~ II ~

Dead Mare's Wine

They reached the boutique in coldness and darkness, the building standing in a white haze, with blurs for windows and splotches of colours for its details. Winds slashed, whistling like a boiling kettle. Keys clicked together on the metal loop held by Spike's claw.

Rainbow shuffled behind the dragon to escape the wind and the elements, still scared of him, but something about his intimidation had whispered protection. Warmth permeated his scales and held back the cold air. She drew to the back of his legs, mindful to not let fur brush against his scales.

And to step away before Spike noticed her closeness.

The dragon stuck one of the two keys into the door's socket, which clicked as the handle was pushed in, the dragon stepping into the home. Rainbow remained still, letting the dragon create the distance she was supposed to make. "You have two keys."

Spike had ducked inside the doorway. Gripping the top of the frame, he checked Rainbow from over his shoulder. His worn face revealed no answers.

Looks like I have to pry.

"What's the second for?" Rainbow asked with a pointing of her foreleg.

His emerald, pensive eyes watched her for a moment longer, one subtly twitching. Spike turned and looked inside the darkness of the boutique, searching across the adjacent wall. Leaning in, he unclipped something, returning into view with a candle stick in his claw.

Lowering his claw from the frame, cradling it around the wick, he blew a small flame and lit its match in a burning green. He stepped inside and cleared the way. "Unknown."

Look at this guy. Rainbow shook the disappointment mixed with irritation from her face. A bulk of long, colourful mane swayed over her forehead. Could hardly get him to shut up as a twerp. Now the hunk hardly says a word!

"Have you thought that it's for… I dunno, some chest or somethin' like that?" Real classy, Dash. Her hooves transitioned from sinking into wetting dirt to clopping on granite flooring. She entered the shop and reared a back leg to close the door like old times.

Those times have passed, Dash.

Her back leg twitched onto the ground. She began forward, passing the giant, stumbling into the middle of the darkened room. It was no longer the boutique. No longer a second home. Just a dark place with leftover things. Stacked, cardboard boxes. Plastic sheets covering furniture. "At least, she might have left a few things locked."

"Doubtful."

Rainbow turned on the spot to see his back rising from the darkness. The darkly scaled behemoth had closed the door as the storm rattled on its wood. His head turned to the curved walls that composed the circular room. His eyes narrowed on candles kept in their holds.

He lumbered toward them, a stomp for his footsteps, a moving shadow that lurked in her vision. Despite his size, he was nimble, his feet precise, twisting to fit in tight places, the spaces of flooring not occupied by strewn belongings. Jewellery boxes. Escaped balls of yarn. Pins, differing in colours and shapes, spilled into separate miniature piles.

"She wasn't going to pull through." His words were as simple as his candle tilting into the one on the wall, which caught in olive light. He slunk to the next candle in his slow circling of Rainbow. "Rarity knew that. She might not have said it… but she knew it. She left nothing to chance."

He held up his arm. Rainbow squinted at the side of his wrist. Dots of melted wax spread over his scales. The stick is burning out already? Did Rarity cheap out on—no, not on candles, wines, and ice cream. The mint fire, passed to another, burned with less intensity. No. It's his fire. A dragon's fire. It burns through them quicker.

"Even this mess is her design." Spike continued his trek but gestured to the workroom. "Only I would see it. And she knew what the assistant in me is honour-bound to do."

"Heh." Rainbow smirked. "So there is some of the little you in there."

Surprisingly, Spike twisted from the third candle, silhouette awash in the glow of his own flame. He gave a tired smile that glinted from the hints of his fangs. "Barely." Lumbering to the next candle, he stepped onto the model's stage, littered with mannequins set apart from each other, facing different ways, dressed in undone outfits.

Spike shuffled between them, reaching higher to light the last candle. "Rarity ensured Applejack handled everything. Rarity's last request was to make sure City Hall gave me those keys and the deed to the boutique."

Those words pulled Rainbow's face to the floor. Her ears flattened, and one foreleg brushed against another. Her eyes squeezed, and her cheek squished. Her mouth opened, but bullshit would have flooded through. Silencing her mind, Rainbow opened her heart and tried again.

"Sorry," Rainbow confessed. "I should have been there. All of us should have been there. I tried to be. I really did. But I just thought… it would all go away, somehow. That if I didn't focus on it—somehow, the problem wouldn't exist."

Rainbow felt his glance but did not hear any of his words.

"At least you saw her once."

Rainbow lifted her gaze from the floor to the legs before her, the waist before her snout, the face well above her head. Spike loomed before her like a quick, silent giant. Green light washed from the walls and across the floors. They still stood in the shadow of the center of the boutique.

