for someone like me to be saying—but even then... there's too many ways it could go wrong."

Spike settled back into his chair while answering. "Can't exactly have it leaking out to the press?"

"Press. Blackmail. Hundred other anxieties."

"Afraid he'll expose one of your kinks?"

"Or make me indulge in his."

His head bounced that logic around. He stopped as his eyes sparkled. He snapped his digits. "How did Cadance deal with this? She's not like Celestia or Luna."

"Yeah—but she had Shining to do... things I'd rather not think about."

"But that's all you need, right? Just one guy you can trust to help you with all that stuff." Spike was nodding his head and going along with the starting of the logical process. "Just someone to take the edge off until the season ends. Surely there's one guy you know like that who could help."

Welcome to the end of the thought-process.

Twilight leaned back into her seat and cupped her forehooves together before her chest, eyes closed and forced a smile, the rising heat in her body doubling in his realization. This could go so many ways. Yet a chance had to be taken. "There's only one."

"Oh yeah? Who?"

Of course he wouldn't suspect himself. Still a goof.

"...you."

Spike had broken into a cheer at the coming to the answer of Twilight's problem, racking his head for all the males along the way, the ones who could be trusted tending her issue. Who wouldn't want to be with her even for a night? So much greatness to be given easy permission to.

"Spike? You there?"

And then he froze in fear of being chosen as the 'lucky' guy.

What was his reaction to that supposed to be? Infinite blinking revealing nothing but the mare on the other side of the table. Not friend or Twilight but mare. One interested in him. Her asking changed the general air between them.

He panicked. Frozen. Body on overload. His thumb twitched and his heart pumped ice. Everything tightening in his chest as his breaths had to be wheezed out. Moving felt impossible yet he was always shaking. There didn't seem to be an end to any of it.

The effect of even a hint of intimacy.

"Spike? I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it like that! I just thought, w-well, you were asking, and I wanted to tell the truth and, h-hey, it's not like we actually are..."

Are you going to let another mare be ashamed of herself because you're a coward? So easily able to talk and tease about those things—until it comes to the real deal. Pull yourself together. Say something. Take the full blame already!

Spike croaked out from the mould that held him. He cracked through, shifting a little, heart raising and scales tightening, everything imploding inside of him. Weakness of muscles to the point where only bone composed his limbs. "I... n-no. Just... a second, please."

She was answering your question—she didn't suggest anything! But now your outbreak is causing her to feel even worse about that! What if she never trusts you with this kind of stuff again because of this? Afraid of what kind of reaction it'll provoke? It'll be like Rarity all... all...

He was shivering without end and it forever became worse. Chest pushing against his chest in a bid to escape. Blackness bloated the corners of his vision and swelled to the center. Everything going dark with the sensitivity of panic tingling at the tips of all his nerves.

Until something rushed to his side. Soft and polite and brushing across his arm. Limp in his chair, he rolled his head to the right, seeing the face of Twilight inches before him. Her muzzle was downcast with bangs over her eyes. The thickness of her chest puffed into the rest of the chair as her hoof was pressing across his arm.

"It's okay now. Just take a couple of deep breaths." Twilight kept stroking him and stroking him, in a tempo she had experienced moments before, using it to help him. His shivers seemed to chill her body—despite how warm and fluffy her coat was. "I didn't mean to spring all of that on you. It's natural it would be a bit of a shock. I could have phrased that better."

Spike blinked and rolled his head the few centimetres he could. "D-Don't be. We... joke about it all the time."

"Joking and flirting aren't the same as the real thing." Twilight chuckled in finding herself a little. Enough to raise her muzzle as the bottom of her eyes peeked from the underside of her bangs. "Though I guess all those talks about my rump among other things were all for show, huh?"

Spike breathed in and out through his mouth, forever unable to catch his breath, taking his free claw and laying it on his chest. He chuckled between his struggles. "S-Something like that. E-Easier to talk about things you know you'll never have."

Twilight blinked. "So you never thought about me that way?"

The dragon seized.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Twilight stepped back with a turn of the head. "Bad time to be asking those kinds of questions right now."

"No, no! Just... going to need a few to recover." Guilt flushed down his scales in the lack of comfort or support. "Do you think you could—"

"Right right!" Twilight beamed and stepped closer, happy to stroke his arm once more, amused by the action. Focused and stolen in watching her hoof travailing across his body. Feeling over the swell of muscle to the slenderness of his wrist. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be." His breathing slowed to the point it filtered through his snout once again. "And... yeah. Of course I thought about you that way before. Not... to my proudest confession. Just never worried too much about it."

Twilight's stroking slowed as her muzzle was below his chin, looking down his body, a blush starting at her cheeks. "Any... reason for that?"

"Well." Spike coughed an exhale and did his best to shrug. "We're lifetime friends, aren't we? Just figured nothing would come in the way of that. Can't even comprehend things changing between us to the point it's never occurred to me. Plus... you've never gone looking for a guy after that one time, right?"

Twilight stopped at the mention of that, shaking her head, and beginning again. "R-Right. Guess I don't really present the look of being 'available' now, do I?"

"More so I'm too good for you.”

"Ha."

"It's true."

"Yet I don't have anyone."

"You've got me."

"Not for this."

"You've got me."

Did I... crud.

Twilight slowed in stroking his arm to look up at the dragon, her face coming inches below his, the waft of her breath floating across his chin. Her lips were but an inch away. Supple and perfect and so close to his. She looked at him in bewilderment.

Drawn close to him at that moment.

"You mean you will..."

Spike closed his eyes, nodded his head, and then proceeded to smile. "It's a little too soon after Rarity but—you just need someone to help you in that other department, right? I'm not sure how much help I could be. But I'll do the best that I can."

Twilight answered him by leaping up and kissing him on the cheek.

Which drained life from his body.

For all the wrong reasons.