The Day Spike Stopped Caring and Made Love to Everpony He Cares for

Spike Bangs Everypony
B_25 & Loveless

Spike knew today would be terrible without even opening his eyes.

It'd seemed like a trend for the past few months, having this sudden premonition after a few moments after waking. It was hard to fault Spike for that. The first thing his eyes opened to was the faint sunlight spilling into the darkroom. The floors were dusty and covered with plates with half-eaten sandwiches and other such deserted foods on them.

Spike groaned as he threw the covers off his body. He brought his feet to the floor, collecting his face into his palm and rubbing his eyes. A few moments later, Spike stood up and gave a slight stretch, cracking the kinks in his back and his neck. Upon finishing with that, he began toward the corner of the room where a standing mirror awaited him.

Spike didn't particularly like looking at himself in the mirror—his reflection always gave him the wrong impression of himself. There was no denying what he was, a dragon of course, but sometimes, whenever he was just waking up or had spent a long time alone, he'd forgotten that fact, and for whatever reason, it always made him happy to do so.

'Oh, and Spike? Please don't forget to update that journal whenever you wake up!" Twilight had said to him a month or so ago, warmly but with excitement—it was just after his growth spurt had kicked in. 'You may be our first clue in cracking the elements behind a dragon's ageing process!'

Spike looked himself in the mirror and could almost chuckle at the differences he now saw. His eyes gazed down his figure, which was far taller than any pony he'd know, his frame slim yet built, his face narrow and without fat, and though it wasn't much to brag about, his chest and arms saw to decent muscle growth.

But at the end of the day, all that was still attached to the dragon that hardly left his room.

Spike leaned to the stand next to the mirror and picked up a journal, opening it up and flipping to the page of the day, filling in the spaces with information that said, pretty much, nothing had changed since yesterday, in which, nothing had changed since the day before, then before and before, going on and on and suddenly making the drake very depressed.

"Ah, c'mon, get it together!" Spike shook his head as his claw closed the journal, putting it back on the stand as he looked at the calendar on the wall. "We can spend the whole day mopping in here after we've helped Twilight with her experiment."

He began toward the bedroom door and quickly unlocked it. Light washed into his room. He cast a glance over his shoulder to see if he could do any clean-up, but upon seeing the crumpled papers, dirty dishes, empty bags—it was all enough to throw him out of the room and have him slam the door afterward.

Spike began down the long crystal hall, hoping that leaving his room for once would improve his mood, but seeing the hung-up photos of his friends only severed to do the opposite. With every step he took and every face he saw, guilt began to rise from his chest.

"It's your fault you're not close to them," Spike muttered under his breath. He gazed at every photograph as they passed. "You love the girls so much, and yet, you care too much about screwing up so much that you don't even risk it with them anymore. You don't have any right to feel guilty—it's your mistake anyway."

The words did nothing to suppress the feeling. Every time he saw Applejack, he was reminded of his missed opportunity of helping on the farm, of helping a friend and being a part of the team, or indulging in the deep conversations he would have with the mare when they were alone. Of course, he mostly screwed up what he meant to say, but somehow, the mare could always pull meaning out from his nonsense.

Another step. Another beat of the heart. Another mistake to ruminate about.

Seeing Rarity's face always brought a pang to his heart. The fashionista was the definition of beauty, one so close yet always out of his reach, no matter his efforts to become the dragon that she would come to love. He slowly gave up on trying to woo her heart—he'd given up on a lot of things.

Another step, faster than the last, but faces on the wall wouldn't be blurred so easily.

"Get out of your head!" Spike didn't bother hiding the words under his breath. "There's Pinkie! Are you going to be sad because you're not as energetic as her, that you never offered to help cook sweets but thought how cool that could be in a booth alone!"

He shook his head and walked faster.

"There's Fluttershy!" Spike threw his arms up. "You going to throw a fit because you didn't spend a weekend at her cottage, helping with her animals and drinking tea afterward, discussing the quieter things in life? That would have been nice—if you weren't too scared to go over and ask!"

Spike was almost jogging now.

"Oh, look, you're actually running now!" Spike exhaled heavily. "Too bad you weren't doing this a few weeks ago when Rainbow Dash offered to bring you to the gym with her. Glad you spent all that time locked away in your room, huh?!"