"But I wasn't there," Rainbow nearly pleaded, "when it mattered most." Her scratched voice continued the self-assault. "Applejack was there. Every day and every night. Twilight brought books. Pinkie, her treats. Fluttershy, an animal to get cozy with. But AJ? She rarely left. Didn't talk about missing work. She was just there. There when it happened."

Spike's eyes drifted to the side. "I heard she went back to work the next day."

There'd been a tear on her cheek, which scrunched from her gasped chuckle, then wiped by a hoof. Rainbow dried both her eyes to play it safe. "Yeah. Gotta give it to her. Not a wasted moment."

The dragon laughed. He turned and merged with the darkness, and she turned to watch him. Spike approached the elongated couch, protected in a plastic covering. He pulled the sheet. Dust exploded into the air, saturated with green, burning dots.

Rainbow lingered as he cleared the area. She looked around the workroom, the setting, the same, but the place was different from all the ones inside her memory. Rainbow remembered flying close to the shop, hearing Rarity's shouts of praise or curses, directed at herself. Where, after drinking a little too much, both mares would return to.

"D-Darling, I insist." They wobbled into the darkness of the workroom, thankful for its space as they stumbled around in its openness. Rainbow bumped into something. It tipped over, things clattering on the ground. Afar, a voice rang. "The bathroom's upstairs."

Rainbow's hooves clattered around the fallen objects swallowed in the darkness, trying not to trip on them. "Nnghm… wha… what about you… t-tho…i]

“Me?” Rarity’s foreleg crossed her chest, the shift of balance causing her to stumble. “Ladies... don't, vomit.”

Reason enough. Rainbow went upstairs, undrinking her drink into the toilet, rising from the bowl, forgetting to flush. She returned downstairs to find Rarity limp on the couch, hung over the edge of its cushion, her muzzle set inside a bucket for paint. Disgusting eruptions followed. Rainbow chuckled, coming close, slapping Rarity's shoulder.

Rarity spat into the metal.

"Wha…" Rainbow began, "...what was that... 'bout ladies and all?"

Rarity's face jerked upward, barely passing the bucket's rim, all for a glare at her friend. "Oh, shut it."

Rainbow's stomach gurgled, and her throat tightened.

Rarity, without being told, pulled a tin from underneath the couch with her magic. Rainbow clambered next to her friend, curling into herself, leaning over the sofa, the two vomiting into their buckets with perfect harmony. Coughs and spits followed. Both glanced at each other

"Same time next week?"

Rarity rolled her eyes, nodded, and the two ducked into their torment.

Rainbow blinked into the present. She'd been feeling the cushion of the couch with a forehoof. A laugh escaped her. Though it was unlikely, she searched underneath the couch with a hoof, feeling around, coming to tap on metal. She dragged back a bucket, tape set across its front.

DO NOT USE.

Rainbow smiled

You always kept two underneath the couch. You never told me why, then. It only took you becoming really sick that I finally understood.

That smile faltered.

"Say..." Rainbow looked around the once home, seeing items that had once been another's belongings. Rarity's essence ceased to bless the items. They were only things, now. "The air's kinda dense. You wanna have that drink now?"

Spike had lifted a trio of boxes behind the mannequins, bringing them to an empty corner. "I haven't had a chance to rob Twilight yet."

"What about Rarity's wine?"

He set the box as dust swept out from beneath the dropped heft. "Rarity's wine?"

"Why not?" One of Rainbow's forelegs scratched the other, the bluntness of the question bloating shame inside her chest. "Not like she's gonna be drinkin' it, right? It'd be a shame to let it go to waste."

Spike looked around at the mess. It looked like he wanted to work until the place was organized. It was his new home. But that didn't seem to be it. It was putting another's affairs in order.

Affairs that also involved himself.

But then a smile appeared. His weight travelled across the room, down the stage, wounding before the mare. Rainbow looked up as the dragon stared down. She tried to stand tall, to face him like she should—but her heart hammered at his smile.

His presence. He's choking me in it.

Spike dropped to a knee, his glowing eyes before her surprised ones, bleeding panic from her heart. Her chest expanded and collapsed, tuft fluffing.

"I asked for you a drink so I wouldn't have to be alone in this place." His darkened voice oozed with sweetness in her ears. His gaze pierced her wobbly existence, peeling it open. "But the unobtainable mare truly wishes for a drink with me." Rainbow held her annoyed poker face. "Why is that?"

Rainbow barely managed the words. "So you're not drinking alone."

"And you would drink a dead mare's wine?"

