I was in bed. It was sleeping time, but I wasn't quite ready to sleep. I was tense in all the wrong ways. I was wound up in a very male sort of way. There was a cure for that. It wasn't hard to remember. I had been given a grasping hand to make that happen, but I hadn't tried it that way. A magic hand? Would it work the same, or differently? Better, worse?

I reached curiously, not facing it. My eyes were closed, in fact. Oh, yep, that was me touching me. I could determine that right away. Some part of my new wiring knew that it was me doing that touching, which kept it fairly the same.

One big difference: there was no arm involved. When I was done, I wasn't painting quite as much, and slumber claimed me swiftly away from my brief fantasy of Maud and what that might entail.

I woke up and had breakfast with the others. We chatted and ate and everything was nice and normal. "I got my writing done for the day." I chewed on the hash brown-like main course. "Class is later. I have the time to myself for the middle of the day."

Spike huffed a little smoke. "Cool. Got time for a little practice? I have a little something for you."

I smiled over at Spike, eager to continue developing that magic. "Certainly! Now's perfect timing squeezing in some spellcasting practice." I swallowed the last vegetable bites before pushing back from the table. "Just let me help tidy up first before we head out to the yard."

Twilight waved a casual hoof levitating dishes towards her glowing washbasin. "I've got this well underhoof - you two run along and mind the fire safety procedures!" Spike rolled his eyes at her worrywart fussing but nodded obediently towards the sink as we trotted out to assume that oft practiced mentor/student stance under Celestia's golden rays.

I didn't expect to be pushed over the moment we were across the street. "Huh?"

Spike loomed over me, looking down. "Not cool."

"What?"

"Not cool." Spike crossed his arms. "I thought we had a thing."

"Um." Shoot. "Shit. Shit!" I sat up sharply. "I'm so sorry! You didn't... say... We're a thing?! We're... Man... Man..." I was breathing hard. I had done it. I had done what I said I'd avoid doing. I had cheated on someone. Someone I didn't even know I was dating, let alone comitted to. "You didn't mention that. That's not really fair."

Spike hiked a brow. "I thought it was obvious... Do you usually let people... do that to you if you're not interested?" He snuffled at me lightly. "You're a strange creature, David."

"Yeah." I shrugged at that, standing up. "I am. I'm really sorry though. I really didn't even think of that, which is a shitty excuse the more times I hear it. Crap..." I wobbled in place. "I'm sorry... You're... um... interested?"

I scuffed a hoof, shame burning me under Spike's stern stare. Silence expanded painfully before I managed awkward words: "...You were interested then?"

My gaze flickered away from his clenching claws down to blithely ignorant students. Focus danced fitfully, unwilling to linger on his judgment over my misleading signals that had clearly stung an unsuspecting heart.

But Spike's stony countenance allowed no easy out for my thoughtless assumption. Mortified, my eyes finally dragged back up to face hard truths head on instead of making weak excuses.

"I'm sorry," I weakly sputtered out, feeling small, like a tiny child before him. "I'm sorry."

Spike thunked his ead head against mine, easily forcing me back, especially in my feeble state. "Not smart."

"Huh?" The way he had phrased that. "You... What do you mean?"

Spike shrugged, sitting up. "You have two creatures that want you and are willing to say they want to hang out with you and you go chasing another one that you can barely talk to? I don't get it." He huffed, smoke curling from his nostrils. "What's she got? Twilight got you to this world in the first place, you owe her."

"Um." I hadn't expected that turn. "Maud reminded me... of me. She's... She's not good at expressing herself. She's focused. She's quiet..."

"You're not quiet." Spike casually lifted me from the center, fingers circled around my midsection. "You're awkward, but not quiet. If I give you even a tiny reason, you'll talk all day long. It'd kind of neat. Like Pinkie Pie, but less grating."

"Well when you frame things that way, I guess I have been more openly chatty lately..." I managed a weak chuckle from his dangling grip.

My smile faded reconsidering. Were Maud and I truly kindred spirits, or just cling to familiar facades in an alien land?

"I don't know Maud well enough to say my care bolsters rather than just appeases fears." I met his gaze squarely, awkward swaying aside. "I haven't been fair to you." I lashed my tail gently. Dangling from Spike's grip was a powerless feeling, but I didn't hate it.

He was holding me because he cared. That meant something. "Besides... I was just making her feel awkward. I was totally creeping on her. I feel awful."

Spike inclined his head. "Well, there's an easy fix for that. If nocreature else, I'm alright with you as you are."

I smiled at that. "What does... Twilight think of this?"

Spike dropped me to land wobbling on my hooves. "Dude. She is hoping we work things out, so I can haul you home, and be the creature who's fault this is, so she can feign innocence." He rolled his eyes slowly. "I am her familiar. I know what she's feeling. She has no clue how to start this kind of thing. She wants to study you forever, and that you're a nice creature is a bonus on top of that. That you're a nice stallion creature that wants to study magic with her really seals the deal."

I steadied myself after the sudden drop, surprise swirling. So Twilight lived through unencumbered Spike sharing deeper feelings rare for her role? Makes sense they'd glimpsed hesitations and hidden longings from both sides most would miss...

"Huh...so she peeks through the curtains too in her own way..." I mused, reconsidering past interactions. Lingering looks signaled more below than mere clinical care, it seemed.