Spike would have broken into a dash were it not for him almost running into a door, the very one that had been his destination the whole time. He stopped before panting, shoulders rising and dropping, muzzle scrunched, and eyes narrowed, though after a moment, he returned to normal.

Then, with the biggest smile he could force, Spike opened the door.

“You're a hundred percent sure this isn'tgoing to kill me?”

"For the last time, Spike, it won't kill you." Twilight stood at the opposite side of the room, behind a table with an open book. She was slowly glowing a brighter lavender as she concentrated on the spell. “It may hurt... well, a lot, but it won't kill you.”

Spike's shoulders dropped. "Will it hurt so badly I'll want to kill me?"

Twilight curled her lips inward. "Now that one, I'm not sure."

He couldn't help but sigh.

"C'mon, Spike, we have to do this." Twilight's eyes flitted across the words of the page. "Although I do miss the times when I didn't have to crane my neck back to see you, I am glad that your growth spurt finally came." She flipped the book closed with a hoof and looked back up at him. "The issue is that it came far too late than what is normal for most dragons, and not only that, but you should have also grown a pair of wings."

"Maybe somepony just forgot to ring a bell?" Spike offered as he shifted in place on the elevated wooden platform. "Maybe we could do that instead of blasting my body with blazing experimental magic?"

"I would if I could, Spike." Twilight chuckled softly, cheeks blushing a tinge of pink at his sense of humour. He always had the right words to tickle her pickle, to give her a boost of energy during her all-nighter reading sessions, to say the right joke to make her laugh at the despair brought about by some new villain. "You... do know that I don't want to hurt you, right? That this is our last option to figure out what's wrong with you?"

"And here I thought you were just getting tired of me." Spike smiled warmly at her, starting to stand tall and still in place. "But yeah, I know you're just doing this because you care about me. Not a fan of the pain, but this is all for the best, right?"

"Right." Twilight nodded. "You weren't born like most dragons. Eggs are usually hatched by the warmth of their mother's body heat. However, with your egg, I artificially hatched it with the surplus of my magic during my entrance exam. The spell was enough to give you life at the moment. However, it didn't infuse you with all the material needed to grow like a dragon should."

"And we're sure that's a bad thing?" Spike waved his claw. "I'm all for growing wings and taking Rainbow down in a race, but not if I'm going to go out and destroy the town again." He chuckled. "And that dragon attitude. I'll skip the wings if it means skipping what I saw during the dragon migration."

Twilight smiled as wisps of faint light began to float and wrap around her horn. "Don't worry, you'll still retain who you are—I think we both can be glad for that." She walked around the table and began toward the drake. "But, during my entrance exam, I had to reverse the magic inside of you to prevent you from growing into a full-sized dragon."

Twilight stopped before Spike, and true to her word, had to crane her neck back to make eye contact with it—not that her eyes minded travelling up his chiselled abdomen, then his sculpted chest, then to his face that had lost all its fat and was sharper in shape.

"You okay, Twi?" Spike lowered himself to his right knee, head tilted because of her strange expression. "You've got me a bit scared."

"I'm just... s-straining underneath the exertion from this spell is all!" Twilight groaned. "N-Not so easy concocting a powerful spell made for a dragon, y-you know?"

"Ah shoot, I didn't even consider that!" Spike shook his head. "And here I've been putting you in pain while complaining about what's going to happen to me." He closed his eyes and held out his arms. "Alright, do what you gotta do." He clenched his eyes tighter. "Just try to be gentle, okay?"

"I'll do my best."

She stood before him with her back straight and her horn charge, her magic gaining in frequency and power as a powerful gust swept across the room, pulling the books on nearby shelves into its grasp as the intensity of the spell grew and grew.

Twilight could feel it inside her, a primal energy long since dormant, used only once before in a time of need to hatch the one she loved and who stood before her. She drained the power of her surplus, feeding more and more of it into her horn, the thick magical wisp flooding out from the tip of her horn, slithering through the air until it made contact with the dragon's chest, the spell seeping past his scales and infusing with his body as it coursed through his veins in search of something.