This is wrong.

Why does it feel wrong? Because I haven't thought it through? Since when has Rainbow Dash ever thought things through? What would Rarity say about this? Hate me for coming into her home when she isn't here? I wasn't there for her. Do I even have any right to be touching her stuff?

A voice sang.

"What is mine is yours, darling."

"Yes."

Spike nodded. "Very well."

Spike rose. The colossus left for the wine. Rainbow clambered onto the couch, curling into its left cushion. She looked at the dark room lit by emerald torches. A place where machines roared, designs composed diagrams, and the humming of a madmare filled the air.

The reality around her didn't feel real. Like it was some dream she was waiting to wake from. That, in a blink, everything would return to normal, and she wouldn't think twice about her now nightmare past.

That her eyes would blink open, and it would be a sunny afternoon, a picnic on a hill, the girls relaxing and talking, nothing mattering beyond their hangout. Rainbow would taste the fresh air, warmth tickling the skin beneath her coat. Her fur absorbing the heat of the sunlight.

Stop living in the past, Dash. The good times are over. We're not there, anymore.

That memory was stored in a golden box, cut from the rest, feeling like a story that never actually happened. That past dried quickly. Its tales seemed like fiction. Rainbow knew that her past had really happened. That parts of it exist in the present. But when she thought back to those golden summer days, part of her wondered if they'd actually happened.

"Your drink."

His voice startled Rainbow from her thoughts. She shook her head, looking up at his face with a dazed expression. He held a glass of wine above her. Rainbow nodded, taking the glass with cupped hooves. Spike sat next to her, the cushion squeaking and sinking from scaled boulders laid on it.

He sunk into the couch's embrace, his head laid back on its backrest like it were old times, like recovering from hours spent making dresses. His eyes peered at the ceiling like he was searching for engraved words, somewhere. The curled mare and the deflated dragon, after a moment, raised their glasses and clinked them together.

The sound lasted for a second.

"This doesn't feel right," Rainbow's words surprised herself. She hadn't meant to speak, but the thought came out, the feeling explored in the slow coming of syllables. "This place used to be like home to us. But now… it doesn't feel like we belong here. That no one belongs here.

Spike's head rolled to watch her speak, expression lazy, his eyes sad. "I understand you. This was her home; we're here when she isn't." He rolled back and looked to the ceiling again. "I would have waited longer… but I couldn't. I needed to see this place. I needed to see some resemblance to her existence."

He looked down at himself. "Or maybe it would have been better to leave it for good."

Rainbow swirled her glass and laughed. "What? And make the boutique into a haunted mansion?"

Spike pulled a claw over his face, messing with his features. "No. You're right. If this place ever caught a spider web, she'd roll in her grave." Chuckles followed the dropping of his claw. "Leave the boutique to a near-immortal dragon. That'll ensure all of it gets preserved."

Rainbow glanced at him at his comment. That's right. He'll be here long after the town crumbles for one reason or another. This is only his first death. He'll be here after all of us are gone. He'll be here after everyone is gone.

"Is that how it works with ponies after they're gone?" Rainbow asked in sudden curiosity. "We imagine what they would and wouldn't have wanted? Like we carry a little version of them inside our heads, and base what they would want? On how that version reacts?"

"Besides a will or a journal, it's the best judgement we have on the deceased." His head didn't move, but his eyes flicked to her. "Why the bout of seriousness? Guilt from drinking Rarity's wine?"

Rainbow swirled the glass of scarlet. "Can't feel guilty yet. Haven't had a sip." She raised the rim close to her lips. Then lowered it again. "It's just… we surprise each other. We surprise ourselves, sometimes. We think or feel something you wouldn't expect. Sometimes, we're so much different beneath the surface that you wouldn't think that I was the same mare."

His head slowly turned, and his green, glimmering eyes, carefully watched her.

"How will most ponies remember me? The image on posters? Whatever the current headline calls me?" Rainbow rattled, unknowing her words' direction. "What about everything beneath all that? Will it get remembered too?" She looked at Spike sullenly. "Or will I always be that confident, quick, hot-headed Wonderbolt that struts the world like it was nobody else's business?"

Without knowing it, she scooted closer to the dragon, who did not move.

"Will anypony remember me for me?" Rainbow turned to him. "Or will I become someone else's interpretation?" She stopped. Not making any sense, she turned away. "Oh, who the hell am I kidding? I barely even know who I am, anymore."

Something shifted on the cushion.

Spike rose from the backrest and turned, holding a claw to her, which she inched away from. His eyes narrowed at her retreat, which Rainbow regretted, but the two stared into each other's eyes.