I smiled softly - what might grow unleashing feels too complex to convey directly? Touching and being touched could have meanings, a lot of them. It was only specific professions that escaped that, kinda... And Spike was not a massage therapist nor a doctor.

I met Spike's waiting gaze firmly with building excitement. "Well, um..." I sank to my haunches, tail swaying behind me without asking. For however many flaws I had in broadcasting, it seemed my new parts didn't share them exactly. My tail would wag, my ears would dance. Becoming a pony had, in some ways, alleviated it, a little.

"Be gentle?"

Spike wrinkled his snout and barked out a laugh. "Wow. You're the one giving me things to fuss about." He suddenly leaned in, tossing me up with a toss of his snout. I landed on his snout, straddling it as he stood up with me. "You brought back Twilight to me. I owe you a little... I guess forgiving this screw up counts." He started walking down the side of the road with me. "So, are we official enough now?"

I squawked gripping his snout reflexively as the sudden toss sent me briefly airborne before landing firmly astride the sinuous bridge of his draconic mug now casually carrying me down Ponyville's peaceful streets beneath Celestia's golden rays. Passerby waved and giggled clearly well-accustomed to such fanciful spectacles astride their placid guardian beast gliding with innate majesty through their picturesque thoroughfares.

My anxiousness swiftly eased under soothing repetition of his steady breaths and gait, old fears of judgment from public displays fading replaced by simple enjoyment of the unique vantage through trust literally elevating perspectives high above the unremarkable grooves my own hooves habitually trod.

"Heh, well who needs magic carpets with friendly dragons conveying new sights so sublimely, eh Spike my friend?" I gently patted his polished purple scales. "And yeah I'd call us official enough now that I won't do something so dumb again." I leaned forward peering upside down into one glinting green eye. "Official enough to seal things properly later back home maybe?"

Spike rumbled good natured amusement sending me gently swaying with each reverberating chuckle before replying in kind: "Right. No." He looked down as Missus Cake was walking by. "Hey. Check out my new boyfriend." He lowered to wag me at her. I colored faintly, waving, but saying nothing.

Missus Cake looked baffled a moment. "How... lovely for you, Spike." But she just moved on with her business.

Spike took the time to show me off to any pony that had the time to be bothered. I was waved at the other girls, at least until we arrived at Pinkie.

She looked stunned. "W-what?"

"My boyfriend." Spike pointed at David. "Mine."

"Oh... Oh." Pinkie frowned. "That didn't last long... Oh no... She's going to be so upset."

Spike put me back on his snout. "Who's going to be upset about what?"

Pinkie pointed up at me. "Maud! She was ready to have a new boyfriend. She can't do that if her boyfriend already has a boyfriend!" She clopped a hoof to either side of her head. "Oh no!"

"What?" I sat up and turned around to face Pinkie. "She never told me."

"She was gonna!"

Spike grabbed me and put me down next to him. "Too bad."

Pinkie blinked at that abrupt denial. "Too bad?! Spike, I thought you were nicer than that."

Spike crossed his arms. "Only one of us is going to have this, and I said it before she did. It's kind of a done deal. Twilight's not the kind of pony that wants to share. I am her, so I don't count. So..."

I blinked uncertainly between Spike's possessiveness and Pinkie's alarm for her sister. "Wait, Maud never actually said she wanted to date me - I just assumed from mixed signals." I turned to Pinkie. "Did she say something clear to you?"

Pinkie frowned. "Well...not in so many words. But she made a cute geode necklace!"

I rubbed my neck self-consciously with a hoof. "Oh geez, I didn't mean to hurt any feelings or step on toes. Things moved kinda fast..."

"No." Spike put a hand in front of me, barring the view of Pinkie. "You're chickening out. Not letting you." He puffed smoke at Pinkie. "Maud visited just today."

"She did? Where?" Pinkie inclined her head curiously at Spike.

"The Library." He pointed with his other hand. "She was worried if she even should think about getting involved in this. She and David have nothing but both thinking about the other. I made my move."

"Spike..." Pinkie turned left and right restlessly. "Why are you being... so mean right now?"

"I don't ask for much." Spike curled his fingers around me, holding me firmly, but gently. "I'm insisting on this one, and not taking a no. I asked first. I called dibs. No backsies."

I stood awkwardly pressed against humming scales casually claiming control bewildering to grasp fully. Spike's fingers were warm, like the rest of him, but offered no budging.

Pinkie fidgeted clearly unnerved by possessive posturing so unexpectedly confrontational from easygoing Spike. I breathed slowly. I let out a breath with calm resolve. "Spike, I understand your stance but shouldn't further talks come first?" Gently extracting myself I turned fully Pinkie's anxious way. "And apologies sincerely if I'm just messing up every dang thing right now."

Pinkie worried her hooves with a nervous little laugh. "Um..."

Spike curled a tail about me, loosely. "Maud's not even here. C'mon, man... Let's just head home."

I glanced to the library, what had become home. I looked to Pinkie, hurt and hurting. I thought of Maud, who didn't even know how to look hurt, but who could hurt, and would be. Someone was getting hurt that evening. It started with me, but I was the least important person there.

Author's Note

Which way should he go?! Seriously, which way would you prefer to see the story wander? Infinite options, but only one gets penned down.

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