"Ack!" Spike panted, and he cried, and he screamed. He curled his claws into fists to help him withstand the sudden agonizing pain. "This is why I hate Mondays!" He cracked open an eye to glare down at the princess. "P-Please tell me this is almost over!"

Twilight stomped her hooves to the floor to keep her body from moving. "A-Almost there, Spike! Wait, what is..." The wisps around her horn transitioned into an emerald colour. "Magic's coming back to me? But I don't—"The wisps pulsated, the colour of her magic becoming more and more green. The spell began to course out of the drake's body, now green instead of purple as it was siphoned back into her horn. "W-Wait! I can't hold this much—"

The magic of the room turned green, draining back into the recesses of Twilight's horn where, a few moments later, the magic shot back out again in a tremendous explosion that swept across the room and the halls of the castle.

"... … ..."

Twilight saw only darkness but could feel something in the distance.

"...Twilight..."

Every joint in her body was sore, her mind enduring a haze brought about by a horrible migraine, and worst of all, her consciousness was still ingrained in reality while this was happening.

"...Twilight, I need you to wake up." Twilight did her best to reply to the distant voice, to move or to nod or to do anything to let the other know that she could hear them, that she was simply locked away in herself. "Aw, crud. And here I thought I was supposed to be agony's only friend during this experiment."

A chuckle escaped past her lips without Twilight even meaning to do so.

"So you are still alive in there." Twilight felt two strong arms slip under her body, one underneath her hind legs and the other underneath her barrel, picking her up like she was a foal and holding her close to a tough but warm, scaly chest. "Not exactly sure what is down here, but it's safe to say to take whatever pain was intended for me. I'd apologize, but I think a warm bed would do you one better."

"Mmhmm." Twilight managed to crack open an eye. She was treated to the sight of a charred ceiling, though that wasn't what pulled her focus—it was the underside of her number-one assistant's face. "B-Bed does sound nice."

"Tell me about it." Spike stopped walking down the hall, a thought striking him suddenly as he looked down at her with concern painted across his muzzle. "But as much as you and I would like nothing more than not to see the world for a few days, I'm worried that the injury you took may have knocked that precious noggin of yours more than any doctor would like."

Twilight blinked. She was still bordering on the edge of consciousness, and everything had a dream-like quality to it. For whatever reason, having her cute little body held by a teenage dragon like Spike made her feel safe, maybe even a bit pampered to be carried around like this. She wanted nothing more than to curl up further in his arms and give him the duty of watching over her as she slept.

"...Twilight, are you still with me?" Spike's face gazing down at her, his voice strong while his eyes showed how scared he was inside—how could a single creature be so handsome and innocent at the same time? "I'm going to check your body for any cuts or bruises, alright? Going to have to hold you a bit funny, but please don't think I'm getting any crazy ideas."

Twilight felt the claw holding her body by her barrel slide down the length of her back, a stark reminder of just how much more giant her dragon had grown, his claw reaching her rump and his palm squeezing her flanks. His other claw scratched across her fluffy expanse.

"There we go." Twilight blushed at having her butt being felt up, but the drake was too busy having his other claw glide over her fluffy belly, pressing down at specific points and listening for a reaction, digits continuing up her underbelly as they searched for anything of concern. "You don't seem to have taken any hits, but that doesn't rule out internal damage..."

Twilight did her best to suppress any moans as his searching digits felt every inch of her body up, looking for anything that could still be hurting her, of course, but that didn't repress the sensation of being felt up in the slightest. If she was honest, this would have to be the first time another male had felt her so intimately, with claws so sharp and yet so gentle, scratching at all the right places, cause her hind leg to twitch in the air and making her let out little moans whenever she was sure they would pass underneath Spike's radar.

"Nothing feels broken, and the fact you're not screaming in agony implies that everything is okay underneath the hood." Spike's claw came under her muzzle, cupping it gently as he brought it left and then right, his head tilting at seeing no marks. His cheeks began to blush at the sight of her face. "Anyone tell you that you look absolutely beautiful after an explosion from a failed spell?"

Twilight went to laugh, but the pressure on her chest saw that only a few chuckles escaped. "I've spent far too much time behind books and friendship problems for any stallion to use such a cheesy pick-up line on me."