"Ponies can only remember what you choose to reveal." His claw pushed closer to her face, and her talons' sharpness drew near. Fear startled Rainbow's heart, barely calmed by controlled breathing. "Some want to be remembered for being better than they actually were. Others want to be remembered for exactly as they were. Some want their existence to be a lesson for others. And most… just wish to be remembered, no matter how small."

He watched Rainbow, seeing her reaction. His talons, those weapons, tapped on her cheek carefully, brushing through the fur, caressing across her skin. The mare didn't care that he nearly held her cheek. Her eyes were on his mouth; her ears listened to his words.

"How do you wish to be remembered?" the dragon asked the pony. "As an inspiration? Or as a burnout? To be known for your better parts after you're gone? Or to be cherished for all that there was to you?"

"I... I just..." Rainbow turned, but not enough to leave his claw, warmed by the contact. She hadn't been touched by another in a way that mattered. Not for a long while. "I just want to be remembered for me. Remembered for how I was. I just… I just want to set the record straight."

"It nearly sounds like you're lying to ponies being the way you currently are."

They held for a moment.

"It's hard to know a story well," the dragon continued, "a story that hasn't yet been told. You are an inspiration. You are mistakes. Both a burner and a burnout. The truth of a pony is found in their story. And your story is not over yet, Rainbow."

His claw pulled from her muzzle, not trusting himself, backing away.

"It was only near the end that Rarity discovered herself."

Rainbow looked at him.

"Do you think," she hesitantly asked, "that Rarity died fulfilled?"

Had that been her worry? Fulfilment? That word never touched her mind. Never a focus. Not something applying to her. Or maybe it didn't apply because the time wasn't right. Fulfilment comes after the dream or act was done. It doesn't come before.

"Rarity had everything but her prince," Rainbow sunk into the back cushion of the couch, balancing her glass on a knee. It swirled the wine. "When it came to life? She nailed it. Became the dressmaker she envisioned for herself. Never fluked or sold out or anything."

Her blathering persisted. "Then there were her shops. Magazines running anything that had a touch of Rarity. Royalty bowed in her presence. She travelled the world, experiencing what many can't." Her head shook on its own. "She had to feel fulfilled after a life like that, right? Making the dream come true. Becoming what you wanted to be. That's all there is to life, isn't it?

“Are you fulfilled?”

Rainbow raised and fluffed, absorbing the question, expecting and not expecting it, coming to deflate. Her mouth searched for words, the usual bravado whispering 'Of course!' and 'Why wouldn't I be'?'

The usual defences that would work on anybody else.

"No," Rainbow drooled the word. "I should be. But I'm not." Her hoof claimed her face as she slunk forward. "I'm becoming head of the Wonderbolts soon. The fastest flyer to ever grace Equestria. It's been my dream ever since I was a filly. It's what's pushed me ever since. But now that dream is coming true… it terrifies me."

Her forelegs wrapped around her knees, adjusting her glass, rocking in place without knowing it. "I don't know what's going to happen next. Everything after my dream has always been a blur. Something that I would… figure out once I got there." She swallowed. "But now that I'm there… it feels more like a void than anything else."

Suddenly, Rainbow leaned back, plunging the glass to her lips, drinking the sweet, burning liquid. Crimson lines spilled down her muzzle. Done, she gave a heated cough, while something refilled her glass.

Spike leaned over, having picked up the bottle, pouring wine into her glass. Once it was complete, he tilted the bottle back, screwed the cork back inside, and set the bottle on the ground. He went to wipe the wine off her chin, but shook his head instead, returning to his seat.

Rainbow, looking at him, wiped her chin.

"Let's face it," she said as her eyes remained on him. "I'm only thinking this deeply about Rarity because I'm thinking even harder about myself." Rainbow laughed in self-hatred. "Was she living the dream? Or was her passion just work by a different name? Were all those designs ever exciting to craft? Or just examples of routine?"

Rainbow rubbed a hoof into her face, pushing harder this time, trying to hurt herself.

"I was so stupid over the years," Rainbow spoke through her hoof. "Mocking ponies inside my head for living normal lives. Having normal relationships and all that." Her eyes locked onto the glass, wanting to down it again, over and over, until her head and heart could no longer hurt. "I never held anything personal against them. Just thought they weren't living life to the fullest."

She actually looked at Spike. "Do you know the worst part about a signing tour?"

Spike's expression was answer enough.

"Being in your room, alone," Rainbow answered for him. "Going to a diner and eating alone. Doesn't matter the food. Not even the place. Excitement doesn't matter much when it isn't shared. Alone, it just fades so quick.”