"Well," Spike said as he placed the back of his claw against her forehead, pushing up her violet mane and revealing more of the beautiful face that was underneath it, "you will always have this cheesy dragon to pay you a line or two every day." He pulled back his claw. "You're not burning up, and you don't have any injuries—looks like a typical case of exertion." He continued forward again, bringing his other arm back to her hind legs and taking the first claw from her rump.

"Tell you what, say we make it to your bed alive. How about we have some fun, enjoy some sleep, and just risk it with the chance of a coma afterward." Spike turned a right at the end of the hallway, accompanied on the walls on either side of him were the occasional knocked over wooden tables and the shattered glass of once hanging paintings. "Worst-case scenario, we get a few weeks, heck, maybe a month off duty, and Rarity can finally have her wish of being a pretty little princess."

"Mmmhmm." Twilight snuggled more of herself against his broad chest, delighting in the heat it gave off—it was like hugging a furnace only with no burning sensation. "Only if you promise to stay in the same bed." She yawned and then giggled. "My blankets are not nearly as warm or as comfy as you."

"Now I know that blast did some re-wiring in your upstairs." Spike reached the door to her room, and in the absence of having a free claw to turn the handle, decided to just bust the door open with a powerful kick from his leg. The action both startled and aroused Twilight. "Let's just worry about getting you to bed before you say something that gives the wrong impression."

"F-Fair enough."

"There we go, made it to the bed without one of us dying." Twilight gently pulled away from his warm chest, forelegs almost reaching out like a foal does for their stolen bottle. The strong arms laid her to rest on her bed, pulling the blanket over her sore body and bringing the pillow to her head. "Get some rest. You probably need it more than I do."

Spike stumbled back from the bed, his body suddenly weak without the soft comfort of Twilight's body. He shook the thought and the feeling from the head, which, of course, only made him feel more light-headed and dizzy. When he snapped back to reality, he found Twilight looked at him from the bed, her cute body underneath the sheets with only her head protruding out. Strands of her mane messily covered her face, though she could still see him and even offered a sweet little smile.

"Close your eyes and try to sleep this off." Spike turned around to the door, shoulders dropping as it hung loosely from its hinges. He sighed. "I'm going to write a letter to Celestia explaining why she may not get another in quite some time. If there's still room for me in that bed afterward, I'll join you since I'd rather not sleep alone right now."

Spike stumbled past the hanging door and into the hallway, taking a step forward and out of any line of sight, feeling his body freeze up as his every joint suddenly became weak and unwilling to move. Shivers coursed throughout his body, each making him feel even weaker in a strange way, the world becoming blurry as his stomach felt like it was going to vomit.

Without quite knowing why, his claw came to the side of his head, pressing against a wetness that made him flinch. His digits pulled before his eyes to reveal the blood coating them. "Oh, crud." He gazed down at his body to find cuts that dug into his scales, some deeper than others, all prompting at least a trickle of blood from his body.

"Huh." Spike stumbled backward. "Looks like I checked the wrong body."

He then fell forward and passed out in the castle's hallway.

"... … …"

Everything hurt.

"...Spike..."

Spike, for whatever reason, didn't mind the pain—it was if it were some distant sensation he cared nothing for. Slowly, he cracked open his eyes to the concerned muzzle of Twilight a few feet above him. "You're awake!"

"I'm not sure about that one." Spike draped a claw over his face, covering his eyes from the sunlight pouring into the hallway from the glass window. "Can I check back into reality at a later time? My body would really appreciate doing nothing for the next little while."

"Are you okay? What exactly feels wrong with your body?" Twilight circled his laying form as her eyes studied his every scale. "Are you getting strange new thoughts? Joints that feel like they're going to explode? Has terrible agony stricken you with paralysis that is stopping you from—"

"Just a headache from you and a sore back from the floor." Spike began to sit upon the crystal floor, slowly regaining his balance as he returned to his feet. He grinned, looking down at Twilight. "See? I'm standing on my own two feet!"

"Spike, this is serious!" Twilight stomped her hoof directly in front of him. "A spell designed to mitigate my magical hold inside of you completelybackfired and knocked us unconscious for the whole night!"

"Really?" He crossed his arms and turned his head over to the window, raising a claw to shield his eyes from the first rays of sunlight. "Huh. Guess time travel really is possible."

"Now's not the time for jokes, Spike!" Twilight shook her head as she stepped toward the tall dragon, coming up on hind legs as she wrapped her forelegs around his waist, nuzzling his abdomen while squeezing him. "We seriouslyhad a close call there! What if something even worse happened?"

"Then it only would've happened to me," Spike said, the phrase catching him and Twilight by surprise. "As far as I'm concerned, any damage to me is nothing so long the same isn't happening to you." He brought an arm around her neck, holding the mare closer to himself, enjoying the warmth of her soft fur rubbing against his smooth scales. "Feels... weird for me to be saying something like that, huh?"

Twilight didn't reply at first, only exhaling deeply as her cheeks burned rose pink. "Do you... mean that, Spike?"

"Of course I do, Twi." Spike's other claw began to comb through her violet mane. "I'm your number-one assistant after all, and even then... whoa, is that a sexy photo of Rarity?"

"Uh." Twilight blinked, craning her neck from his belly to look up at the drake. "What now?"

"That photo of Rarity has her entire photo in the frame!" Spike smiled at the princess's hooves, where, free from its frame, the photo of the fashionista exposed more of her body than what was previously let on. "Just look at the softness of her white coat, the curls of her purple mane, her slim physique, and most importantly of all, those flanks she's got on her!" He shook his head. "They're perfect in shape!"

"Spike!" Twilight broke out from the hug and stumbled back a few steps. "You can't just say stuff like that!"

"What? Butt? Ass? Pleasure cheeks?" Spike looked up. "Anyone going to strike me with a bolt of lightning?" He let a few moments pass before looking back down at Twilight. "Looks like the deity of profanity is off duty for today—besides, those words were tame!"

"It doesn't matter if they were tame! You don't go running around and saying things about a mare's... behind!" Twilight shook her head to try and make sense of the situation, as well as to rid herself of her burning blush. "What even gave you the confidence to talk about a mare's rump in an open room with another mare in it!?"

"A good night's sleep," Spike replied, "It could happen to anyone."

"A good night's sleep gave you the confidence to talk about rumps?!"

"Maybe I was dreaming about butts the whole time!" Spike snapped his claw. "Familiarity breeds contempt and all that other stuff."

"That's it, there's definitely something off about you," Twilight said. "Did you hit your head when you passed out here last night? Blood loss from all those cuts? Ah! Why did I think it was a good idea for you to carry me when you were clearly hurting yourself?!"

"We both didn't know I was hurt as well, and besides, there's nothing wrong with me!" Spike started punching the air and began jogging on the spot. "No sore joints or pain in my legs. Even the cuts I sustained from last night have dried. Even if they didn't, I wouldn't care if they still hurt!" He blinked, slowly stopping in place. "I wouldn't care even if I was in pain." He stepped back a few feet, feeling his back press against the wall, placing his weight on it as he raised a claw to his eyes. "I wouldn't care regardless of anything."

"Spike?" Twilight asked with concern flooding through her voice as she took a step towards him. "Is everything okay?"

"I... I don't care about anything, Twilight." He let his claw drop to his side with a chuckle. "And it feels... meh."

"Uh-oh, that spell did have an effect on you after all." She quickly walked towards him. "Spike, I need you to be honest with me and answer the following." She came before him with her eyes narrowed. "Are you feeling greedy at all? Like there's a desire building in your chest, supported by a feeling of rage?"

"No," Spike said, slightly confused. "No feelings whatsoever. I'm not feeling mad, and I'm not feeling sad, not anxious or nervous, greedy or needy—just nothing." He then chuckled. "I definitely don't mind it."

"Strange." Twilight squinted her eyes as her thinking stole her away from reality for a moment. "You don't seem all that different from last night, besides when you were commenting on how great Rarity's butt is." Not even sexual confusion could stop Twilight when she was in nerd mode. "You're not taking or demanding anything, and from what I can tell, your wit hasn't been reduced to a primal state."

"Do primal thoughts about Rarity's butt count?"