She exhaled through her snout. "I gave up everything to become Rainbow Dash. What do I have to show for it? What do I feel about it? Nothing.” Rainbow's face scrunched. "Accomplishments are a small buzz, and that's it. They don't even feel legitimate anymore. My days don't matter at all. I don't have anyone to share them with. Nobody to make them feel... special."

Rainbow chuckled, each dripping with acidic loathing.

"Heh. Would you look at me? Rainbow Dash." Rainbow stuck out her tongue as if filth licked across it. "Talking about needing someone to make her feel special. That's not the kind of mare I am. Not how other ponies see me. Not—"

"Sounds like you're letting yourself become trapped." Spike's voice, dark and bold, phased inside her head, whispering from inside her mind. He was there. Flooding through her veins. "Trapped, by what you're supposed to be. You want to be remembered? Then help me to remember you as you truly are."

Rainbow jerked to him. Blue fur rose on her forelegs. Her eyes struggled to reach the dragon.

"What defines Rainbow Dash?" the simple question dripped with seduction. "Someone adhering to public perception?" His words buzzed with something else. "Or someone, regardless of it all, decides her own identity as it appears?"

Rainbow's mouth hung open.

"I-I... b-but..." She exhaled quickly. "But I wouldn't... the old me wouldn't..."

"Does that matter?" His voice. His fucking voice. Smooth and so fucking sure of itself, pulling her soul from her chest. "What you would've done? How you would've been? Would you commit the same mistakes?"

Rainbow glared at him, flexing a wing, shielding herself. "Course not!"

"You've improved. You've become wise. You've lived your life and learned from it." His words, despite their simplicity, weren't mocking. He wasn't preaching to her. The dragon saw into Rainbow's soul, speaking that which was reflected. "So why disregard all of that now? Because it doesn't match the mare before? Every era is a new period. Don't fear change because you won't be the same."

Spike's voice retreated into a softer tone.

"You'll be inspirational for a different reason," he spoke his personal feelings now, in a voice similar to the one Rainbow heard years ago. He was no longer speaking of her reflection, but things he thought and felt and, should she agree, would become her own. "You'll show the different ways others come into love. Normal relationships didn't make you happy before. You knew yourself well enough to understand that at the time. But now, you want one because it'll make you happy."

He nodded with his eyes burning into hers. "You'll show the world that someone can enter such sensitivity with dignity despite your past, despite the perceptions others hold of you. You'll better reveal what kind of mare Rainbow Dash is. And the world will better remember you for it."

At the end of his words, the dragon looked away, chuckling, some of the old him returning. Rainbow was breathing through her mouth to hear all that she needed, seeing the old friend lurking behind the monstrous beast.

Spike's face fell into his own claw. "Forgive my preaching. Someone who's been disconnected for so long… doesn't have the right to speak about such things." His talons slid down his face, cutting at his scales, not sharp enough to slice through. He gazed at the wine in his other claw. He downed it with a tilted back head. "Mhm. Rarity… would be happy to have her story affect yours. You asked if she died fulfilled? The answer is yes."

Rainbow's chest clenched. It held her next breath hostage.

"After my departure, it was… Rarity, who kept in touch the most." Spike stared forward into the darkness, the black splotches where the emerald light of the candles did not touch. "Not that none else cared." He smiled. "It's not like I left anyone a mailing address. Nowhere where you could meet me. I wanted to be gone."

He sighed. "And so I was."

Rainbow exhaled with him. She collected herself, scooting to the middle of the couch, leaning forward. Every sign, except verbal, for his continuation.

"I'd been stupid enough to lurk near one of Rarity's stores." His eyes started to dim, as though he were leaving the present, entering the memories that his words created. "Don't know why I did it. Maybe I'd been missing home. Missing… all of you. It helped to see her designs. Posters of all you girls in various outfits. I was happy that Rarity was making out alright without me. That everything was okay with me away."

His head shook. "Then a worker caught me staring from the window."

Spike breathed. "They didn't look scared to see a dragon. Not even one like me. They just looked… surprised. Before I could think to leave, the pony signalled for me to wait. Don't know why… but I did. Shortly after coming out of a room, they came out to meet me."

He nodded. "Knew my name and everything. Handed me a letter. Apparently, one was kept at every location."

Spike's head lowered, and a snarl became him. "I should have burned it then and there. Break that final link," Then, he softened. "But I couldn't. Couldn't even stop myself from reading it."

Rainbow watched him.

"It contained everything I ever hoped to read." A sound close to a whimper escaped him. "That someone out there cared for me. Didn't mind what had happened, or wanted an explanation for why I was away. She didn't even want a response—just for me to know that I was loved."

His eyes squeezed tight.

"I wrote her a letter telling her everything." His lips peeled over his fangs. “All that I’d done. What I'd come to do. Didn't spare a detail. I expected our connection to be over after that. I told her to mail me in Appleoosa. But I doubted any would ever greet me there."

"Appleloosa?" Rainbow said the name with curiosity enveloping it. "You came back home. You came back without ever actually coming back home." She leaned close enough to his side that her warmth brushed his side. "How come you never came back?"

Spike shuffled away. He peered down at her with a hurt, conflicted expression. His lips pushed together as if they didn't trust his mouth. He swallowed and looked away completely. "Rarity accepted me. Despite everything... she accepted me. There would always be another letter. Paper that gave me love. That told me the happenings of the town and you girls. Letters that told me everything but her fucking sickness."

Spike's head shook, a shakily exhale opening himself again. His eyes squeezed extra tight, and his throat closed. His talons wiped away the possible starting of wetness. He breathed his way through the shakiness.

"I always wanted to return the kindness," his words continued as though there'd never been a break between them. "To let Rarity know how much I cherished those letters. I clutched them to my chest as I slept, and sometimes, they were the only warmth I had for months."

His eyes glanced at Rainbow. "But like you, I was too scared to reveal who I truly was, and held back on doing what I should." He then looked up with his tongue pushing on the bottom of a tooth. "I always thought that I would tend to her as I should once I had everything sorted. That I would be the kind dragon I know I should have been."

Spike leaned down and picked the bottle from the ground, pouring himself another glass, swirling it before it was even filled. "And to this day... I don't know if she knew how much she meant to me. If she knew how much those letters meant. They were the only source of communication and comfort in months of darkness and loneliness."

Surprisingly, a smile widened his lips, as he sipped the wine.

"But none of that mattered to Rarity." He had spoken with assurance as his eyes lifted from the darkness and into the light. Candles left by her; flames lit by him. "All she cared about was ensuring that I was loved. That she gave me what I had been needing. Just like how her focus was on making good art, on making dresses that accentuated their wearer, that she inspired other artists, that she gave fillies and colts, stallions and mares, someone, in some way, to be like."

Spike took a drink and shook his head. "Rarity wasn't without doubts. She had her periods of questioning. She always felt assured, however, around us. How we helped her, and how she helped us. She told me in a letter that, during those dark times, it was always the friends she made, those she helped, that passed her through those moments. She did her best to spread love. Anyone like that can die smiling."

His eyes lowered to the ground. "And Rarity did. And Applejack doesn't lie."

Rainbow crawled back to her corner, digesting the words, thinking about Rarity's shows. Taking the time to meet with all the fillies and colts, talking to them about their dreams and ambitions, and offering helpful, encouraging words, flaring the youth back home to attempt their passions.

The cameras and the crowds hadn't been an annoyance. Nor were they something that the fashionista drank up. Rarity enjoyed it for what it was, as she did at those social gatherings, but Rarity's heart was in its art.

"Now."

Spike's voice silenced her thoughts. It made her look at the dragon turning toward her, who brought his knees onto the couch, rising in the air, shuffling closer toward her. His claw gripped the backrest as he neared. He looked down at her.

"Tell me how it's possible," Spike whispered the words with enchanted curiosity. His weight sunk the cushions of the couch toward him. “How did it come to be that Rainbow Dash could ever feel so low?” His knee rose, the cushion relaxing, until he crawled to the middle, both cushions compressing beneath it. "Attractive. Intelligent. Like a muti-coloured flame casting its own uniqueness. You're amazing without needing additions."

Spike's other knee swung forward, his other arm shooting over her shoulder, claiming the edge of the armrest. He peered into her while looming above. His presence bloated the space between them. “Tell me how you're not perfection.”

Rainbow looked at him in a daze, blocked into a corner by the beast, feeling like a feast sitting on a vast plate. Everything surrendered to him. Her legs spread, and her tail flicked away. Mouth opened. Eyes widely revealed. Her soul rushed out.

"B-Because..." Rainbow's confusion locked onto him with eyes ready to bleed tears. "...what makes me special, anymore? Who makes me feel special? Stupid jerks that I bring home from the bar?"

Spike's eyebrow rose.

Rainbow squeezed her eyes shut. "What if I turn out to be like Spitfire? When she retires and leaves the spotlight… what becomes of her? When you take away her speed and status, all of that charisma? What happens when it's all said and done?"