"My point exactly." Twilight blinked—her means of returning to reality. "From what I can tell, the magic I restrict you with during your hatching has finally left you and returned to me, but the only problem is that during its departure it—why are you giving me that look?"

"The look I had while staring at Rarity's flanks or the look I have whenever you're explaining something boring?"

"Boring!" Twilight stomped a hoof. "I am explaining the circumstance that illustrate your lack of growth for most of your life and how it may—"

"Can Rarity's butt do the explaining?"

"Rarity's butt will be doing no such thing!" Twilight chided and lowered her tail. "Besides, it's meant for jiggling anyway."

"Can Rarity jiggle her butt instead of you explaining something boring?"

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "You are so lucky the withdrawal of magic has affected your cognition, or else I would be slapping you so hard." She then pointed her hoof up at him. "Ah-ha! I also explained the boring stuff when you weren't expecting it!"

"Does that mean I get to see Rarity's butt shake now?"

"No! Stop asking." Twilight lowered her hoof. "First, we have to perform a series of questionnaires to see how well your mind is functioning and just what kind of state it's in." Her lips began to stretch. "Then we get to clean up not only the experimentation room but the whole castle as well from the blast!" She then sat down and clopped her hooves together. "And that means re-shelving day and many other fun chores!"

Spike's shoulders dropped.

"Aren't you just excited about this, Spike?" Twilight couldn't help herself from standing back up and beginning to hop about in a circle. "All the tests that will shed light on the unconscious nature of dragons? The effects of having pony magic reside in a dragon since their birth? There are just so many questions to be asked, answers to be explored, work, and fun to be had!"

Spike had stopped listening and didn't care enough to pinpoint the words he'd dropped out at. His eyes became tired, and his ears were bored to death. In any other case, he would have gone through the effort to nod his head to give the illusion that he cared about what was being said, but now he had not even an iota of care to give.

"Don't give me that look! It won't be so bad." Twilight nudged his side with her waist. "We'll be cracking a new puzzle together while getting everything back in order! Battling villains is not nearly as great as a clean-up day!"

Spike stared at her with a blank expression.

"But first of all, you should go get yourself patched up with the first-aid kit in the bathroom." Twilight turned around and began down the hall, continuing to speak from over her shoulder. "I'll go and cook us a big breakfast to get us ready for the day, and while I'm at it, start writing up a few questionnaires." She then looked forward and broke into a trot. "I am so excited about this!"

Spike watched her as she turned the corner. With her out of sight, he continued to look down the hall, at the tarnished red carpet and all the broken glass, the shelves knocked down and vases in pieces—all of which would be true for almost every hall and room on this floor. Either way, staying here meant work, something which Spike couldn't care to do.

He looked around his surroundings for an excuse, something plausible to get him out of this mess, but the effort was dead before it even began—he couldn't even care enough to make up an excuse to get him out of work. He just wanted to get out of the castle and away from the one imposing work on him, and if he could, get to see Rarity's flank up-front.

Spike looked up at the window only to be blinded by the morning light, something which, after his lips stretched into a smile, gave him an idea.

An hour later...

"Sorry it took me so long!" Twilight said as she strolled through the hall, papers and a few plates with eggs and such on them. "Had to devise a few sheets that were specific to our current situation."

She didn't receive a response.

"Spike?" She turned the corner into an empty hallway, making her stop in place. "Spike, where did you go?!" She continued down the hall, and after a few moments, stopped before shards of glass on the ground bigger than any of the others she had encountered before. "What the..."

Twilight then looked over to a small table that stood back up, a paper on its surface with a book holding it in place. She hovered before the page and began to read it aloud: "Dear Twilight, I don't feel like doing any chores today. Peace?" She shook her head, the sunlight feeling warmer than usual. "PS... don't mind the w-window?"

Twilight finally looked up and gasped at what she saw.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Twilight screamed as she stepped back, the window above smashed with the silhouette of her number-one assistant.

Spike's body broke through the window with the sound of shattering glass ringing in his ear, the ground below so far away from the second story of the castle, an oversight he hadn't cared enough to consider. He should have screamed, flailing his arms and looking for help, but he found himself saying only one thing as he began to fall.

"Meh."