Rainbow's words floated out on their own. She couldn't face him. But she trusted him. Trusted in his sincerity. "Will she become a shadow of her accomplishments? How long do ponies care about those? Spending your whole life to become something—and then it's done! Who cares about you after you've left the stage?"

Her voice squeaked. "W-Who cares about you… in the… in the way you n-n-need?"

"I'll always care about you."

Spike's words came without hesitation.

"Our fight before didn't matter." Spike's voice, despite its boldness, came softly. "Cave. Tundra. Hunting down beasts." His tone urged her to look at him, but it didn't demand it. "No matter where I wandered. Regardless of what I was doing. I always thought about you. Worried for you. Cared for you."

Rainbow's head turned enough to see the edge of his smile.

"Like the rest," he continued, "you dazzled me when you were in the spotlight."

Rainbow looked thoroughly to him to feel him do the same to her, their snouts brushing together. Her vulnerability, her heavy face, exposed to his strength. There wasn't maliciousness in him. Nothing of concern, despite his intensity and size. He was intimidating, yet did nothing to scare her.

"But my best memories of you," Spike started again, smiling sweetly, with a claw retaking her cheek, cradling it. "Are when the spotlights are off."

There was a tenseness in Rainbow's chest threatening to strangle her insides. Bubbles and nerve-tickling tingles popped beneath and across her skin. Words needing to be heard graced her perked ears. Rainbow understood her fear of his eyes.

It wasn't because they were the eyes of a dragon.

But because of how they looked at her, their appreciation of her, and the bubbly goodness arising in being looked at that way. Rainbow knew they could crack her open. Her being a celebrity didn't matter. Spike's perception of her... was what he saw behind her eyes.

"Your passion is nearly burned out." Spike's knee slid to the left of Rainbow, further boxing her into the corner. She remained as she was, a cheek still cupped in his claw. "But that's no reason for Rainbow Dash to give up." His thumb swirled with a lock of scarlet mane. "Search inside yourself and see what I see. You're not alone in your feelings. Others suffer as you do. Be the spark that reignites their lights."

Spike's muzzle lowered below Rainbow's. His eyes settled over the bridge of her snout. "Find something new to care about. Raise the morale of those around you. Inspire the youth. Find the limits of those in your care." He nodded. "And help them go further."

His head shook, but his eyes remained affixed to her.

"Never fear what comes next," Spike said with her reflection in his eyes. "Don't stay dead to the world for too long. Not someone like you. You'll find a new perspective to appreciate. And you'll burn inside that as you burn inside everything else. Your dream never comes true. It only changes shape."

His claw's grip slid from her cheek, wading through the fur, brushing across her skin, climbing patches of Rainbow's personal territory. Spike's palm stole Rainbow's chest. Covered it with only the spaces between his talons exposed.

"And there's a heart for you out there. One good enough to warm yours." His talons slid over Rainbow's shoulders, holding her. "Someone to reassure you. To make you feel all that you deserve. You'll find them. They'll make you feel how I see you."

Rainbow had been breathing through her mouth. Feeling his an inch away. Her lips rubbed together as they wanted to push forward. Spike watched her with barely-restrained surprise. A choke passed his throat. Everything in him seemed to lean forward.

But his lips did not take hers.

And he leaned away—taking his claw with him.

Rainbow blinked in confusion. Weight and intensity lifted from her existence. Part of her fought to pounce on the mate. Another part wondered if she really would throw herself at someone like Spike so soon.

"W-Why..." her words ditched her thoughts. "W-Why did you stop?"

He smiled. "Weren't you listening? You deserve better."

"Don't feed me that," Rainbow spat back. "What's the reason?"

"Because I vow to never ruin perfect mares."

Rainbow huffed, shaking her head, flouncing her mane, crawling toward him. "Still not a good reason."

Spike silently looked down at her.

"Don't do that. Okay? Don't ever do that.” Rainbow weakly crawled to his side, looking up at him from beneath his shoulder. "You can't say all that stuff to a girl and then give up. You can't make her feel so much… then leave her dry." Am I really referring to myself like this? Oh, who am I foolin'. "Are you scared? Is that it? Give me the truth here, Spike."

Rainbow shyly looked away. "Or else I'll think everything else is a lie."

Spike's face struggled with the answer. His mouth worked open and close in trying to mouth the truth. He raised a claw and gestured it down his size. "Look at me, Dash. The difference between us." His shoulders dropped. "I'm a dragon. You're a mare. We're not capable. I'm rough. Very rough. All it takes is holding you too tightly..."

His claw closed into a fist, his talons slicing inward, set against his scales.

“And I could draw blood.” That claw squeezed tighter. "Could tear a chunk out from you if I ever lost control." His head kept shaking as if repressing or denying a truth he didn't want to admit. "It's not worth the risk. I'm not worth it.”

You're not allowed to say that about yourself.

She laid against his side, which he leaned away from, but Rainbow followed him, following until Spike turned, coming to lay on his back on the couch. Rainbow crawled between his legs, placing her hooves on his chest.

I wonder if I could take him just like this.

"Tables have turned, haven't they squirt?" Purple and red fires reignited in her soul, which had regained colour. She didn't speak like that because it was how Rainbow Dash was expected to speak. Rather, it was her natural dialogue. "Now then. Is that why you left us? Because you were worried you were going to hurt us, somehow?"

The scaled colossus laid frozen beneath Rainbow's lithe frame. "I'm just not worth the trouble."

"Dude! Do you know how much trouble Twilight Sparkle was?" Spike's eyebrow rose, but Rainbow raised both of hers as she leaned down to his face. "She's not even in town for a day before we're facing eternal night. But we had her back, didn't we? All the way to the end?"

Spike looked aside. He stared at the distant boxes. "I'm not Twilight, Dash. And I'm not worth it."

You're still such a kid.

Rainbow thought carefully. Her forehooves twisted on his chest, on the curved plate of muscles, flexed with a coating of sleek scales. The strong lungs below, the stronger heart. He could tear her to pieces if he wished. Cut through her in every possible way.

Oh, bring it on.

"Everything you said to me..." Rainbow looked down at his turned, annoyed face, uncaring for anything else. "Was it all true? Because I've been told terrific stuff before. Had stallions say some pretty sweet stuff..." Her slashed throat couldn't finish the words. "All that about me. You mean it?"

Spike looked back with confusion mixing into his irritation. "How could someone like you ever doubt it?"

Oh, you smooth bastard.

Rainbow did the only Rainbow Dash thing she could think of. She collapsed on his chest and spilled her face onto his. Their lips met, and Rainbow's eyes closed, unable to handle what his expression might be. His lips were plush. Full and strong. A detectable layering that asked to be nibbled on.

Seconds passed in the kiss. Then Rainbow felt lips working against hers. They claimed hers. Swallowed them in passion and lavished them in bliss. Their heads cocked, joining their mouths tighter. Their tongues met, his thinner and longer, playing with hers, wrapping around it.

Rainbow pushed into his maw, startling her eyes into opening, seeing that, on the other side, his emerald ones had done the same. Fear tainted his blank expression. The worry of what might happen. Confidence oozed through her. She explored his mouth, mindful of his fangs, loving the dangerous edge they induced.

Without blood being drawn, the couple carried on, with the dragon's limbs lifting from their flaccid state. They found Rainbow's sides, enveloping her wings, feeling across her barrel. One swept across her back, fluffing her. Rainbow moaned in approval.

More so when his palms slid to her flanks.

Sharpness dug into her softness, compressing it like a pinch, repressed from doing more. He squeezed. There wasn't enough to sate his full squeeze. But his claws worked with what they had, squishing what they could as softly as they could.

Warmth flushed from her head and rump, shooting over the other, rocketing back, buzzing her insides. Sweat swelled beneath her coat. Mane became slick. Their kiss, broken for seconds to take a breath, finally came to an end when Rainbow rose from his face.

She was breathing through her mouth, as was he, staring at each other.

The room had warmed with them. Taken to their scents. Their aroma permeated the place and made it somewhat theirs. Nothing was going to stop here. Not when it'd been taken this far.

"W-We... shouldn't," Spike breathed in controlled panting. "Remember... Pinkie? The bottle she spilled on the couch?" It took seconds for Rainbow to nod, and not because of forgetfulness. "Rarity tossed her... jus... just like that."

Rainbow nodded and kept nodding. Her eyes swept around the darkened interior of the boutique, seeing boxes before curtains, the stage with all the mannequins. Nowhere here would be suitable. And to leave here would be to break the mood.

Her head cocked as she looked to the ceiling.

A smile was born.

She looked back down at Spike.

"But how many times did Rarity stain her bed with wine?"

Author's Note

~ End of Chapter! ~

How do you do?

Still learning how to edit and work from an outline. It seems like an outline is something you make to have an idea of a thing—then neglect the bulk of it during composition. It helps to have the beats set in the right order. But, if you create too many details, the creative in you wishes to go another direction.

As for editing, I'm learning to become more relaxed, as my current speed would cause this story to takes months.

How does this chapter read? Please give your thoughts below.
~ Yr. Pal, B